Indian prime minister branded sexist for comment to Bangladeshi counterpart

New Delhi

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has sparked outrage after he praised his Bangladeshi counterpart for her courage to fight terrorism “despite being a woman”.

#DespiteBeingAWoman was one of the top trends on Twitter yesterday, with users expressing anger at what they said was a bigoted and sexist remark and posting pictures of famous female scientists, politicians and athletes.

Modi, who was on a two-day official visit to Bangladesh, told an audience at Dhaka University that his counterpart, Sheikh Hasina, showed she was committed to ending the terrorism that has plagued both south Asian nations.

“The world has still not found a solution on how to tackle terrorism. Even the UN is not in a position to provide guidance,” said Modi. “I am happy that the prime minister of Bangladesh, despite being a woman, is openly saying that she has zero tolerance for terrorism. I would like to congratulate Sheikh Hasina for her courage to deal with terrorism with zero tolerance.”

Twitter users went into frenzy as local media picked up Modi’s comments, with many taking potshots at the Indian leader’s remark.

“How can you even say or think #despitebeingawoman when your own country had a great female PM way before most first world countries! Shame!” tweeted a Mumbai-based fashion blogger from the twitter handle @Fashionopolis.

“Mentality of Men’s supremacy remains in the mind of Men always to show down the woman with words like #DespiteBeingAWoman,” tweeted user Panchal under the handle @NotNewToAny1.

Users also posted images of successful women, including the former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks, education activist Malala Yousafzai and physicist Marie Curie – under the hashtag #DespiteBeingAWoman.