Ever since Sushant Singh Rajput left for his heavenly abode, a lot of Bollywood bigwigs have been at the constant receiving end of hatred and negativity for allegedly ill-treating him and snatching off his projects. The list also includes Alia Bhatt among many others. The actress is getting so much backlash that she has switched off all her comment sections on social media. Now, Alia's sister and writer Shaheen Bhatt took to her social media and vented out her anger at everyone sending rape threats and other filthy messages to her and Alia. Shaheen also promised to shame them openly and take legal action.
"A country where rather than being raised on empathy, most people are raised with the explicit permission to hate. A country where a woman is either your mother, your sister, your wife or a whore. A country where not just men, but women feel like the worst thing you can call another woman is a slut," read a part from her long post. She added, "Because what better way to render a woman powerless than to make her ashamed of being a woman. Ashamed of being herself. Because if she weren't a woman would she still be debased, humiliated and threatened with violence and violation every day? Would she so casually be robbed of her security and sense of agency? You see. It's genius. You abuse her. Yet, you try to convince her the problem is her. Not you." Shaheen also shared screenshots of a user sending rape threats to the Bhatt sisters.
She continued, "I wondered for days whether or not this was something I should address. I debated whether it was worth the effort it would take because ugh, why waste time and even 1% of mental processor power on this. But then I realised, if I believe that the world should be a place in which women can feel safe and exist without being constantly threatened, sexualised or subjected sexist/misogynistic slurs with the sole intent to humiliate them - if I believe women should be treated like HUMANS. Then that's a world I have to help create. And in order to create that world I have to draw boundaries in my own life and pursue action no matter how annoying or time consuming or downright sad it is."
Take a look:
Further slamming the ones flooding her and Alia with threats and cursing death upon them, she wrote, "So, I speak now to those of you who think it's okay to send me or anyone messages full of hate: If you send me a message with the sole hope (I say hope because I promise you -nothing you say is keeping me up at night) of humiliating, insulting, or bullying me, then the following things will happen: - The messages or comments will first be blocked and reported to Instagram directly. - You will forfeit the right to your privacy. I will NOT protect your identity. Every shitty message you send me will - should I choose to - go up for everyone to see. Abusers are emboldened by their anonymity. I will not help hide you. - I WILL use all legal recourse available to me to take action. If you think you can't be located because your account is anonymous, please think again - IP addresses are easily trackable. You are not invisible. Harassment is a crime."
Read:
"To Instagram- you have zero tolerance policies for a lot of the content that people put up on your platform - I think it's fair to say that misogynistic slurs, intended to subdue and oppress *should* fall under the umbrella of your zero tolerance community guidelines "But if you don't want to receive abusive message turn off your message requests" `Tired of being called a bitch in your comments? Turn off your comments." Asking me to change the way I use a platform because of someone else's hatred and misogyny is the equivalent of telling me that if I go out at night and get assaulted "I was asking for it". I should not have to change the way I use a platform if someone is being abusive. They should. Full stop," concluded Shaheen.
image source: instagram/shaheenb