From a girl of 12 to a woman in her 70s, a gathering of people came together at Manaveeyam Veedhi – a cultural corridor in Thiruvananthapuram – on December 10, to pledge their support for the actor who survived a brutal sexual assault in 2017.
More than eight years after the attack, the verdict in her case was delivered on December 8, convicting six of the accused men. But Dileep, the alleged mastermind of the attack and one of the most powerful actors in Malayalam cinema, was acquitted.
Back in 2017 too, the same group of women and many others had come together in Manaveeyam Veedhi, to say aloud that they stood with the actor who was abducted and brutally assaulted in Kochi on a February night that year.
The ‘Avalkoppam’ (With Her) campaign had then sprung up everywhere in Kerala, where women working in Malayalam cinema, activism, and all walks of life came out in public to express their solidarity with the survivor.
The campaign was rekindled on December 10, after the verdict, to once again let the survivor know she is not alone in her fight, which will continue.
“We stand together as one with the survivor. We will boycott the master of conspiracy. We will fight till justice is won. We are always and everyday with her,” recited the seniormost among the women, Radhamani, as the others around her repeated after her, holding posters of ‘Avalkoppam’.
Women activists in Thiruvananthapuram, who have always been at the forefront of raising issues and making interventions for the welfare of women, put out a small notice about gathering together to express their solidarity with the survivor. Mercy Alexander, Geetha Nazeer, Parvathi Devi, Suja Susan George, and other known activists put together the evening meeting, for which an unexpected number of people turned up.
Known personalities including the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Binoy Viswam, renowned film editor Bina Paul, writer CS Chandrika, filmmaker Vidhu Vincent, and actor Joby expressed their support for the survivor. The women lit a torch, symbolic of a protest against the verdict, and strongly spoke against the power wielded by Dileep, a man known for his clout in the industry.
“This is not the reaction of a few people, but the general sentiment across Kerala. There have always been in cinema, powerful male stars and issues faced by women. But after Dileep took control – with his production and distribution units – it has become a world of ‘quotations’ (slang used for hiring goons to do a crime). There is so much fear of this man. Amid all that fear, there was this one young woman who fought for justice. You have to marvel at her courage,” Geetha Nazeer told TNM.
Among those who spoke at the gathering was also a 12-year-old girl who said that as soon as the verdict came, her father turned to her and asked, ‘How would I raise you in such a society?’
“Not just my father, many parents will have the same fear - how will they raise their girls in such a society? How many more like Dileep will surface? People say that girls can walk freely now, but still many of us are locked inside [our houses] because parents are afraid there will be men like Dileep out there to harm their child.”
