How men just causally kill women for sport.

The short CCTV video of two Indian girls riding bicycles starts off quite innocuously. Dressed in their school uniform – tunics, salwar bottoms and scarves – the teenagers are riding side by side on a near-empty road. But within seconds, the calm of the scene is shattered.

Two men on a motorbike overtake them and one of them pulls away the scarf of one of the girls. Immediately she loses her balance and her cycle moves right and collides with a second motorbike coming from behind. As she and the riders fall on the road, the 17-year-old is run over by a third motorbike coming from the opposite direction.

And she’s dead, just like that.

The tragic death of the schoolgirl has put the spotlight on the issue of sexual harassment of women in public places – with some women’s rights activists also questioning the use of the phrase “Eve teasing” by the local press to describe the case.

By “questioning” the Beeb means pointing out how thoroughly disgusting it is – making a joke out of bullying harassment along with turning women into a generic “Eve” (or “Nancy” or “Esmeralda” or whatever you like – we don’t all have the same name, because we’re not generic any more than men are). It’s exactly like referring to black men as “Sambo” or “Rastus” (which used to be a thing, yes).

The term, they say, is “deeply problematic” and point out that recently, the Supreme Court also flagged it, saying it should be replaced with “street sexual harassment” in courts.

Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, a social organisation working to make public spaces safe and inclusive for women, says the term makes it sound like it’s just a bit of teasing, but it’s not benign.

“It’s a typical Bollywood trope that the hero pursues the woman and she likes to be pursued. But it’s a criminal offence, it’s violent, and let’s not minimise the harm of violence by calling it Eve-teasing, let’s not trivialise it” she says.

Let’s not trivialise both it and the women and girls it’s inflicted on.

As most Indian women would testify, Eve teasing is very common and happens often while a woman is walking on the road or travelling in crowded public transport – most would have a story or two to tell about when they were groped or pinched or elbowed in the chest.

Most cases of such harassment are registered under Article 354 of the Indian penal code which deals with cases of “attempt to outrage modesty of women”.

Oh gawd. No, that’s not it. The outrage is to the woman, not her “modesty.” The outrage is to her self, her privacy, her dignity, her freedom to exist in public. It’s not about whether she’s a tramp or not. Women are people, modesty or no modesty.