How this woman dared to fight against up-skirt perverts
- Upskirting- where people take indecent pictures of private parts of women without their knowledge or consent and sometimes even forcibly
- It is considered a sexual offence
- In this case, the victim was at a music concert when this happened to her
FollowUpskirting is the term used to describe the act when someone films the crotch of unsuspecting women by pushing a camera up their skirt.
No, it is not a foreign trend and yes, this happens in India as well, only think it is not reported as much.
Gina Martin, chose to call out her abusers and in the process she is making the whole world aware of this kind of sexual abuse that exists.
On 8 July Gina was watching the Killers at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, London, where she happened to see two men taking upskirt photos of her without her knowledge or permission. The men had tried to befriend her a few minutes earlier and then distanced themselves.
Gina was not in state of mind to process the situation but then she saw the men sharing something on their phones and laughing at it. She realised that it had to do something with her. It was a picture they had taken of hers up her skirt and were sharing it already. Now, that’s a clear violation of law , if you ask us, but do you know, upskirting is not punishable?
Gina plucked up the courage to stand up to her tormentors, she snatched the phone out of the hands of the men and ran to security who helped her out in her moment of distress.
When the police took over she was told, that they had a look at the picture and confirmed it was her but there was nothing much they could do about it since it was not graphic.
Now haven’t we heard this before? When police officials here tend to dismiss cases of abuse as saying there was no evidence against the abusers.
When Gina posted her ordeal online encouraging others to speak out and demand that it be made a sexual offence, she received comments like ‘why did she have to wear such a short skirt?’ Another parallel we can draw with the present Chandigarh stalking case where Varnika was asked why was she out at that time of the night?.
“It’s not under the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 – that’s the issue, and that’s what I’m trying to get changed.”
In India, the scenario is this : Mahesh Sharma, Tourism minister had, in 2016, released a welcome kit that will be handed out to tourists when they arrive in India. When asked what it contained, he had said, “"There's a card in there listing the do's and don'ts. Basic things like, 'Don't go out at night alone.' 'Don't wear skirts.’ The matter attracted a lot of criticism only to see that the kit did not contain those words anyway. However, it does show the mentality women are fighting against.
If you too want to make upskirting a sexual offence in India, then make your voice heard.
