Farhan Akhtar on being MARD and more!

Farhan Akhtar is many things rolled into one - filmmaker, actor and singer. Now, he has added one more dimension with MARD, his new social initiative. MARD, which stands for Men Against Rape and Discrimination, is Farhan's bid to bring about an attitude change among men with respect to the rights of woman among other things.

The A-List met up with Farhan to talk about his MARD avatar - a role that he says he is committed to for a lifetime. 

Below is the edited transcript of the interview.

Q: To start things out, define MARD.

A: MARD is an acronym which stands for Men Against Rape and Discrimination. From what we see going on around us, we felt that many groups that are doing very good work, progressive work in getting women aware of their rights, fighting for equality, fighting for stopping of violence against women and many such things. They are doing tremendous work in it. We were thinking what is it that we can contribute as men. To me, seeing what people were doing, hearing a lot of comments that are passed in the wake of certain incidents that took place, we were very concerned about a kind of prevalent mindset exists within a certain section of men in this country.

We thought that maybe somewhere, it would be nice to redefine the concept of what it means to call yourself a man. Like it is written in the Charter as well, we are all born male but on it is important how we definition ourselves as men. When I think about it, there are many inputs that a boy gets between the ages of 14 to 19 which when he is coming into his own, when there is a pressure on him that, ‘now you are a man.’ His voice begins to break, his baby moustache is beginning to sprout and he looks around him. At that age, it is very difficult to go and talk to your uncle or your father or someone asking them how does someone talk to a girl. One just sees what’s going on around him. So, more often than not, most influences are aggressive influences because what they are seeing. It could be reflected in a certain kind of film or in advertising or you are seeing in your college. Those are the values the young boys inculcate and they feel that is what they need to be to be a man.

Somewhere, the focus is more on the aggressive side to call yourself a man. The focus is a lot less on the feminine within the man which is the more compassionate, gentle, slightly more catering to little more to the maternal side within you. If one can focus on that and tell men that of course the aggressive side is important because you need those qualities to be able to go and achieve things that you set your mind to. However, at the same time, they need passive qualities so, one must have to balance those out otherwise he end up becoming a character that’s slightly imbalanced. That is what we are seeing a manifestation of, because we cannot have that many people suffering from some kind of chemical imbalance in the brain due to which they are committing the crimes. They are obviously product of the environment.

Q: Post the Delhi incident, there has been a lot of introspection. A lot of people have introspected and have being thinking about self regulation and all of that.

A: I am saying men should also stand up and protect women. But I am not saying that women should look to men as their only form of protection. That would be completely wrong of me to say that. But if I tell a man that ‘you should protect a woman’ - there is nothing wrong in saying that. I am also telling him please protect another man if you see someone who is repressed or someone who is in need of help and he is a male, you don’t need to ignore him either.

The fact is that we need to just be sensitive to things around us. The minute we focus on all those values, it will change the way we think about ourselves. We will feel more confident about being considered not as adventurous as our friends. Who knows what the pressures are? We might be okay with that. If we are okay with that, we will be okay with people around us. So, essentially, that doesn’t really have anything to do with only your own treatment of women. I think it is how you define yourself as a man that reflects on everything that you do.

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