Every woman's story, Korean ya Indian

When we meet Hyojeong Park at a coffee shop in Khar West on Friday afternoon she is in the middle of her second cuppa of the day and juggling two phones the one attached to a unipod is streaming her live on streaming platform TwitchShe greets us with a wide smile enters an online interview and simultaneously types on Twitch chat When our turn comes her voice is hoarse She has been speaking to the media continuously since the day beforeSouth Korean livestreamer Hyojeong Park in Khar West where Mobeen Chand and Mohammad Naqeeb sexually assaulted her last week PicSayyed Sameer AbediThe 24yearold from South Korea is a professional livestreamer and was broadcasting live when two men forced themselves on her on November 29 at SV Road in Khar West The clip went viral and on Thursday the Khar police charged and arrested Mobeen Chand Mohammad Shaikh and Mohammad Naqeeb Sadrealam Ansari for sexual assault ldquoI still love Indiardquo she clarifies midway through our chat ldquoWhat happened to me could have occurred anywhere in the world and it is not going to be the only India memory I hold on tordquoSince then the conversation has taken a turn into blaming Park for ldquoinvitingrdquo the assault by ldquobeing too friendlyrdquo According to latest NCB figures despite Mumbai safe city image Maharashtra ranked third in nationwide statistic for crime against women with Mumbai following Delhi at number 2 It echoes other horrific public assaults That of a mob engulfing an NRI woman at the Gateway of India stripping and groping her on New Yearrsquos eve 2006 midday photojournalist Shadab Khan broke the story On January 1 2008 14 men striped groped and molested two women outside JW Marriott in Juhu In March 2014 a dozen young men groped and nearly undressed an 18yearold on a street in broad daylight When she sought refuge in a nearby restaurant the manager threw her outA screenshot from Hyojeong Parkrsquos livestream on November 29 was posted on social media on November 30 The assaulters were arrested by Khar police on ThursdayItrsquos Parkrsquos first trip to India and she stopped by at Delhi and Varanasi before coming to Mumbai She obliquely hints towards an ugly experience in Varanasi too but does not want to talk about it Her Mumbai moment of terror took place just five minutes away from her hotel at around 1140 pmldquoI was making video content on the way back to my hotelrdquo says Park who goes by the online name Mhyochi ldquowhen one of the two young men standing by the roadside shouted lsquoI love yoursquo Sometimes people want to engage during a live stream so I shouted lsquoI love yoursquo back but kept walking He then approached me started to put his arm around my shoulder and tried to kiss me on my facerdquoHyojeong Park with Atharva Tikkha and Aditya who intervened and posted the video on social mediaAlthough Park has narrated the incident repeatedly over the last few days discomfort is palpable on her face ldquoI wanted to get away without triggering him or landing in a place I would regret even morerdquo she says ldquobut he grabbed my wrist and dragged me to his friend who was standing alongside his motorbike I said no multiple times and in a strong voicerdquo The assaulter grabbed her by the shoulder and tried to kiss her again ldquoI panicked and wanted to reach my room as fast as possible without escalating the matter He began following me on the motorbike swerved and blocked my path and told me to go on a ride with him He asked for my phone number and I gave him a fake onerdquoItrsquos telling that the thought on top of Parkrsquos mind was to not escalate the matter due to the fear of grievous physical harm There were no police officers in sight nor did any passerby help Atharva Tikkha who was watching her live stream and happened to be nearby intervened ldquoThey spoke in Hindi so I didnrsquot understand muchrdquo she says ldquoThe men left but I didnrsquot feel 100 per cent safe so I just ran to my hotelrdquo When the clip went viral the Internet churned with support and blame for her in equal measure ldquoSome said I initiated the situation by walking alone at night Some said I shouldnrsquot have gone to India worn the outfit I had on that I was too nice and naive They were quick to judge that something like this was bound to happenrdquoThe seed of selfdoubt has been sown and Park is repeatedly examining the incident from all points of view ldquoDid the men behave such because of how I was dressed Not that it matters seeing how schoolgirls in uniforms and women in saris are repeatedly assaulted but Park was wearing a spaghetti strapped dress I feel like I did something wrong but I know I didnrsquot I wouldnrsquot wear a bikini on the street While livestreaming There is an OOTD outfit of the day that you have to think of Besides one is free to wear anything they want anywhere I am aware some areas are more dangerous than others but thatrsquos not specific to India Even in South Korea certain areas are unsafe for men and womenrdquoPark has not yet informed her family back home but the South Korean media has picked up the story And they are blaming her too ldquoI am receiving more love and support from Indiardquo says the former engineering student ldquoPeople in my country are placing all the blame on me They say that I should have seen it coming and that this was bound to happen in India I want to tell my fellow Koreans that blaming the victim from behind anonymous social media accounts is just as bad as what those guys didrdquo The content creator has travelled through 26 countries and been catcalled in Europe ldquoWhen you put yourself in the world outside you can get robbed harassedhellip anything can happen But you canrsquot stop travelling exploring learning about new cultures and meeting amazing peoplerdquoWhy we victim blameTheorising that somehow the woman may have called the sexual assault upon herself helps us maintain a positive view of society and reinforce the belief that bad things usually happen to bad people Victim blame is part of rape myth acceptance and women who challenge traditional gender roles stay out late chat up with strangers drink alcohol are attributed higher levels of blamelsquoVictim blaming is always easier than focusing on the crimersquoWe saw Shraddha Walkar who was brutally murdered and chopped into pieces by her livein partner Aftab Poonawala victim shamed earlier this month And now we are seeing it happen again to South Korean livestreamer Hyojeong ParkldquoVictim blaming generally stems from a tunnel vision where people do not think of the alternative possibilities to a situation but are quick to form an early judgement about a case mostly observed in sexual assault and rape casesrdquo says additional professor of psychiatry at Lucknowrsquos King Georgersquos Medical University Dr Sujit Kumar Kar This phenomenon in psychology is termed as fundamental attribution error where people overemphasise on the personality or behaviour of a person mostly the victim in such cases rather than focusing on environmental and social situations and forces influencing the event ldquoWhenever a crime takes place there are two perspectives at play and both are starkly different from one another One is that of the criminal and the other is the public or individual opinion The latter is focussed on the victim and while doing so people get a sense of feeling safe themselves They blame it on external factors of the victim in a justification that if they do everything lsquorightrsquo the incident will not happen to themrdquo adds Dr KarThe psychiatrist also blames patriarchy and male dominance He says ldquoIn some cases primitive attitude of men and their gender bias towards women play a part in this They want to show their dominancerdquoWhile social media Dr Kar says has made authorities more responsible the urge to react to events by any and everyone is its flip side ldquoVictim blaming becomes an escape rather than seeing the whole perspective of a crime Blaming someone is always easierrdquo he says