Who is Rehana Fathima, activist who won 'nudity’ case in Kerala High Court?

The Kerala-based activist Rehana Fathima, who caught the attention with a 2020 video in which she was seen partially nude with paintings, got relief in a POCSO case on Monday. The Kerala High Court acquitted her, emphasising that the right to autonomy over one’s body is often denied to the fairer sex and they are bullied, discriminated against, isolated and persecuted for making choices about their bodies.

In 2020, a video of Fathima went viral, showing her partially nude with paintings done by her minor children on her body. Eventually, she was arrested and her bail applications were repeatedly denied.

Who is Rehana Fathima?

Rehana Fathima is an Indian women’s rights activist from Kerala. She also has a background in telecommunications and modelling. She has been vocal against women’s moral policing and has participated in various protests against sexism.

Fathima gained widespread attention in October 2018 when she was one of the two women who attempted to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala following the Supreme Court’s decision to lift the ban on women of menstruating age. She has faced legal consequences for her activism, including arrests for allegedly offensive Facebook posts.

She belongs to an orthodox Muslim family and she pursued her B.Com and MCA degrees from Indira Gandhi National Open University.

In 2014, she participated in the controversial ‘Kiss of Love’ protest in Kochi against moral policing along with her partner Manoj K Sreedhar.

What was the ‘nudity’ case?

After her 2020 video went viral, she was subsequently arrested. In her appeal in the Kerala High Court, Fathima asserted that the body paintings in the video were meant as a political statement against the default view of society that the upper body of the female is sexualised. She argued that the male body is treated differently and is not objectified or sexualised.

In the past, she was also booked by police in the Pathanamthitta district under the Information Technology Act and the Juvenile Justice Act on a complaint lodged by BJP OBC Morcha leader AV Arun Prakash.

What did Kerala High Court say?

While discharging Fathima, Kerala High Court Justice Kauser Edappagath on Monday said from the allegations against the 37-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 judge said it was "harsh" to term such an "innocent artistic expression" as a usage of a child in a real or simulated sexual act. "There is nothing to show that the children were used for pornography. There is no hint of sexuality in the video. Painting on the naked upper body of a person, whether a man or a woman, cannot be stated to be a sexually explicit act," the court said.

It further said that nude display of the upper body of men is never considered obscene or indecent and is not sexualised, but "a female body is not treated in the same way".

WATCH WION LIVE HERE