Actress Rani Mukherjee’s advice to her daughter is a must-read for every parent, who is scared to raise a daughter in today’s troubling and unsafe environment.
In a country with increasing rape crimes against women, it is more difficult than ever to raise a daughter. When the brutal sexual assaults on Nibhaya and Disha shook the country, many parents had sleepless nights. They found it more difficult than ever to raise a daughter in such an insecure environment.
While many of us are telling our daughters that we, as a parent, will always be there to protect them; we feel it is more important than ever to build confidence in them. Recently, Nirbhaya’s mother shared how as parents, we tend to weaken the spirit of our daughters by instilling fear in them rather than building strength and confidence in them. In one of her recent interviews, she mentioned:
“If we want to keep our daughters safe, it is our responsibility to keep them safe. My daughter had learnt self-defence and karate for 2-3 years. Had there been one or two persons, she would have tackled them. But may be her luck was bad. Whatever we faced in the last seven years, we don’t want other parents to go through it. We have to empower our daughters and never instil fear in them. It’s about sensitising our sons and teaching them how to respect women.”
After Nirbhaya’s mother, actress Rani Mukherjee has also shared how she is strengthening her 4-year-old daughter, Adira, and empowering her to believe in herself. Rani is known to do a lot of female-oriented films, where she plays strong, fierce independent characters. Recently, her new movie Mardani 2 was based on the brutal rape incidents that happened in Kota.
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During her one of her recent interactions, Rani was asked to comment on her personal fears bringing up a girl in such an unsafe environment. While Rani shared how the bigger problem can’t be curbed by her alone, she is taking ever step to empower Adira every single day by practicing the art of positive parenting.
While sharing how important it is for her to make Adira believe in herself and let her grow without feeling scared and ill-prepared, she mentioned how she is teaching her few wise words:
“You are the bravest, you are the strongest, you have more muscles than your papa, I am inculcating that in her brains from now only because I don’t want anybody in the world to tell her that she is not powerful or that she is not strong enough.”
We admire Rani for sharing such an easy trick for every parent to follow in today’s troubling times. Because if we don’t make our daughters strong then who will?
P.S.: At a young age kids are very impressionable, and it is important than ever to make our daughters believe in their power and our sons understand the meaning of respect and equality. At IFORHER, we admire every parent who is taking inspiring steps – small or big – in making this world a better place not only for women but also for our kids.