“Men Desexualise Women” & 5 Powerful Things Shah Rukh Khan Said At The World Economic Forum

Shah Rukh Khan was awarded the 24th Annual Crystal Award for showing an exemplary commitment to uphold human dignity through his non-profitable Meer Foundation at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. SRK received this award along with international icons Elton John and Cate Blanchett.

Arguably the best speaker in a country as wide and vast as ours, the superstar gave a speech on ‘women empowerment in India’ and needless to say, he did a fantastic job.

Here are some excerpts from his brilliant speech –

1) Equality is not a man-made word. It is given by nature. We are just peddling the word in order to reap benefits, which must stop. Women are not allowed to assert a choice. Methods might change in different parts of the world, but we have always seen women being oppressed because of their biological differences. There is nothing more equal than being who you are. Men desexualise women only because they are scared.

2) Actors are renowned narcissists. No matter how much we pretend not to believe in external beauty, we tend to be obsessed by it one way or the other. And perhaps being surrounded by this obsession of beauty, a few years ago I came across a lady who had been brutalized by an acid attack. It kind of changed my life or my perspective of it, at least. To disfigure a woman by throwing acid on her face, to me, is one of the basest, crudest acts of subjugation imaginable. At the source of it lies the view that a woman does not have the right to assert her choice, say no to the advances of a man or a group of people. And yet, each of the women I met, I found within them the courage to move on with their lives and reject the idea of victimhood. What struck me most about them was this – what was done to them only made them braver, stronger and able to free themselves, to make the choices everyone around them was telling them they could not make or should not make.

3) I have learnt how courage can catalyze victim-hood into heroism, how solidarity — rather than charity – enables the human will to overcome, how equality is not a concept but a truth that encompasses all living beings, how service of others is not a choice anymore for any of us but it is a duty that all of us must fulfill in the name of humankind.

4) There are no benefactors and beneficiaries between living beings anymore. There is just a vast pool of resources – natural, spiritual, economic and technological – that everyone is equally entitled but some have gained by more access to it. Either by accident, as in my case, or by talent, design and hard work.

5) I want to thank my sister, my wife and my little daughter for bringing me up well and teaching me the value of requesting, sometimes imploring and begging a yes from a woman, instead of forcing it upon her.

Congratulations you perfect human being!