Priyanka Bose—“ I stand up for sexual violence.”
So I am an actor in Bombay and currently I am touring the globe with my play ‘Nirbhaya’ so clearly what it suggests is that I stand up for silence against sexual violence against women and children in this country or anywhere else in the world. And my path is very clear, I will keep speaking against injustice towards children, women and men when they are sexually violated!
Sonu Bohra—“ Nobody has the right to tell you what to wear!”
I am just against body shaming, weather it is skinny women shaming or generally fat shaming, I think both are equally bad. And as long you have a healthy body and you don’t start panting after a flight of stairs, as long as you are fit and fine then I think nobody has the right to tell you able to tell you how you look in a crop top versus a maxi dress.
Juhi Godambe—“If you’re white you’re considered superior!”
I think racism is a very big issue, in terms of skin colour at least in India people think if you are white you are somehow superior and people with a darker skin tone I believe are judged upon quite easily so I thing racism still exists and is still an issue.
Jasleen Gupta— “People are so obsessed with having a baby boy!”
I know so many, so called modern people who are well educated themselves but don’t want to have a girl child. They are so obsessed with having a boy that I have actually heard a conversation where someone said, “So great your first born is a boy now you don’t have to go for a second try,” and I heard it in our urban setup. So if we are going to have this attitude towards the issue how can we expect any change?
Kristy De Cunha – “There are no boundaries when it comes to who you love.”
My collection this year is called ‘Be’ Aware of the Rabbit Hole’ and it’s a theatrical portrayal of the freedom to love. And when I talk about love I mean the love between a man and a man, a woman and a woman, a man within a woman and a man for a woman! My collection portrayal the fact that there is no boundaries to who it is that you want to love, or what you want to do and that is exactly what I want to put up there and support the LGBT.
Anu Menon—“Don’t be afraid to call yourself a feminist!”
I always find that we women have this thing where we believe that we need to dumb down a little bit to be attractive to men and the whole thing about the idea that you can’t say that you are a feminist because it is an ugly, unattractive word. Whereas feminism is basically just saying we are equal and we want to the same things that men do but my only word of caution is that women need to take care of themselves! Yes you have every right to wear what you want and do what you want to do but take care of yourself, don’t walk alone at 3 AM on a street that is dark because you are then inviting trouble. Because we don’t live in utopian world, so respect your elf, take care of yourself and don’t be afraid to call yourself a feminist.
Written by Khubi Amin Ahmed on Aug 31, 2015