Mumbai: At the recent feminist Loreal Paris’ Stand Up training programme, actress Aishwarya Rai spoke about evils of street harassment, saying that women should not be blamed for their dress or lipstick.
Raising her voice against street harassment, Aishwarya, who has been associated with the beauty brand for over a decade, urged people not to shy away from taking a stand against harassment.
Instead of the age-old advice which suggested avoiding eye contact or going unnoticed, Aishwarya came up with a very different approach.
“Street harassment. How do you deal with it?” Aishwarya is seen saying in the video.
“Avoid eye contact No. Look the problem directly in the eyes. Hold your head high. Feminine and feminist, my body, my worth. Never compromise your worth. Do not doubt yourself. Stand up for your worth. Don’t blame your dress or your lipstick. Street harassment is never your fault,” she added.
Social media users lauded Aishwarya for speaking up publicly against the issue of street harassment.
“Street harassment is so real and not spoken about enough. Love this,” one wrote.
Another person shared, “A powerful reminder and important message for young girls and women everywhere.”
“A great Motivation Girl’ssss,” wrote one user, while another stated, “great message my queen.”
“Someone had to talk about it,” noted one person. Another netizen, “Well said… She is always so pretty.”
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Aishwarya was last seen in Mani Ratnam’s 2023 action drama ‘Ponniyin Selvan: Part 2’, which also featured Vikram, Ravi Mohan (as the title character), Karthi, Trisha Krishnan, Jayaram, Prabhu, R. Sarathkumar, Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Vikram Prabhu, Prakash Raj, Rahman and R. Parthiban.
The film received positive reviews and was a box-office success, collecting Rs 344.63 crore worldwide.
Aishwarya won the Best Actress in a Leading Role (Critics) award at the South Indian International Movie Awards for her performance in the film.
