OP-ED: Neither a feminist hero, nor a damsel in distress

As a citizen, Pori Moni deserves protection of the law -- not a toxic media trial
Pori Moni is neither a feminist hero nor a damsel in distress. She is not breaking down any gender stereotypes, nor is she a woman in need of saving. All the flowery adjectives, heart-felt tributes, and the desperate attempts to paint her as a deeply vulnerable, powerless woman, are problematic. Because she is none of these things. 

One can infer from the video and audio clips obtained from the night in Dhaka Boat Club that she is a vindictive woman who possibly filed a false rape allegation, made a gross miscalculation in the process, angered the wrong people and, as a result, has spectacularly fallen from the power ladder.

Her fall provided a timely distraction from the more pressing issues currently plaguing the country -- a situation dangerously paralleling the state-led vilification of India’s Rhea Chakrabarty in 2020 following the unfortunate suicide of her boyfriend and Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.