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BANGALORE, India, Mar 12, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Women in India have begun using cameras to fight back against men who grope them in public.
"Eve teasing," a slang term for pawing a woman's breasts, has become increasingly common, the Sunday Times of London reported. Jasmeen Patheja, a Bangalore artist and founder of Women Against Sexual Harassment, said that women have "stopped apologizing" for being victims.
Under current laws, gropers can only be convicted if a woman can prove that the action "outraged her modesty." A man can also use a women's revealing clothing as a defense.
Patheja said that a man who groped her recently begged her to keep the photograph she took to herself because he has a wife and children. But she put it on the coalition's Web site.
The coalition has won at least one male supporter, Sunil Mehra, editor of the Indian edition of the British men's magazine Maxim. He blames "eve teasing" on sexual repression in India.
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Copyright 2006 by United Press International