Do You Give It Back If You Are Sexually Harassed? Rana Ayyub Did

Journalist Rana Ayyub recently took to Twitter to speak out clearly, against a man who harassed her viciously. The results were encouraging! Read more.

“Open your legs, you filthy slut.” When a man viciously gets to this level of intolerable verbal abuse, how do you react? Do you feel it’s merely a comment on social media; he didn’t really say it aloud or didn’t touch you in a disgraceful manner, so why make it a big deal? If not that thought, would you give it back exactly the way this no-nonsense female journalist did?

Well, someone had to do it!

Rana Ayyub has set the right example for all those women out there, who are either scared to raise their voice against any sort of harassment or are let down and subsequently discouraged by their so-called well wishers on the pretext that they are making too big a deal of such incidents.

Rana Ayyub thoughtfully made use of the very social networking platform that let her abuser voice his filth. She took to Twitter saying, “Just a sample of the filth I receive on my Facebook Page. Time to name and shame this pervert.” Thankfully, the online abuse did not go unnoticed and unpunished. Her abuser, who had been working in the UAE and goes by the name Bincylal has been sacked and his work visa has been revoked by the authorities. A commendable step indeed on the part of the company and a lesson for the rest.

Online abuse may not be new and shocking. Public opinion platforms have become overflowing bins of abuses, foul language and irresponsible and atrocious, uncongenial behavior. Too much freedom to use responsibly! So some action was needed when online abuse escalates through social media especially against women who dare to be vocal and stick to their opinions with an affirmation.

Such cases have been galore in the past including the infamous Gurmehar episode where she faced constant abuse and trolling over her political remarks. She kept the flame alive for a while, siding by her opinions but was eventually pushed into silence for a while. The case is no different from that of other journalists and activists in the country who face this disgusting behaviour quite often on their social media feeds.

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It’s high time we do away with our apprehensions and not let the outburst rage within us only. It may be a wise idea to ignore it at times, but the more we carry on with the ‘forget it’ approach, some arrogant men mistakenly believing in their ‘superior’ gender, will continue taking women for granted, keeping them at the receiving end of ruthless, atrocious  trolling on social media. Why let such men mouth off? Why not a zero tolerance attitude towards harassment? Everyone has the right to expression but certainly not at the cost of someone else’s self respect.

You may send your complaints to the special cyber cell [email protected] or tweet #IAmTrolledHelp.

Top image via Rana Ayyub’s Twitter handle

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