Shabana Azmi
In a patriarchal society like ours, women have to fight hard for a seat at the table. Boys are privileged over girls from birth. Equal opportunity and access for both girls and boys must become the norm.Collection: Women
We never had money but it was never a problem. The spirit of comradeship, the commitment to gender equality, social justice and a celebration of pluralism and India's composite culture provided the glue that kept us joyous and closely bonded.Collection: Equality
It is accepted the world over that women are an essential part of what makes a society successful, and only through supporting and empowering women can a country truly be strong.Collection: Society
I'm not a great stickler for giving or receiving presents on birthdays, anniversaries, etc. as a 'must do.' I prefer giving a gift without occasion if I feel it's something a friend will like.Collection: Anniversary
Women's health is not a niche issue - it impacts everyone in some way. That is why a collective effort to improve awareness and understanding of menstrual hygiene is key to closing the gender health gap.Collection: Women
Valentine's day has been reduced to a marketing gimmick. Buying diamonds for your beloved has no appeal for me.Collection: Valentines
I'm singularly lucky to have worked with directors who dared me to take risks and be different and I am thankful to the Indian film industry for giving me my primary identity.Collection: Thankful
A woman director is not obliged to make a feminist film. She can make what she wants, a thriller, an action film, a comedy, or whatever, but hopefully, she will be informed by a gaze that is female.
It seems kosher and OK to treat women as objects because the business of cinema is about images and when you have fragmented images of a woman's bosom and her swiveling hip and her twisting navel, it robs the woman of all autonomy and subjects her to the male gaze.
'Aurat' is an iconic poem which is relevant 70 years later and informs me in the work I do with women.
India is a country that lives in several centuries simultaneously, and her people at any given time and place encapsulate all the contradictions that come from being a multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual society.
At the age of seven, I wanted a doll with blonde hair and blue eyes like other girls in my class. But my father gave me a black doll and said 'black is beautiful.' Telling this to a seven-year-old was quite peculiar, but these were the values we inherited from him.
What I value is that I have been able to do some modest work to help women rise to the level of their potential.
Immunization protects India's children and, I stress, saves them from vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths. Vaccines are not meant to harm our children.
In 1986, I had gone on a hunger strike with Anand Patwardhan rooting for an alternative land for slum dwellers. My mother got very nervous and told my father to tell me that, 'what am I doing?' He sent me a telegram that read: 'Best of luck, comrade!'
Until the age of 19, I lived in the Communist Party commune where eight families lived in 180 to 200 square feet of space. In that world, social justice was a given. We grew up valuing that.
My parents always encouraged us to speak our minds and to be respectful while doing so about issues that we thought strongly about and that was unconditional.
My father was a rare poet. He was somebody who worked in the trenches. When he wanted to speak about social justice or gender empowerment, he spoke through his poetry.
I am an optimist and my father was an optimist.
I take care to conduct myself formally in public and not be brash. That is a given for people in public life. But I'm very bohemian and informal when I'm with friends.
For a long time I didn't believe that I couldn't become a mother. But when I finally came to terms with it, then I didn't look back.
I grew up in a family that believed that art should be used as an instrument for social change.
Over the years, I've consciously not done films that in any way suggest that women are subservient to men.
The position that Indian Muslims have is unique because we exist in a democracy, which is something that cannot be said about many Muslims living in the world.
Im hoping that for film actors there is this kind of emotional trigger on any subject. It need not be only slums. It can be anything. But even if it is tentative, sooner or later, it will - by its sheer force - engulf you in a way where you make a commitment and you get involved in it, beyond just making it an image-building exercise.
As children, my brother Baba and I would be taken to mushairas when my mother Shaukat Kaifi was touring with Prithvi Theatres, because we couldn't afford a maid.
In Kaifi's poetry and in his work as a social activist, every setback only strengthened his resolve to fight back with renewed vigor and strength.
I look back on my career with some sort of satisfaction.
When I entered the industry in the early 1970s, I was a gold medalist from the film institute, Pune. That was when graduates from the film institute were very quickly absorbed by the mainstream commercial industry.
I think men and women are different - I am not saying better or worse, just different.
I am extremely proud of the fact that I have acted in art films.
I have been called a terrorist, among other things. In fact, I am seen in India as being anti-Islamic by the Islamic fundamentalists.
Not belonging to any political party actually helps me because I value my independent voice above everything else, I treasure it.
Growing up, I was so sick of politics - it was in the house all the time - I was proud of not reading the newspaper.
I am quite proud of being in Parliament, I actually love it.
We never had any money. All the money we used to get, my father would give to the Communist Party.
Kangana has started believing in her own myth. She says she taught feminism to the film industry, she taught it nationalism. I'm glad she spelled that out because nobody else had noticed! I think she fears the day when she will no longer be in the headlines and so has to keep making outrageous statements to stay in the news.
Unfortunately, the Hindi film industry is a sitting duck; it is easy to hurl malevolent accusations. It is a systematic campaign to divert attention from real issues, failing economy, China border tensions, spiraling Covid cases, and farmers' agitation by putting the spotlight on the supposed ills of the film industry.
A tender touch, a shared experience, listening to music that both enjoy, with the scent of fresh mogras, is my idea of a beautiful celebration of love.
My being Muslim is only one part of my identity. But particularly in India and the world over, a concerted effort is being made to diminish all other aspects of identity and only take your religious identity as who you are.
For a country such as India, whose public healthcare system is already severely strained, the lack of awareness and adaptation of safe practices by menstruating women is known to add another dimension to the overall problem.
I must confess that flowers are my weakness and I love receiving them, especially Indian fragrant flowers - Mogra, Rajnigandha, Sontakka, etc.
I remember people were horrified when I celebrated my 50th! 'Don't announce your age,' I was advised! How stupid is that.
I've embraced life at all stages.
An Indian Muslim can aspire to become a Shah Rukh Khan, can aspire to become an Irfan Pathan or even the President of India. And that makes the Muslim here far more hopeful and far less in despair than in any other part of the world.
It's only in India that you can have six couples going together on a honeymoon. I don't think it happens anywhere else in the world.
My father used to celebrate all festivals like Eid, Diwali, Holi, Christmas, etc. with great gusto.
I think there is not enough understanding of the fact that in a democracy how you treat the security of the minority must be a very important part for the success of a democracy.
A fatwa is not a diktat, it's not binding. To turn the utterance of a non-entity into a fatwa and then talk about it endlessly really gets on my nerves.
One of the best things that we have in India is a free press.