People Are Actually Defending Salman Khan After His Insensitive Comments On Rape

MUMBAI: Salman Khan is back in the news. This time, it’s not for the hit-and-run accident that had seen a huge surge of support (instead of the more obvious reaction of condemnation) for the actor, but for a comment he made whilst promoting his new film ‘Sultan.’

Describing what it was like to work on the film, Khan chose to use not just an unfortunate simile in an effort to demonstrate how hard he had to work for the role, but a downright sexist, insensitive and unconnected point of comparison. Speaking to the media, Khan said, “When I used to walk out of that ring [after the shoot], it used to feel like a raped woman walking out. I couldn’t walk straight.”

Khan then followed with a meek “I shouldn’t have said that” and then continuing to add “it felt like the most difficult… I couldn’t take steps.”

The media in attendance just laughed.

Laughed whilst Khan used the example of a woman subjected to the violence of rape to demonstrate how hard he worked on the film.

If this wasn’t bad enough, Khan -- he of the acquitted hit-and-run where layman and industry personalities all supported him -- is once again being defended for the indefensible.

Khan’s father, Salim Khan, whilst apologising for the comment still defended Salman by saying that his “intention” wasn’t wrong. Filmmaker Subhash Ghai chose an even more bizarre reason for defending the actor -- said he was like a “child” and didn’t mean it.

On Twitter, instead of condemnations pouring in, the hashtag #SalmanMisquoted is trending with tweets actually making all sorts of excuses for the actor’s blatantly insensitive and tragic comments.






There is, fortunately, a significant amount of criticism of the remarks.

Khan has been given a week to apologise, failing which the National Commission for Women (NCW) said he would be issued with a summons.

The hashtag #InsensitiveSalman provided a counter to the #SalmanMisquoted hashtag.