System is handling rape cases badly: actor Irrfan

Actor Irrfan is unhappy with the reaction of the country's system to the escalating rape incidents. He feels this apathy will only lead to an increase in number of such cases.

Reacting to the rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai Thursday evening, Irrfan said, "I feel it (rape cases) will grow more and more. I was asked to react on the Nirbhaya incident also, and the way the system is reacting to such incidents, I feel it will only grow."

A woman photojournalist was raped by five men here in the abandoned Shakti Mills compound near Mahalaxmi railway station where she on an assignment along with a male colleague. Two accused have been nabbed so far.

"Mumbai is (considered to be a) comparatively safer city. It (Rape) will grow more because the system is handling it in a bad manner and it doesn't give you a good sign," he added.

Irrfan also believes that as long as people continue to objectify women, there can be no positive change.

"Censorship is there, but what kind of censorship? Women are always used as an object to sell something, like a product. That's the way we look at then, that's the way we react to them. Our north Indian culture is a male chauvinist society, we still think that women is something you extract pleasure from or get her to do all your household chores," he said.

Commenting on the psyche of Indian society regarding women, he said: "You cannot pinpoint one reason, it's a complex problem. Till the point women are looked upon as sympathetic creatures, you don't respect her, you don't see her as an integral part of your life, it will happen."