I Would Have Broken His Leg: Kangana Stands Up For 17 YO Zaira, Who Was Molested In A Flight

Everyday we come across news where the modesty of a woman is outraged by a predator. Unfortunately, it has become such a common occurrence that the society has become desensitised to it and does not think twice before jumping on the bandwagon of victim  blaming.

This is exactly what happened when 17-year-old ‘Dangal’ star, Zaira Wasim was allegedly molested on a flight while she was travelling from Delhi to Mumbai. Zaira then proceeded to document the whole ordeal on Instagram, in multiple pictures and a video.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcsiFFHhQ4U/?hl=en&tagged=zairawasim

The trauma was evident but the internet being the ugly place that it is, was quick to scrutinise and berate the teenager for not being strong enough and complain on the flight. Some even said that it was a publicity stunt. The flight crew as well as the other passengers stood with the alleged molester and justified that he was just sleeping and happened to put his leg on her armrest.

However the Bollywood fraternity stood with her and after Swara Bhasker, it is the unapologetic ‘Queen’, Kangana Ranaut who has chosen to speak up in support of the teenage actor applauding her for her bravery.

According to Indian Express, she called it a scary situation when instead of lauding the girl for speaking up, people are questioning her. She also criticised witnesses who were defending the alleged perpetrator and said,

“Your fellow passengers can’t tell me that his innocent leg was resting.”

She also talked about how women are discouraged from speaking out about sexual harassment particularly in the film industry.

She also added that while she wasn’t a victim of sexual harassment herself, the skepticism among people was shocking. She lauded Zaira for speaking up and said,

“For that young girl to go against all of that and speak up. Now, I am not in that position so I don’t know what kind of harassment it was. But everyone agrees on one thing that the foot was on her arm-rest. This is wrong. It is very wrong. Why are we judging and trolling her? In this kind of environment, which is so frightening, who will speak up?”

She further went on to re-iterate how offensive it was to intrude on someone’s personal space and term it innocent. Ranaut also said that the situation is arguable as different people can have different reactions to it.

“I am not dissecting or jumping to the conclusion and no one should play judge whether it is me or media or social media.”

An experience like this is very traumatising for a teenager and accusing her of doing a ‘publicity stunt’ just because she did not react to the situation in a hostile manner is wrong.

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