The internet was rather startled last week after activist Rehana Fathima, who had earlier undertaken a trek to the Sabarimala temple, took to YouTube posting a video of her children painting her topless body.
The short clip shows two children painting a phoenix onto Fathima's torso as she lays on her back. She sports only a pair of red shorts.
While Fathima had defended the video concept, writing in the description box that it was necessary to be "open about what the body and sexuality of a woman is", not everyone is in agreement. Fathima opines that we now live in a "sexually frozen society" with women often feeling unsafe. At the same time, there remains something of a double standard with men being held up to different standards of propriety.
While the activist's message advocating the normalisation of sexuality or nudity is not something that everyone on social media platforms were amenable to, the problem lay elsewhere. You see, the video posted by Fathima had involved her minor children, and many contended that this was tantamount to sexual abuse.
Many on social media platforms pointed out the wrong-ness of the act and of the invasive nature of the video. The unanimous opinion seemed to be that while a message about body positivity was perfectly acceptable, making your children paint your body while barely clothed was not. As one Twitter user put it, this was "not something you need to involve a child in".
And while some contended that it was "okay" since they were her own children, most were of the opinion that that merely made matters worse. Others still pointed out that there might have been a far bigger outcry if a man had made his son or daughter paint him in a similar manner.
"Highly problematic, amounts to abuse and putting it on a public platform is wrong. Also, why did cops not use POCSO?" wondered another user.
The police too seemed to agree, and the Kerala based activist has now been booked by the Thiruvalla police. She was booked under Section 67 (electronically transmitting sexually explicit content) of IT Act, and Section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice Act.
Take a look at what social media users had to say: