Popular MTV host and actor Shenaz Treasurywala, who is currently playing a role of a choosy girl in her upcoming film Main or Mr. Riight has written an open letter to the most influential people in India, reported The Deccan Chronicle. She has addressed the letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and businessman Anil Ambani, requesting them to take strict actions against rapists and sexual offenders in India.
Shenaz wrote, “I am writing to you specifically because you are the most powerful and influential men in our country. I am writing to you as a woman who grew up in a middle-class family in Mumbai. I am writing to you for help.”
During the actors young years, she found herself threatened and mistreated by the men in India and felt it was about time women felt secure in their own country. “I want all women to speak up. Let’s make it our motto — it’s not our shame, it’s their shame. Who are ‘they’? ‘They are the men in our country,” Shenaz said.
Not only did Shenaz include sex-offenders and rapists in the category of ‘men’ in her letter but also pointed fingers at other male influences that have not made an effort to look into daily assaults faced by women. “Not just the rapists and the sexual offenders but also our fathers, uncles, brothers, movie-stars, cricketers and politicians for not saving us or protecting us by insisting and protesting for the laws to change and offenders to be punished severely!”
Shenaz went on to explain how her first incident with a stranger in the market place at the age of 13 has left her scarred for life. She continued that the first time wasn’t the last she felt “shocked and speechless.” Such incidents of assault by random men went on through her teenage years, where not only she felt victimised but her regardless of the city in which they were. “Why do we as women have to feel so threatened? Why has there been no severe action taken? This has gone on for years now. Not just in Delhi but all over our country and yes even in Bombay and Mumbai. Nowhere is safe!”
Since 2001, the actor who has been actively involved in acting, hosting and travelling, says, “I still feel that fear. I am still am on guard. I still fantasize of having that machine gun. I have been living and working half in India and half in New York and let me tell you I have walked the streets of Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn (perceived as the most dangerous in NYC) at 3am after parties in short skirts and felt safer than I feel in Bandra at 10 pm on a quiet road fully covered,” Shenaz adds.
Addressing the politicians of India Shenaz went on to say, “What good are all your speeches in the US or Japan or Australia, if no woman can walk freely in the streets even in broad daylight by herself in the capital of our country? Isn’t this a shame? Shame on you sir.”
Fumed by the careless approach of the men in her country, the actor ended her letter by saying, “Scare them by making an example out of them (sex offenders) Save your mother, daughter, sister please! Don’t sleep till you save your women.With all respect, Shenaz Treasury.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.
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