'Stay on hanging of Nirbhaya convicts demoralising' Says Mallika Sherawat

A day after a Delhi court stayed the order to hang the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case on January 22, Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat has reacted to the development. The actress, who works actively for the rehabilitation of rape and child prostitution victims feels the news is "demoralising for the women of the country".

Reacting to the piece of news, Mallika said, "How demoralising I feel it is for the women of this country. Imagine what her parents must be going through!"

Almost every day there are newspaper reports about rape and murder of women from different parts of the country, which highlight how crime against women is becoming rampant. Are we losing respect for women?

Mallika seems to believe Indian men never respected women. "Did we ever respect women? Indian society is very regressive towards women. When I had tried saying this earlier, a section of the media started attacking me saying Mallika is tarnishing our country's reputation before the world. But I am a patriot, I love my country, that's why I draw attention to this issue. I want to see a positive change. The country's reputation cannot be more important than what is happening with our women. So, my question is, did India ever respect its women? Because if you do, then all these shouldn't happen — that too regularly. Everybody thought there will be a change after the Nirbhaya case but Nirbhaya has not got justice yet!"

Talking about victim-blaming, which is a common practice in the Indian society, the actress added: "I strongly feel this and I always get into trouble for saying this because people like to think that women are really progressing in India. Nobody supports me when I say no, they are not. Don't talk about Mumbai or Pune — these are privileged women. Come to the small towns where victim-blaming is a common practice. Rape was inevitable, why did she go out at night? Imagine, people actually say these things! This is so wrong. I think, our mindset needs to change." (IANS)

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