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Watch: Javed Akhtar Calls Out Fellow Parliamentarians On Everyday Sexism

Watch: Javed Akhtar Calls Out Fellow Parliamentarians On Everyday Sexism
JAIPUR, INDIA - JANUARY 21: Lyricist Javed Akhtar addresses the session on Gaata Jaye Banjara: Film Songs- Urdu, Hindi, Hindustan at the Jaipur Literature Festival at Diggi Palace on January 21, 2015 in Jaipur, India. One of the largest literary festivals on earth, the Jaipur Literature Festival brings together some of the greatest thinkers and writers from across South Asia and the world. (Photo by Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
JAIPUR, INDIA - JANUARY 21: Lyricist Javed Akhtar addresses the session on Gaata Jaye Banjara: Film Songs- Urdu, Hindi, Hindustan at the Jaipur Literature Festival at Diggi Palace on January 21, 2015 in Jaipur, India. One of the largest literary festivals on earth, the Jaipur Literature Festival brings together some of the greatest thinkers and writers from across South Asia and the world. (Photo by Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Recognised film writer, singer and lyricist Javed Akhtar along with actors Kirron Kher and Jaya Bachchan made a powerful statement in Parliament defending the screening of the controversial documentary 'India's Daughter'.

The documentary, based on the brutal Delhi gang-rape of 2012, led to a heated discussion in the Rajya Sabha last Thursday after Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that a restraining order had been taken against the screening.

However, several members questioned the move, Akhtar included. "There is anger because the world is being told that this rapist is talking so much rubbish," he is heard saying in Hindi in the video. "But the fact that a woman invites trouble by dressing in a certain way or staying out late at night is something I have heard in this hall," he admitted bluntly.

An outraged Akhtar then defended the Nirbhaya documentary: "It is good this documentary has been made especially if it has made hundreds of men in Hindustan realise that they think like a rapist when they say a woman invites trouble by dressing a certain way or walking the streets late at night."

Kher said that the more important issue that needed to be concentrated on was what those people said, not whether the documentary should be made or not made. "They have learnt nothing in two and a half years in spite of their punishment. Is it only the woman who is to be blamed?" She also added that this problem of not respecting women had to be tackled right from the grassroots - the mindset of people. "The right to women's bodies to give consent is theirs. it cannot be abrogated to somebody else."

Bachchan said: "Take that man out of jail and we will deal with them... Women do not want such crocodile tears," she added.

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