The ace Indian shuttler said she felt ‘lucky and blessed’ that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career.
Ace Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa on Monday backed the country’s #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, saying it’s important to stand by the women who are sharing their experiences.
Since October 5, several women have used social media to make allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against several journalists, media professionals, actors, writers and others.
“In a nation like India, you need to be tough and careful as well,” Ashwini said. “It’s important to stand by them, listen to them and give them strength and courage. It’s not easy to speak up and voice your opinion.”
Ashwini said she was “lucky and blessed” that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career. “It’s quite unfortunate with all the things I have read and that’s happened,” she said. “But all I can say is that I am fortunate in that respect that I don’t have much to complain about or say. I am grateful for that.”
Ashwini was speaking to reporters in Kolkata while promoting the inaugural Badminton Express League. The all-amateur meet will have six teams with 14 players each, who will compete for top honours at the Ordnance Club from November 28 to December 2.
Ashwini and her current partner N Sikki Reddy caused a massive upset at the recent Denmark Open, ousting seventh seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of South Korea to make the quarter-finals. Their fine run came to an end against top seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the quarter-finals.
“It’s important to understand that when you play doubles, you win and lose together,” Ashwini said. “Sikki and I had a great quarters match and that has given me a lot of confidence that we are going in the right direction.”
She added, “In the quarters [of the Denmark Open] against the Japanese, we tried doing the same as we did against the Koreans. It did not work. We cannot have the same game style against everyone. We need to get better in a few tactical areas too. It’s important to have something special so that we work it towards the end.”
With the Olympics in two years time, Ashwini said she and Sikki are hopeful and working extremely hard to get better. “We are stretching the top players and it’s about time we start winning,” she said.
“Satwik [Rankireddy] and Chirag [Shetty] have had a great run. Sikki and I have had great matches, Satwik and I have had great matches. We are going to do everything we can to qualify and win a medal.”
With inputs from Scroll Staff
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Field> Badminton / Press Trust of India / October 30th, 2018
