By Renuka Dhakal
Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Terminologies like injustice, inequality, exclusion and discrimination have been in use for a long time.
The society is changing with time. Even the Constitution has embraced the concept of equality and inclusion and has kept all citizens within the ambit of equality.
However, there is no denying that there is still a social divide in the name of gender, caste, religion and so on.
In this backdrop, actress Rekha Thapa has said that the provisions like 33 per cent seats to women in the parliament would only make women more vulnerable.
Speaking at a programme 'Women Telling Women Stories', organised on the occasion of the 111th International Women's Day at the Film Development Board, actress Thapa said, “As we are all human beings, we need to live as human beings.”
Stating that the quota system is beneficial for women deprived from exposure, she said she was against the women's quota system for educated urban women.
"I'm not in favour of quota," she said."If we're not inferior to men, why do we look for quotas?”
Women should learn to fight, not to plead for some allotment, she added.
“In Bollywood, women centric movies are being made only in recent years, but in Nepal, I have started making women-centric movies 14 years back,” she added.
She also urged the filmmakers to make movies with women in the central role.
Expressing that the Constitution of Nepal has empowered women, she said that not only women are being victimised but also men. “Women can now easily accuse men of abusing and harassing them and our law has made women stronger than men,” she added.
Stating that artistes are the cultural ambassador and social activists, she said that the person who wanted to be a campaigner of the society should ignore the inferior expression made by people, and move forward on their own path instead of worrying about others’ negative expressions.
Giving an example, she said, "During the lockdown, many of our friends cried because of cyber bullying. It is a trivial matter, but they were worried. It seems that the women of the village are stronger than the city women. People who become activist should not get involved in such trivial matters.”
Instead of getting bogged down in cyberspace, women should develop a habit of saying ‘no’, she added.
She said that women should be a fighter and should not play the women card and become vulnerable to negative comments.
However, bold actress Thapa said that it was important for an artiste to do 'advocacy' along with artistry.
She also said that many people in the industry did not believe her when she directed the film for the first time.
Stating that she had also faced the problem of masculinity of not believing in the work done by women, she said that woman should work harder to break this mentality.
“I had directed the film ‘Himmatwali’. However, no one believed that I had directed it until it was released,” she added.
On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Development Board in collaboration with the British Council had also shown women-centric 'Aama' and 'Kumari'.