The "Khusboo episode"

So what do you guys think of the Khusboo controversy?. Havent heard of it, so here is the story in short. Khusboo is a well-known (rather well-worshipped, she had temples for her in south india) actress in South India. Recently she supposedly said that pre-marital sex is ok.

And guess what happened!! It was a huge controvery and there is a court case against her and many in the same film industry didnt support her ... Why did this happen?. Cant she express her views openely? Is she wrong in saying what she said?. did the controversy come along only because she is a woman and expressed her views?. Would this have happened is a guy would have expressed the same views?.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/nov/ksh-kushboo.htm

"Sania Mirza is probably fed up with people giving her advice. But I would like to commend her for being firm earlier this week. According to press reports, she walked out of a press conference in Kochi "in a huff" when faced with persistent questions about what she thought of the Kushboo controversy. Sania was in the city to endorse a line of jewellery. Instead, predictably, when the media met her, the questions had nothing to do with jewellery, or even with tennis at which she has excelled, but her views on an issue that has blown so out of proportion that the original context has been forgotten. For once, she made a sound decision to hold back her opinion on this or any other unrelated subject.

At a media event

We are willing to elevate women to the status of goddesses and worship them. But they must remain obedient and silent.

The reason she was asked this was because of her reported statements on November 16 at an event organised by Hindustan Times on the theme, "Role of the celebrity: Influencing public policy". During the discussion, Sania did not make any comments about pre-marital sex, according to Vir Sanghvi who was moderating the discussion. What she did speak on, in her usual forthright manner, was about the length of her skirt on the tennis court. On this she was quoted as saying, "As long as I am winning, people should not care whether my skirt is six inches long or six feet long." (The Hindustan Times, November 17, 2005).

After the event, she as well as Formula One champion Narain Karthikeyan were asked what they made of the "Kushboo controversy". A news agency reported Sania as saying, "I think there are two separate issues, AIDS and pre-marital sex. Whether it is before or after marriage, people should have safe sex. And about pre-marriage sex, you can't stop people and hence the best way is to play it safe." Karthikeyan was reported saying, "South India is a closed society. There was nothing wrong in what Kushboo said, but it spiralled into a big issue because of the media."

Karthikeyan is a Tamilian but there were no "spontaneous" demonstrations across Tamilnadu condemning his support for Kushboo who has been charged with defaming "the Tamil people". In fact, what Kushboo said was not very different from Sania's remarks. She was speaking in the context of the spread of HIV and advocating safe sex in all situations. It is precisely this kind of celebrity endorsement of safe sex that is used by AIDS activists to create awareness about the issue. Yet, it appears that women celebrities are not entitled to make a "safe" remark about sex." ... Continued on india together.