Jewellery designer Farah campaigns against rapists

NEW DELHI - Jewellery designer Farah Khan Ali was so disturbed by news of a 12-year-old girl being raped by nine men for four years that she has initiated a campaign on the microblogging site Twitter to appeal to the government to make stricter laws against such offenders.

“I have initiated a signature campaign against rapists on Twitter. The larger it gets the more awareness it will create,” said Ali, who is here to attend the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW).

The designer, who is Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan’s sister-in-law, is here as the Twitter Face of WIFW, being held at NSIC grounds, Okhla Industrial Area March 24-28.

Dressed in a short, single-shoulder purple dress by designer Nandita Mahtani, Ali says she is agonised by the mere thought of young girl’s suffering. With her campaign, she wants to attract governments attention towards such issues.

I feel such people should be castrated and then hanged. There is a need to formulate laws that could provide justice to victims who lose their innocence at such a young age, she added.

Many Bollywood actors like Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi and Hrithik came forward on the forum to extend their support for the cause.

Through her page on the micro-blogging site, Ali, who has two children, has also urged parents to talk to their children and make them aware of such evils happening around them.