REUTERS/Stringer photo
To be outspoken in India is to be subject to
humiliation and public scorn. Take the case of
actress Khushboo (shown here during a film
shoot in Chennai). Kushboo has been
pelted with sandals, tomatoes and rotten eggs *
and hauled before court for telling Indian men not
to expect their brides to be virgins anymore.
Yahoo News story
* Brings to mind the Biblical tale of Mary Magdalene
who was about to be stoned in public for being a
harlot, when Jesus Christ saved her with his words,
"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone".
No Jesus available this time around...
Tue Jan 31, 8:43 AM ET
ReplyDeleteAn Indian actress has lodged a complaint with police against the local edition of British men's magazine Maxim after it used a faked picture of her in a skimpy swimsuit, police said Tuesday.
The magazine has apologized for the incident and hoped the issue would be resolved amicably.
Khushboo, a major South Indian star of the 1990s, met the police commissioner of Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, late Monday and filed the complaint.
"The magazine's publisher telephoned me to apologize and also promised to meet me and discuss some settlement," Khushboo said.
"He has not kept his word. I will not accept any out-of-court settlement now and will file a defamation suit against Maxim."
The editor of the Indian edition of Maxim, Sunil Mehra, said he hoped Khushboo would not take the matter further.
"We are deeply apologetic for causing any inadvertent hurt and offence to Khushboo," Mehra told Reuters by telephone.
"We are in the business of respecting and celebrating rather than denigrating women. It's an unfortunate episode and I hope it will be resolved amicably."
Chennai police chief R. Nataraj said copies of the magazine would be seized.
"We will certainly proceed as per law," he said.
Maxim, a men's lifestyle magazine, was launched in India earlier this month.
A mother of two, Khushboo is recovering from a major controversy caused by her remarks that there was nothing wrong with pre-marital sex so long as the girl protected herself against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.
Although she apologized for the comments made last year, conservative social and political groups have physically attacked her, including hurling eggs, sandals and tomatoes whenever she stepped from her house.
And in a bid to breathe life into her Hindi film career, she once appeared on the cover of a film magazine kissing another actress -- one of India's first public shots of women kissing.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.