Kashmir Women’s Collective released a list of alleged perpetrators this week that named some high-profile Kashmiris as alleged sexual harassers.
New Delhi: Women’s rights activists seeking to expose the sexual harassment and assault faced by Kashmiri women in the Valley are reportedly being victimsed and blackmailed on social media.
The Kashmir Women’s Collective, a women’s rights body, released a list of alleged perpetrators earlier this week on social media, along with individual accounts of the women they harassed. The list named some high-profile locals, including a columnist and a TV news panelist, and the Kashmir Women’s Collective said a second part of the list was in the offing too.
Days later, founder Mantasha Binti Rashid has alleged that supporters of the men identified are sharing “factually incorrect” information about her on social media as a “pressure tactic”.
“We went ahead to share the allegations against these men, risking our own lives but guarding the victims by maintaining their anonymity,” Rashid told The Print.
“We have enough evidence against these men… We will drag them to court along with the ones who have circulated incorrect information against me and three other members of the Kashmir Women’s Collective,” she added.
“By creating a counter-narrative against the #MeToo movement, they want to pressure women against coming out with their accounts of sexual harassment,” Rashid said.
Describing the allegations made against the members on social media as “baseless”, Rashid said, “This particular behaviour explains why women victims are not forthcoming with their accounts of harassment.”
One of the alleged blackmailers, she added, “sent me an intimate picture of a victim”. “He means to put it out in the public to shame them,” she said.
Also Read: I regret filing a ‘due process’ complaint, says a sexual harassment victim watching #MeToo
Backlash
The Kashmir Women’s Collective initiative to bring the #MeToo movement to conservative Kashmir had led to a backlash from some sections, with some people questioning the body’s credibility and saying the “screenshots” of victim claims did not qualify as evidence.
One of the critics, a Kashmir-based reporter named Samaan Lateef, expressed his displeasure on Facebook. “I fail to understand these feminists,” he wrote.
“There is a government ruling that anonymous complaints are not to be entertained,” he added.
“Since these women are running a court on social media, I think the best course for men is to move to a real court of justice against the violation of their rights,” he said, “I also support the #MeToo campaign, but it should be done to seek justice for victims instead of personal vendetta.”
“Let the complainants come out in public and send the real abusers go to jail,” he added.
Asked about the questions raised on the credibility of the Kashmir Women’s Collective, she said, “It’s not so much an organisation as a mass movement where women are participating to create awareness on gender sensitivity.”
Meanwhile, the Kashmir Women’s Collective, a two-year-old membership-based platform, said more women had approached them with their accounts of sexual harassment since the release of the list.
“We have received more emails and we are verifying the identities and content,” Rashid told ThePrint, “We cannot put up anything at random.”
Also Read: Days before MeToo, Vinod Rai was accused of covering up sexual harassment by BCCI colleague