Freida Pinto: Girl Rising

Hollywood actor Freida Pinto has progressively been taking a strong position about the need for a more equitable and just place for women of the world. Last week she made what is, perhaps, her strongest case yet on the increasing incidents of atrocities against women in various corners of the world. Reacting to the furore over a recent documentary on the infamous and tragic Nirbhaya rape case in India by a British film maker  — a documentary where defence lawyers of the accused made very public misogynistic remarks about the role and place of a woman in India society— Freida picked up the pen to blog about her take on the role of women in society.

Here is what she said in the blog which appeared in a prominent Indian newspaper: “I recently visited my dear friend Zoe’s beautiful six-month-old-baby girl, Orla. When I looked into her big bright eyes, I saw a raw spark of pure light, alive, dancing to its own tune, full of potential, oblivious to skin color, status or gender. But in more places around the world than we imagine, a new born girl child has been damned, undervalued, called a burden, or even been killed before she was born. Because to be a female in today’s world is at best an exercise in subtle injustice or at worst a living hell.

“In the film India’s Daughter you heard an educated lawyer claim that “in our culture there is no place for a woman.” He is obviously not alone in his sentiments. But I don’t want to indulge in a full cultural history of woman-hating. Suffice it to say that from the earliest written accounts, it has been so. From the Book of Leviticus which said ‘menstruating women are unclean and whoever touches them will be defiled’ , to Aristotle who referred to a female as “an incomplete male or a deformity”, from Confucius who felt that a hundred women weren’t worth “one testicle” to a certain public figure who stated “boys will be boys.” And that was 2013.

“So today in 2015, despite the vast improvements in the last century, a complex network of ideological and cultural norms continue to make global misogyny, in my opinion, the great scourge and most pressing issue of our age.

“But make no mistake. Female subjugation is not restricted to the third world. While it’s all well and good to be mortified by the state of women in India or Pakistan, it will take further introspection before the First World acknowledges the same dynamics within their own culture. And I’m not just talking sexual crimes which are a grim reality in countries like the US as was evident in the Vanderbilt University gang abuse case this year. I’m talking about something that belongs to the modern or so-called civilised world, such as the refusal to pay a woman the same as a man for the same job. And often those jobs come with a tough climate with women having to stay silent or even laugh amidst misogynistic remarks in the setting of a male boardroom. And yet to speak out is to get tainted as the “uncool” girl or the “feminist”. I can’t wait for this generation of women to understand that claiming to be a feminist simply means asserting that they share the same spiritual and economic value as a male.”

The blog goes on to urge readers to take hope from not just the women who protested on India’s streets after Nirbhaya’s death but from the countless men who “are the enlightened torch bearers…. who we call to fight, to stand up for what is honourable, and to speak out vociferously against sexism at the workplace and violence at home. We equally call upon men who don’t believe in equal rights. This is your fight too, to defeat and transcend your own mindsets…”

The actor also called upon policy makers the world over to invest in  “girls’ education globally so they can participate and raise the next generation of enlightened males. We need the “democracies” of the world, and specifically the democracy of India to be unafraid in facing the dark reality of sexual violence. There is no shame in admitting it exists. Shame lies in the act of NOT speaking out.”

Pinto signed off her blog with a plea to religious heads to use their influence to change the mind sets and bias against women and called upon women themselves to “to make each other’s welfare a priority and to refuse to shame another woman for her choices. Refuse to internalise or project the centuries of woman-hating, hard as that will be. With all of us doing these things, and educating our children to do the same, we may have the chance to finally shift the paradigm which led to the despicable and heart-rending events of this film.”

We are not surprised the actor has taken such a strong position on this. Since 2012 she has been at the forefront of women’s issues and has been associated with a number of organisations that work in the space such as Plan International’s Because I am a Girl Campaign as their Global Ambassador promoting gender equality to lift millions of girls out of poverty.

In April 2013, Pinto collaborated with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for the Call to Action – Girl Rising campaign that talks about the power of education in transforming the lives of girl children. In July 2014, Pinto made a strong case calling for the end of female genital mutilation and child marriage, while speaking at the Girl Summit in London.

We need many more such women of influence to make the change happen. But we are sure it will happen if we first make that change happen in our own homes.

sudhamenon2006@gmail.com