Actress Preity Zinta has strongly favoured capital punishment for those who are found guilty of rape. Known for not mincing her words, the Bollywood star took to Twitter to demand death sentence for rape convicts. Her Twitter post came hours after reports of death of a 100-year-old woman who was allegedly raped by a drunken man in UP’s Meerut. Last month, A five–year–old girl was allegedly raped by a peon inside the premises of a private school in Delhi’s Shahdara, a grim reminder of the time we are living in
In a series of Tweets, the 42-year-old actress said,
When a 5year old child & a 100 year old woman get raped & they die I think it’s fair to ask for Capital punishment for Rape. #disgusted
— Preity zinta (@realpreityzinta) October 31, 2017
She also lambasted lack of debate over women’s safety in the social discourse.
We spend hours Debating Religion, Politics, Demonetisation & GST but NO ONE wants 2discuss Women’s Safety & stand up 4this issue. #Disgusted
— Preity zinta (@realpreityzinta) October 31, 2017
She also expressed hope that people would stand up for victims who suffer sexual assault in their daily lives.
Hope People Stand up & fight 4all those women going through sexual assault in their everyday lives. #Womenssafety pic.twitter.com/HDghgjY5DC
— Preity zinta (@realpreityzinta) October 31, 2017
The Veer-Zaara actress earlier described rape as domestic terrorism. Times of India had quoted her as saying,
We have this whole thing in India about reacting for a very short period of time. We have such short memories. When an incident happens, we react, create jams and protests and we forget about it all and go home and sleep. This (crime against women) is also terrorism, it is domestic terrorism and these culprits unleash terror on women.
India has a very poor record of crime against women. Over 34,600 cases of rapes were reported from across the country in 2015. If you take into consideration the figures, at least 100 women and girls were raped every single day in the country in 2015, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released last year. Activists also say that the figure is bound to be much higher as most incidents go unreported.
