PinkVilla published a video interview of veteran actress Ratna Pathak Shah. During the interview, while talking about society and how difficult it is for women in India, she made a bizarre statement and targeted the Hindu festival Karwa Chauth. Shah pointed out that India is moving towards becoming a conservative society and might become like Saudi Arabia. The reason she gave was someone had asked her last year if she observed Karwa Chauth fast or not. To the question, Shah had replied, “Am I mad?” Ratna Pathak Shah is wife of actor Naseeruddin Shah.
She said, “Nothing has changed for women, or very little has changed in very crucial areas. Our society is becoming extremely conservative. We’re becoming superstitious, we’re being forced into accepting and making religion a very important part of one’s life. Someone asked me for the first time last year if I’m keeping ‘karwa Chauth ka vrat (observing karwa Chauth)’. I said, ‘Am I mad?'”
She further added, “Isn’t it appalling that modern educated women do karwa Chauth, praying for the lives of husbands so that they can have some validity in life? A widow in the Indian context is a horrible situation, isn’t it? So anything that keeps me away from widowhood. Really? In the 21st century, we are talking like this? Educated women are doing this.”
Shah said that when a country becomes more conservative, it clamps down its women first. She said, “Look at all the conservative societies in this world. Women are the ones who are most affected. What’s the scope of women in Saudi Arabia? Do we want to become like Saudi Arabia? And we will become because it’s very, very convenient. Women provide a lot of unpaid labour within the home. If you have to pay for that labour, who will do it? Women are forced into that situation.
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