How 'Spoilt Modern Indian women' are busting sexist stereotypes on Facebook

A Facebook group is using memes to call out sexist stereotypes of women in India.

Spoilt Modern Indian Woman has attracted almost 15,000 likes since its launch last year.

It aims to expose the ingrained sexism that still pervades much of Indian society. Through a series of powerful images, it mocks the notion of ‘appropriate’ roles for women. Each meme begins with a phrase that seems to adhere to one of those traditional ideas - before brilliantly skewering it.

‘A decent woman doesn’t spit …rhymes that aren’t in meter’ says one.

'I must go to the kitchen ...it's the only part of the house where I haven't done electrical fittings yet," reads another.

The group was co-founded by Sonam Mittal, who was inspired after being called a “spoilt modern Indian woman” on social media. The insult came after she wrote two blogs, on Indian platform Youth Ki Awaaz, in which she detailed her alleged rape at the hands of a colleague and claimed she’d been molested on an Indian beach.

In response, one male Indian blogger wrote:

‘We think that you are a foolish parasite on society, and a spoilt slut. We think that you refuse to learn from your experiences. We think that you tempt and invite people to take liberties with you because you get drunk, act without modesty, act like a slut, and are known to be a slut. We think that you are a danger to any workplace and to any home. We think that your father should have been less liberal with you. We think that you will prove to be a horrible wife and an even more horrible mother. We think that you will waste society’s time, money and effort in trying to address your umpteen grievances that you keep coming up with because you act a certain way and that has consequences. We think that you have no discrimination, and no sense, and no femininity, and no brains. We think that you are a modern Indian woman who is a shame.’

Spoilt Modern Indian Woman has been likened to the UK’s Everyday Sexism Project and is the latest in a series of social media campaigns to highlight misogyny in Indian society.

Last year, two women calling themselves Bombaebs went viral with their #RapAgainstRape - a direct response to the New Delhi gang rape and death of a student in 2012. In a video, the women launched a three minute attack on sexual violence and hypocrisy in their country, tackling issues such as rape, clothing, infanticide, marriage and women walking alone at night.

Just last month, unmarried women in an Indian village were banned from using mobile phones by elders who fear that flirtatious texting could lead to a breakdown of society.