Watch the video of two sisters fighting off harassers that’s sweeping India

A video of two sisters using their belts and fists to fend off sexual harassers on a moving bus in Rohtak, India, has gone viral, sparking a renewed public debate about sexual harassment and women’s rights in India:

The young women were 22-year-old Arti Kumar and her 19-year-old sister Pooja, who told BBC Hindi that “the men started to abuse me and touch me. I told them ‘if you touch me again, you’ll get beaten up.’ They called a friend on the phone and told him to ‘come over because we have to beat up some girls.’”

When none of the other passengers came to their aid, Pooja said, she and her sister were forced to take matters into their own hands. “No one came forward in the bus to help us. So we took out our belts in self-defence [and hit the men]. If only the other passengers had helped us, we would not have needed to retaliate in this way.”

The incident was filmed by another passenger, a pregnant woman who told the Times of India that she had also been harassed by the men involved, and that she helped the two sisters file a criminal complaint after they were thrown off of the bus while it was still moving.

When the video was posted online, it quickly went viral, inspiring the twitter hashtag #RohtakBravehearts. (“Braveheart” is the English translation of Nirbhaya, the name the media gave to the Delhi woman who was gang-raped on a moving bus in 2012 and later died of her injuries, prompting a nationwide protest movement against sexual violence in India.)

Many commenters were particularly outraged at the bystanders’ failure to intervene on the young women’s behalf:

The young women will receive a cash award from the Haryana state government. Their three attackers have reportedly been arrested, and the driver and conductor of the bus on which the attack occurred have been suspended.