Holi, the colour of festivals, is here. But for women, the festival has been nothing less than harassment. Thanks to pop culture that has made people believe that touching women inappropriately without their consent in the name of throwing colours is just a part of the celebrations. Bura na maano Holi hai, they say.

However, this time the sense of entitlement has gone a notch higher and has taken a communal turn. Yeah, you heard that right. A TikTok video surfaced recently on social media where a man is chasing a burqa-clad woman to smear colours on her face.

"Chaahe naqaab pehan ke niklo bhaijaan ke sath, ragad ke rang lagega suno mohtarma seedhi baat" (Even if you go out in a veil with your brother, colours will be thrown at you. Just listen to this simple thing). A burqa, words like mohtarma and bhaijaan to make the intentions very clear, because why not. Afterall burqa, mohtarma and bhaijaan are the signifiers of Muslim women. Stereotyped much!

These accounts are provoking Hindu men to molest, sexually assault Muslim women during Holi. @Twitter @TwitterIndia @TikTok_IN Will you delete the content, tweets and suspend the profiles? @MinistryWCD, will you initiate action? pic.twitter.com/CndAFjwJI4 — Ayesha Minhaz (@ayesha_minhaz) March 6, 2020

The misogyny does not end with this sexist and bigoted video. Some social media users shared the video and openly called for the molestation of Muslim women in much-romanticized pop culture words.

One Twitter user, who goes by the name @120mbps had this to say in a tweet: “Salma aja khopchay mai, gulaal tohaar khatir laayi, khud utaarogi burkha ya kheench ke burkha hum bhiga dein teri choli.( Salma, come to the corner, I have got colour for you. Will you remove your burkha or should I pull it down and wet your blouse)”

And another one, from a Twitter user @BabuSaffron wrote, “is holi, bhigaa do har burkhe wale ki choli (This Holi, wet every burkha-clad woman's blouse)”.

Mainstream Bollywood has, over the years, normalised this kind of harassment by showing the male lead running after the female lead with colours while the lyrics blaring out in the background in male voice will be about drenching the woman in colour and of course the mention of her clothes like "chunar (dupatta), choli (blouse)".