While we don’t condone people beating other people up, we couldn’t help but do a small cheer at the news of two sisters who were being sexually assaulted by three men, fighting back.
The men who have since been arrested and charged with assault after the events took place on Friday night on a bus, were filmed by another passenger on their phone – the video has, over the weekend, gone viral.
‘One of them touched my sister inappropriately... After a heated exchange, one of the boys called his friends asking him to beat us up. One of them beat my sister while two others caught hold of me,’ one of the women told BBC Hindi. ‘No one came forward in the bus to help us. So we took out our belts in self-defence [and hit the men]. If only the other passengers had helped us, we would not have needed to retaliate in this way,’ another added.
READ MORE: Police In India Investigating Students For Obscenity After They Were Spotted Kissing
According to the sisters, the men pushed them off the bus and began attacking them again – so they threw a brick at them, causing them to run away in fear.
Since the gang rape in Delhi in December 2012, there has been increased focus on anti-rape laws and the violence that many women face across India, but the fact that the bus driver and the conductor didn’t help only serves to highlight the fact there’s still a lot of work to be done. ‘The driver was supposed to take the bus to the nearest police station,’ Senior police official S Anand told The Hindu newspaper. ‘But he did not do so. The conductor also did not intervene. We are considering legal action against them.’
Hopefully the popularity of this video in India will encourage more passengers and passers-by to help women who are being sexually harassed in the future – standing by and filming it on your phone is one thing, but actually helping the sisters might have been a bit more useful.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.