Thursday, January 26, 2012

'Eve teasing’ -- AKA sexual harassment -- in India

Eve teasing’ is the strange, light-hearted name Indians have for sexual harassment, according to my Rough Guide. I didn’t know if it would happen to me, but I certainly didn’t expect to get Eve teased by two boys who couldn’t have been more than 10 or 12.

It happened in Agra. I was walking from Agra Fort to the train station to book that night’s ticket when two boys started tagging along. “Hello rupees?” they said. I smiled and shook my head. They asked a few more times, with the same result. Then the shorter one started making light motions toward my genital area.

I was confused as to what he wanted. At first he wasn’t actually touching me, just kind of motioning in the area, so I’d gently push his hand away. But eventually he actually started lightly touching me. Both boys were laughing, though, so I also adopted a light-hearted manner, smiling as I grabbed his hand and softly smacked it.

Then the shorter boy started reaching for my breast. This time I grabbed his arm and spanked him on the butt while the friend and I both laughed. I only lightly spanked him, but my move caught him so offguard he tripped on the sidewalk. I walked briskly on. Both boys caught up to me, the short one making a big show of grabbing his ankle in pain.

“Ten rupees,” he moaned, wanting compensation for his injury. I said no and kept walking, though they matched my pace. I decided to ignore them, when suddenly one of them slammed into me so hard and unexpectedly, I hit the wall to my right and scraped my arm.

I turned and glared at them. “What the hell!” The taller one pointed to the smaller one. Now I was really upset, but still, I decided to just walk away. Then I felt one of them touching my butt.

That was it. I whirled around. “DON’T TOUCH ME! FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOU!” I roared, aiming my invective at each boy in turn. At that point a nearby cycle rickshaw driver and a passerby, both men, stopped and started yelling at the boys (an intervention for which I was grateful). The boys protested, and I could tell by the plaintive sound in their voices that they were saying I had knocked one of them down. I decided that with the boys distracted, it was time to get the hell out of there, and strode quickly away.

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