The Holi Festival, held annually in India and Nepal, is a Hindu festival that celebrates the arrival of spring. It is similar to Songkran (water festival) in Thailand, but it is different.
Japanese woman gets assaulted at Holi festival
Such a Holi festival was held in March 2023, but a Japanese female YouTuber who participated in it, “Indian girl traveling alone, Megumiko”, was tired of hugging and being touched by several men, and her head was hurt. Videos of people being beaten, having their hair pulled, and being hit with a raw egg on the head have gone viral. Indian television media NDTV reported extensively.
According to reports, the incident occurred in New Delhi, India. Megumiko was staying in a district called Paharganj.
Many people who saw the video got angry
The video has spread mainly on Twitter in India and Japan, and many people are shocked. Although I only visually confirmed it from the video, it seemed that some people touched their buttocks and others touched their breasts. Megumiko managed to escape from the thugs and somehow suffered no further damage, but three male suspects have been identified. One of them is a minor.
holy harassment
“NDTV” reported using the terms “sexual harassment” and “holy harassment”, and it seems that there are voices of anger and calls for severe punishment on the Internet. Certainly, even if it’s a rude festival, sexual harassment and assaults that use it as a shield will never be tolerated.
Is Megumi okay?
I wonder if Megumi is safe now. According to Megumi’s Twitter account, she quickly moved to neighboring Bangladesh after being assaulted in India. Below is Megumi’s Twitter comment.
“I heard that it is very dangerous for a woman to go out alone even during the day because the Indian festival called Holi, which I participated in this time, is full of rudeness, so I participated in the event with a total of 35 other friends. However, this situation has happened unintentionally.”
“The video that triggered the fire this time was not a video that was deliberately taken of the scene where the exclusive cameraman was being attacked, but a video that was taken by chance while another Japanese event participant was filming the scenery of the festival. I would appreciate it if you could understand that I was not trying to convey the abnormalities and damages of the Holi festival in India.”
“It’s hard to tell in the video, but the cameraman and other people helped us along the way. The place where we shot the video is one of the most unsafe places in India. Participating in festivals made it easier for people to get excited and be surrounded by groups who didn’t understand right and wrong.”
“The police have promised to step up their crackdown on this incident, and we hope that harassment against women will decrease significantly at the Holi festival from next year.”
I’m glad Megumiko was okay
Anyway, I’m just glad that Megumiko was safe. She is currently believed to be staying in Bangladesh.
Some people said, “Are you aiming for flames?”
Due to the spread of this video, it is true that there are many voices from some people, “Is it for attracting attention?” It’s probably because I’ve done it before. When he bathed in the Ganges, he used to wash his face with water from the river, which was considered dangerous. It was as if he had inhaled water through his nose, and the taste was “salty.” She has since tweeted about her physical condition.
“It was water that I shouldn’t have rubbed on my face. I sucked the water from the Ganges River through my nose, and an hour later my nose started to hurt, and the pain gradually moved to the back of my throat. Right now, Ganges is in the back of my throat. There is
“The Ganges River that flows through Varanasi is heavily polluted and the water is putrid. It shows that there are 10,000 E.coli, and the number of E.coli should be less than 500 for safe bathing.”
Sexual harassment and assault are both “100% worse”
If you go to an area that is considered to be unsafe and participate in a festival, it is natural that both men and women need to take self-defense measures and walk on the streets with caution. Maybe Megumiko-san was naive in some ways. However, we must not forget that sexual harassment and assault are 100% worse. It would also be a big mistake to slander her on her internet.
Apologies and encouragement from many Indians
Megumiko’s Twitter is now flooded with apologies and words of encouragement from many Indians. She may be embarrassed as a fellow Indian. Her girlfriend, Megumiko, has posted many videos of “Traveling alone in India” on her official YouTube. She also says in her channel description that she “loves rough travels!”
Holi festival is fun
By the way, for the Holi festivals held in India and Nepal, it seems that serious troubles like this one are rare. The author has actually participated in Nepal, but it seems that whether it was applied to people or applied to people, they acted while reading a certain degree of “sense of distance between other people”.
Is Nepal’s Holi festival peaceful?
If you participate in Nepal rather than India, the probability of meeting extreme coloring may be low. Even in Nepal, rural areas such as Pokhara and Chitwan may be calmer than Kathmandu.
However, Indians, Nepalese, tourists, old men in shops, cows, all lives are colored. You need to be prepared for that.
I want the tourist office and the embassy to do their best
It would be nice if the image of the Holi festival as something frightening did not become widespread in Japan because of this incident, but I would like the tourist offices and embassies to do their best in this regard. Of course, a minimum of self-defense measures and caution are required.
*The Holi festival image in the article was taken by this reporter.
(Author: [email protected] eating tour)
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