Soni Razdan said that while the women who have shared their MeToo stories should be encouraged, those to choose to remain silent must not be judged as it could be about their survival and job necessity.
Veteran actor Soni Razdan, who is also the mother of Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, says while the #MeToo movement is a positive change against sexual harassment, women who don’t speak up should not be judged for their silence. Soni told IANS here, “Living in a patriarchal society I know that such a thing is horrifying for any girl and that is why the movement is a positive sign, where people are coming up with their stories.
“It is easy to say that if such harassment happens, walk out of your job. But people depend on that job, it is about their livelihood, a question of survival. So while we must encourage victims for coming up with their #MeToo stories, we should not judge women for not sharing their stories.”
Asked why sexual harassment happens at workplace, she said, “When someone is humiliating and harassing a woman, he must be knowing that the victim is needy and left with no option but to tolerate such harassment to save the job. It is about livelihood.”
The actor, who recently travelled to Busan International Film Festival for her film Yours Truly, said: “Every company should have zero tolerance on sexual harassment so that victims feel secure while taking a stand.”
Actor Tanushree Dutta had kick-started the MeToo movement in India by accusing Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleassss. This was followed by several women coming out in the open to name celebs like Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, Kailash Kher, Rajat Kapoor, Sajid Khan, Subhash Ghai and many more of sexual harassment.