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If you are an Indian woman with opinions of your own, chances are you already know that expressing them in public can be hazardous.
People who do not agree with you might troll you or abuse you, sometimes making your life so miserable that you think twice before expressing your views publicly ever again.
But what happens when the trolling and abusing goes so far as to attempting to fire you from your job or threatening to make your life come to a stand-still? What do you do then?
Recently, after the release of the trailer of the movie Veere Di Wedding, Shefali Vaidya, a writer and columnist, called upon all ‘self-respecting Hindus’ to boycott movies by actresses who protested the Kathua rape incident where an 8-year-old was gang raped and murdered by eight men, allegedly including a village priest and a police officer. Furthermore, an outfit named the Hindu Ekta March, along with lawyers and politicians, had launched protests in support of her rapists and killers.
Dear Hindus, if you have any self respect or dignity left, PLEASE do not watch any movie that stars @ReallySwara, Kareena Kapoor, @humasqureshi Kalki Koechlin, Sonam Kapoor and all other placard wala B grade actresses. Hit them where it hurts. — Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya) April 16, 2018
Dear Hindus, if you have any self respect or dignity left, PLEASE do not watch any movie that stars @ReallySwara, Kareena Kapoor, @humasqureshi Kalki Koechlin, Sonam Kapoor and all other placard wala B grade actresses. Hit them where it hurts.
— Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya) April 16, 2018
And yet, some of us want people to ban movies by actresses who protested this heinous crime while one of the BJP MLAs who was at the support rally for the rapists, has been promoted to a minister recently!
It is noteworthy to mention that earlier when people raised a hue and cry on Twitter about boycotting Amazon when they used Swara Bhaskar as their ambassador, Amazon succumbed to the public demand and removed Swara’s endorsements from their pages. Isn’t it alarming when corporates bow to such unfair public pressure and remove a celebrity from endorsing their brand just because she expressed her views?
This brings us to the question of how women with opinions are always thought of as threats who must be made to pay for the crime of raising their voices. Not even actions, mind you, a mere opinion by a woman can be too ‘dangerous’ to be allowed in society!
In fact, there were others who also protested about the Kathua incident. This included celebrities like Farhan Akhtar, Richa Chaddha, Sania Mirza, Abhishek Bachchan, and Virender Sehwag. However, Vaidya’s mention of most of the actresses starring in a women-centric movie seems to be like killing two birds with one stone. Firstly, women should not have opinions, secondly, movies showing empowered women in leading roles should be done away with.
Compare this to the recent Salman Khan verdict. This Bollywood superstar has been accused of killing poor people on the streets by drunk driving, he has intentionally killed an extinct species of wild life, and he has been a physically and emotionally abusive romantic partner to several women. Despite all these flaws, his fans were clamouring for his release when he was found guilty of poaching the black buck and was sentenced to a five year term in jail. (He was released shortly after being granted bail.)
Leave alone protests to boycott his movies, there was not even a tiny dent in his popularity with a lot of people even giving wonderfully logical statements like ‘He has done a mistake in the past but now he’s changed, let’s not be too harsh on him!’
Do I need to give further proof of the double standards we maintain for men and women in our society? It seems like when you’re a woman, you’re not even entitled to an opinion, but as a man you can get away with almost anything, including illegal activities, murder, and physical abuse in this country.
Top image is a still of Swara Bhaskar from the movie Anarkali of Arrah
Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her read more...
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Instead of seeking vengeance after horrific crimes, the public should push for faster and better judicial resolutions. That is the best tribute we can pay to the victims.
Trigger Warning: This deals with rape, violence against women and police brutality, and may be triggering for survivors.
On the news yesterday we came to know that 10 police officers who had killed 4 young men arrested for the rape and murder of Hyderabad doctor in an “encounter” have been found “guilty of concocting their story, and were to be charged with murder.” The report of the commission doing this enquiry also says “The panel also found that police have deliberately attempted to suppress the fact that at least three of the deceased were minors – two of them 15 years old.”
December 29, 2019 was a Friday no different from any other. I was running late so had no time to read the newspaper. On the way to work, I logged onto to Twitter to catch up with the news. The first thing I saw was the breaking story on the horrific gang rape and murder of the 26 year old doctor on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
To think that money can buy you anything is as wrong as singling a woman out after her divorce because the world feels she got overcompensated.
A lot of people are attracted to money and that’s not a bad thing. Which is also why everyone talks about money and the rich. The rich always make the headlines.
The rich, also, get upset when their personal lives are talked about, and rightly so. They have all the right to privacy.
Time moves on. However, people do not.