Rehana Fathima POCSO case explained: Here's why the woman posed semi-nude for her children

The Kerala High Court on Monday weighed in on a POCSO case where a women’s rights activist was booked for circulating a video where she was posing semi-nude for her children. A major uproar was sparked on the video, and the matter was eventually taken to court.

The Kerala High Court said that the fairer sex is often bullied, discriminated against and isolated, and persecuted for making choices about their bodies and lives, eventually discharging the POCSO case against women’s rights activist Rehana Fathima.

A women’s rights activist named Rehana Fathima from Kerala went viral a few months ago when a video of her posing semi-naked for her minor children sparked a wave of backlash. In the video, she was allowing the children to paint on her semi-naked body.

Fathima was facing charges under various provisions of the POCSO, Juvenile Justice, and the Information Technology (IT) Acts for circulating the video, where she was seen semi-nude with her children in sight. However, the case has now been discharged by the Kerala High Court.

Discharging her from the case, Justice Kauser Edappagath said that from the allegations against the 33-year-old activist, it was not possible for anyone to infer that her children were used for any real or simulated sexual acts and that too for sexual gratification. 

The HC bench further said, “The right of a woman to make autonomous decisions about her body is at the very core of her fundamental right to equality and privacy. It also falls within the realm of personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.”

Why did Rehana Fathima pose semi-naked in front of minor children?

In the viral video that sparked a lot of backlashes, activist Rehana Fathima was seen posing topless in front of her kids, allowing them to use her body as a canvas and paint on it in order to send out a social message about female nudity.

Explaining the motive behind the video Rehana asserted that the body painting was meant as a political statement against the default view of society that the naked upper body of the female is sexualised in all contexts, whereas the naked male upper body is not treated to this default sexualisation.

The Kerala High Court bench ended up agreeing with her and said that painting on the upper body cannot be viewed as a sexual act of any nature.

(With PTI inputs)

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