When the fairy asked Cinderella to be back before midnight, she kept her promise and ran away from the prince. In the rush to conceal her true poor identity, she left her glass slippers behind, and thank God for that because it helped the prince to find her.
But that sounds medieval to a more evolved cohort of girls. Why should a girl come home before a deadline? Is it not the society’s responsibility to ensure her safety? Does she not have the right to stay out or return home on her own terms?
This is the demand that is evoking girls to claim #AintNoCindrella. It is a rebuke in the face of recent claim by a politician that girls should not be allowed to stay out late and parents should ensure that they return home in time.
Taking a cue back to such a patriarchal comment, the incident behind it is more nerve wracking. Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas and his friends are caught on CCTV camera harassing and attempting to kidnap a girl in Chandigarh. They blocked her car and even tried to force the door open. They only stopped when a police patrol came responding to her SOS. Vikas Barala and his friend were arrested but let off within hours because the charges against them were bailable.
This harrowing incident was exacerbated when the BJP chief’s deputy Ramveer Bhatti suggested that girls should not stay out late. The girl, Varnika Kundu, asserted her right to be out late and it is the mistake of such men that women still feel unsafe, at whatever time of day.
Girls have come out on social media in her support. They are defending that their right to dignity works 24*7 and their honor is not a leverage on time. The BJP government has come under fire from girls for harboring such parochial mind set.
Truly, there is no need for a fairy to protect the girls after dark. She can throw the glass slippers to break the ceiling and live life on her terms. While we hail characters like the Wonder Woman, invoking the Cinderella syndrome of damsel in distress is irrational.
Even years after the Nirbhaya incident, it is disheartening that girls still have to live in fear of the dark. The government should strive for a safer environment. Girls need to feel safe if they are to feel equal.
