Pune (Maharashtra) [India], August 28 : Veteran actor Shabana Azmi expressed her deep dismay over the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata earlier this month.
Speaking with media after attending an event in Pune, Shabana urged people to stop treating women as commodities.
" Such incidents are extremely dangerous. It's embarrassing to see that these kinds of heinous acts have not reduced despite the formation of Justice Verma Committee back in 2012 during the Nirbhaya case. We should not treat women as commodities... we need to dismantle patriarchy which is deep-rooted in us," Shabana Azmi said.
Earlier, on Wednesday, President Droupadi Murmu expressed anguish over the rising cases of crimes against women in the wake of the gruesome rape and murder of the young doctor in Kolkata. She penned an open letter 'Women's Safety: Enough is Enough' in which she called for self-introspection to uncover the roots of the malaise.
Expressing concern over collective amnesia over the memory of criminality, she said the time has come not only to face history squarely "but also to search within our souls and probe the pathology of crime against women".
The President called for honouring the memory of the victims to make society more vigilant in the future and said the recent spate of crimes against women should force honest introspection.
She spoke of the need to counter the mindset that sees "the female as a lesser human being, less powerful, less capable, less intelligent" and said it is "objectification of women by a few that is behind the crimes against women".
"The gruesome incident of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata has left the nation shocked. I was dismayed and horrified when I came to hear of it. What is more depressing is the fact that it was not the only incident of its kind; it is part of a series of crimes against women. Even as students, doctors and citizens were protesting in Kolkata, criminals remained on the prowl elsewhere. The victims include even kindergarten girls. No civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities. The nation is bound to be outraged, and so am I," she said.
The trainee doctor was found dead in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
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