An Indian woman who has lived in the United States for more than 11 years has spoken about her experience of women’s safety, saying she and her daughter have never been stared at or made to feel uncomfortable during their time in the country. She argued that women’s safety has less to do with clothing or the time they step outside and more to do with “mindset” and consequences for inappropriate behaviour.
(Also read: Indian woman living in US for 18 years reveals what she loves most: ‘I can walk alone at 2 am without fear’)
‘Not a single man ever stared’
Taking to Instagram, Monika Tyagi shared a video reflecting on her experiences across five US states before settling in California.
“Well, look, I am an Indian citizen. I was born in India and grew up in India. But for the past 11 years, I have been living here in the USA. Right now, we live here in the state of California, but before this, we have lived in five different states across this country,” she said.
Tyagi claimed that throughout those years, neither she nor her daughter had encountered someone staring at them in a way that made them uncomfortable.
{{/usCountry}}Tyagi claimed that throughout those years, neither she nor her daughter had encountered someone staring at them in a way that made them uncomfortable.
{{/usCountry}}“Yet surprisingly, in all these years, in not a single state has any single person, not a single boy, not a single man, ever stared at me or my daughter. No one has even looked at us in a way that made us feel uncomfortable; anything beyond that is out of the question,” she said.
She also recalled walking home alone after finishing work at a pharmacy at around 10 pm during her training period. Despite regularly making the roughly 10-minute journey at night, she said she never encountered an incident that made her feel unsafe.
“So, I feel, we wear all kinds of clothes and step out here, I feel that it's neither about clothes, nor about stepping out of the house, nor about the timing. It is about the mindset, and it is about the consequences,” she added.
The video was shared with the caption, “Women safety in US”.
‘Women deserve to feel safe everywhere’
Speaking with HT.com, Tyagi said, “My whole idea of creating this video was to motivate our country to awake about women safety. I love my country my India but I believe we women are also human being and each and every person in our country deserves to safe and respected equally. I spoke for men also in past videos. Yes I take stand for right and wrong be it for men and women because both genders equally matter to build a healthy and balanced society.”
(Also read: Indian woman in US shares what 9-to-5 work culture is really like: ‘At 5 pm sharp, everyone leaves’)
Internet reacts
The post drew several reactions from social media users. One person wrote, “Women deserve to feel safe everywhere.” Another commented, “This should be normal, not a privilege.” A third said, “It's never about the clothes,” while another added, “Mindset makes all the difference.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)