![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.womennet.amwp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/04-farhan-akhtar-hd-picture.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Actor, director, presenter, screenwriter and producer Farhan Akhtar is the first man who was chosen as UN Women\u2019s Goodwill Ambassador. Farhan\u2019s selection is not accidental. First, in his homeland India there are numerous violations of women\u2019s rights. In addition two years ago Bollywood star initiated his personal social campaign\u00a0 \u201cMen Against Rape and Discrimination.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here\u00a0are some excerpts from his interview with Women in the World, where he outlines his inspiration for the\u00a0initiative, commitments for the future and hopes for setting a precedent for more\u00a0male involvement in ending violence against women.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Women in the World: What provoked you to get involved in supporting women\u2019s empowerment?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Farhan Akhtar<\/strong>: I grew up predominantly around women- namely my mother and sister and my formative years had a huge role to play in shaping my worldview towards the opposite sex. My mother played out the role of a typical traditional housewife and I witnessed the effort it took for her to recharge her life after her separation with my father. A lot of it was possible because of the people that rallied around her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyday, I learn new things because of my wife and two daughters and this all\u00a0encompassing women-centric presence in my life has made me more cognizant of\u00a0equal rights in general- whether it is the independence to travel or the freedoms\u00a0associated with experiencing life with an equivalent perspective.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So when incidents of rape and violence against women starting making headlines\u00a0in India (the Delhi 2012 bus gang rape and thereafter), the very natural thing for\u00a0me was to stand up and leverage my position and use my voice to help create\u00a0awareness on how alarming this was. I was especially taken with the stories of\u00a0brutality that emerged from these incidents.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another important starting point for me was the untimely death of Savita\u00a0Halappanavar in Ireland, which ultimately led to international protests calling for\u00a0a review of abortion laws in the country. The event and its aftermath were real\u00a0eye openers for me, and motivated me to seek change for women and their basic\u00a0and personal rights, both in India and worldwide.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Women in the World: How do you plan to shift the narrative of gender violence to make it more male centric issue? How do you plan to get more men involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Farhan Akhtar<\/strong>: First of all, its important to acknowledge the most worrying issue that emerges out of each reported violent act committed towards a woman- that of humiliating and shaming. The brutality of an act shows you that more than a sexual overtone; it is truly about breaking a person. This knowledge is key as it forms the basis to then address the problem, which should begin with steering towards changing basic mindsets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone knows that we love our pop culture icons, and in India, Bollywood\u00a0actors and sportsmen are regarded as heroes. \u00a0So I would like to use my position\u00a0in people\u2019s hearts and homes to address the most rampant issues of gender\u00a0discrimination in my country first. If I can bring about even little shift in\u00a0perception at home first, then only can I can serve as an advocate for UN\u00a0Women\u2019s overarching mission to involving the rest of the world in creating a\u00a0uniform movement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One way of operating and taking this idea forward is to engage with male\u00a0students in various colleges and tap into gender sensitization at an adolescent\u00a0stage. This behavior initiative by MARD (which translates into \u2018man\u2019 in Hindi) is\u00a0to teach parameters of masculinity to boys on the cusp of manhood. A lot of\u00a0young men take cues from social and cultural references like films, advertising\u00a0and music, where a lot of qualities put out are aggressive in nature and teaches\u00a0them not to take no for an answer. I want to try and create an alternate mindset-that it\u2019s okay to be gentle and even to cry or be rejected. And that anything\u00a0counter to that should not be tackled with violence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I want to design programs using artistic content (short films, documentaries,\u00a0music, writing) and collaborate with NGO\u2019s to bring about awareness and serve\u00a0as a catalyst for change. I recently tied up with Google India to teach women\u00a0digital literacy and partnered with Magic Bus, Matthew Spacie\u2019s collective drive\u00a0to generate consciousness through education.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am heartened by the changing realities and what I have seen so far- the younger\u00a0generation in India is more open to dialogue, discourse and understanding and I\u00a0can see that they have been encouraged to be leaders and crusaders, committed\u00a0towards the gender equality movement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Women in the World: The defense lawyers\/some policemen\u2019s statements in the controversial \u2018India\u2019s Daughter\u2019 documentary have created a storm as people are appalled at their narrow conservative outlook- how can one tackle pre-existing mindsets like theirs or those of the older, more traditional generation in India?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Farhan Akhtar<\/strong>: I cannot speak for anyone, but I think it\u2019s rather unfair to paint people with the\u00a0same brush and go into generalizations. Yes, there are some existing mindsets\u00a0that cling onto patriarchal values, but the only way to begin is to get them to\u00a0understand what it is to feel shame and guilt.\u00a0Every country goes through problems- whether its economic, social issues or\u00a0political upheavals. In India, we even have the issue of caste and rape to look at,\u00a0but hopefully, over time they will get weeded out. Look at some of the advances\u00a0made post the 2012 Delhi Nirbhaya bus incident- not only do we have faster court\u00a0proceedings, but also we\u2019ve started defining and categorizing issues. Earlier\u00a0stalking wasn\u2019t even in the purview of sexual harassment, but now it is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is a clash of civilizations in India, but my hope lies with the younger\u00a0generation who is exposed to liberal value systems from other parts of the world\u00a0and reflects the more mainstream majority mindset.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Actor, director, presenter, screenwriter and producer Farhan Akhtar is the first man who was chosen as UN Women\u2019s Goodwill Ambassador. Farhan\u2019s selection is not accidental. First, in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-95"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}