Trigger Warning: Sexual assault.
Director Anurag Kashyap’s daughter, Aaliyah Kashyap, has borne the brunt of the internet’s misogyny for years. It all came to a head recently, when she posed in lingerie and shared the images on her Instagram pages. The 20-year-old’s comments and DMs were soon inundated with rape threats.
In a lengthy post on Instagram, Aaaliyah has opened up about her mental health, sharing how the threats made her feel the most frightened she has ever felt.
Image credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Aaliyah’s take on rape culture is worth a read
Aaliyah’s post is agonising and heartbreaking at the same time. Ever since she posed for a lingerie brand, Aaliyah says she has received “most vile, degrading and disgusting comments.” Aaliyah goes on to call out her haters and says it’s high time we speak about it as such comments are part of rape culture.
Image credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
“The past few weeks have been really hard on my mental health. Ever since I posted a photo of me in lingerie, I have been getting the most vile, degrading and disgusting comments. I have never felt more frightened than I have in the past few weeks to the point where I considered deleting my instagram. I have tried to ignore the harassment and shrug it off but the truth is that we need to speak about it because these kind of comments contribute to the rape culture that affects all women in India (and the rest of the world) in one way or the other,” she wrote.
Aaliyah calls out people’s hypocrisy and shares she was sexually assaulted as a minor
Image credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Aaliyah opened up on how she was sexually assaulted as a minor by a middle-aged man. She further called out the hypocrisy of people who hold candle marches for victims of rape and sexual harassment but “won’t protect a woman while she’s alive.”
“We seem to be a country that will hold candle marches for a woman after she’s been sexually assaulted but won’t protect a woman while she’s alive. And the truth is that women in India grow up being sexualized their whole lives. I have grown up with these kinds of comments to the point where it culminated into me being sexually assaulted as a minor by a middle aged man. The double standard is that many of the people who have harassed me, along with many other women, are hypocrites. They love to pretend that they’re on a moral high ground but in reality, they are the ones promoting the rape culture that exists.”
Image Credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Aaliyah shares the vile comments she receives
Aaliyah has shared screenshots of some of the comments she received on her lingerie photos and they make us hang our heads in shame. We are sharing them here, because sometimes we need to confront the ugliness that we contribute to by not addressing it. They are truly vile words, that we wish no woman ever had to deal with.
Image Credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Aaliyah’s post has gone viral and she is receiving love and support in the comments section. Kalki Koechlin wrote, “I’m proud of you for sharing this,” while Khushi Kapoor commented, “I love you. I’m proud of you.”
Image Credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Image Credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
Lead Image credit: Instagram/aaliyahkashyap
