Young Biker Slams Journalist for Shaming Women

Can’t a woman stand outside a wine store?

This is the question a journalist in Assam raised by posting a picture of two women clad in a saree buying liquor from a wine shop.

On 22 January, on the occasion of Saraswati Puja in Guwahati, Assam, journalist Nandan Pratim Sharma clicked a picture of the subjects. The caption read ‘Picture of the day. No Caption….’.

The act of media moral policing was aggressively condemned, as people took to social media to vent out their rage.

In the wake of the incident, a young biker from Guwahati, Anee Sharma, gave it right back to the journalist in her own way. She posted a picture of herself posing with two bottles of alcohol right outside the same wine store. And within a short span of time, her post became viral on Facebook.

“I intentionally took the photo outside the wine shop because women purchasing alcohol is not a big deal,” said Anee.

The photo coming out on the internet is wrong, but above that, journalists and other literate people sharing it was even more wrong. This is shameful. It’s an era of freedom of speech and freedom of personal space, and people are trying to be a barricade to that.

Anee Sharma

The journalist eventually tweeted an apology:

Nandan Sharma tweeted, “I am sorry that one of my photo updates has annoyed many of you. It was never intentional to hurt anybody. Though it should not be done from my part. I withdraw this whole update and sincere apologies to you.”

Despite the apology, Anee wasn’t happy with the act of media moral policing.

Women are always being shamed and objectified in whatever they do. Why should there be a question? Why? It (alcohol) is legal in our state. We have our own traditional rice beer. I don’t think there should have been a question, but since it has already surfaced, we have been facing a lot of problems. I myself have been slut-shamed and it’s going on.

Anee Sharma

Video Input: Anjana Dutta
Editor: Puneet Bhatia