Freedom to Risk

Sameera Khan is a Mumbai-based journalist who gives a victim blaming talk that emphasizes the importance of ensuring that women maintain their "freedom to risk."

The talk offers a different perspective on victim blaming that is a bit more unique to the culture in which she was raised. Victim blaming can be observed around the world and has both legal and social implications and consequences. Sameera Khan outlines that the reaction to the assault and harassment of women is to often question why the woman was where she was in the first place, and also comes in the form of their families restricting their ability to go out in the same way that men are able to. This is a common reaction that aims to protect women, but the consequence is that women's "freedom to risk is restricted", and their accessibility to live full lives and pursue careers, hobbies, and social lives with it.

Sameera Khan argues that it is society's job to protect women by blaming perpetrators rather than victims of assault, and not to respond to such terrible events by restricting the freedoms of the woman rather than those who harass and assault them.