A video of a white female tourist being hassled by several men for selfies in Mumbai, went viral on Facebook and Youtube a few days ago - triggering a row about the safety of women, and the apparent lack of respect that Indian men have for space, amid others.
The video was shared with several captions including ones that said, “Watch how Indians treat a blonde Caucasian in Mumbai...”, and led to many comments that had users raise concern over the safety of tourists and foreigners in India.
But, as it turns out, the video has been misrepresented and misunderstood.
The woman in the video, Celia Voivodich, in a Facebook post said that the video had been taken a year ago, and in a completely different context. She adds that it has suddenly propped up on social media and has been blown out of proportion.
“This video was in fact choreographed. (NOT STAGED - people please stop making things up that was not said) Yes, I noticed I was getting a lot of attention in this particular spot in Mumbai, but the men who approached me did naturally, they’re not actors. However, I loitered in the middle of the square waiting for them to approach whilst my local Indian male friend filmed.”
She adds: “I had this type of situation happen to me for about 45 minutes prior to taking this video. Whilst it was happening, my Indian friend and i alike were polite to the people approaching (Not only men, but women and children as well), and i left because i felt overwhelmed.
“I went BACK maybe an hour later because i wanted to film the situation for content sake. I simply put myself back into that situation. It was not in any way staged.”
She added that, contrary to many comments and captions the video was shared with, she had not been “groped even once” by an Indian man, and countered all the comments on the post which accused “all Indian men” of this behaviour, calling such claims, “a myth”.
I did not ONCE get groped by an Indian man. This is a myth that ALL Indian men will grope you or ask you to marry him if you’re a white woman. Have I been groped by a white man in an Australian club, though? YES!Celia Voivodich
She also said that she would “never agree with people who say that all Indian men are bad, or have bad intentions.”
You can read the complete Facebook post where Celia clarifies what happened in the the video below:
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