#MeToo: Women call out late poet

Thiruvananthapuram: The late poet A Ayyappan has been considered and celebrated as an icon of anarchy, but for several women, he was a sexual predator.
The MeToo movement against sexual harassment has now shattered the image of the celebrated poet with several women exposing his alleged misdeeds, including one of child abuse.

A day after his eighth death anniversary, a woman said on Monday that she was abused by Ayyappan, her father’s friend, when she was 10.

“I spelt even as uncle was singing poems. When I woke up, I was lying close to Ayyappan uncle. His hands were between my legs. He was pressing with his fingers. When I tried to move, he said, “This will be over now. I held my breath till it is over,” she wrote on Facebook.

Supporting her, writer Echmukutty shared her experience on Facebook. She said Ayyappan, who was her then partner’s friend, made sexually offensive remarks against her at her workplace. She wrote Ayyappan had violated her modesty through inappropriate touch several times.

As part of Me Too movement, several women have come up against Ayyappan narrating their experiences at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), where Ayyappan had frequented.

“All who frequent IFFK know that how a heavily drunk Ayyappan approached women. He would say that how much he could pay to a woman. People around him only laughed. When he told a college student that she was good and he was ready to pay Rs 200, I lashed out at him,” posted Dr J S Veena, feminist and rights activist, on her Facebook page.