July 10, 2018
Taking yet another stand to empower women of all ages, actress Mallika
Sherawat on Tuesday recalled how eloping from home gave her courage in life
after facing "innumerable hardships" in a "patriarchal family."
Mallika,
who has spoken about women empowerment at various international platforms
including the 65th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2014, spoke about her
struggle days on Twitter as she hailed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss
review pleas filed by three of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and
murder case.
The actress said that the rape victim that finally been
"delivered justice."
"Six years after she was brutally gang-raped in a
moving bus in the capital city of India, we finally laid her memory to rest. She
had worked hard to free herself from the shackles of roles that society often
slots for its women," Mallika wrote.
The judgment came in response to a
review petition filed by three death row convicts - Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma,
and Pawan Gupta- against the Supreme Court order of May 2017, which said that
Nirbhaya's rapists and killers should be hanged.
The girl, who succumbed
to her injuries 13 days after the incident, was named Nirbhaya, meaning
fearless, by a section of the media.
Mallika, 41, who hails from a small
village in Hisar district of Haryana, later went on to spill her side - how she
managed to take a stand for herself.
"For me it was running away from my
home that gave me courage. Stifled in a patriarchal family, I neither had
freedom nor choice. I faced innumerable hardships because I dared to question
and challenge the status quo. When I got a choice, I ran as fast as my legs
could carry me. And, I survived," Mallika wrote.
"Today I stand on my own
two feet and I decide how I live my life. It's not easy. I have been called
enough names and treated in myriad ways. But as I travel across India and the
world, I realize it's not easy for too many of us. Buried under societal
pressure, scared of the consequences, subjugated and constantly violated are
millions of women and girls who want to be free," she added.
Mallika now
wishes to work towards ending the subjugation.
"I want to help make them
free. Every young girl, every woman has dreams. Every woman who is empowered can
empower another. We can, each one of us, free one another. I want to free every
girl from fear. Let there be no one who fears becoming another victim. Let us
fight to create a society where women live with pride and not with worry. Let us
battle the odds to build a world where girls and women live unshackled," she
said.
Mallika, who has appeared in a mix of Bollywood and Hollywood
movies like 'Murder', 'Hisss', 'The Myth' and 'Politics of Love', concluded her
note saying, "Free a girl. Free every girl."