In the latest episode of Lock Upp, Munawar Faruqui’s secret of being sexually abused when he was just 6 or 7 led host Kangana Ranaut to also open up about being inappropriately touched as a child by a boy in her town.
In the show, Munawar decides to save Saisha Shinde by revealing his secret. He tells Kangana, “I was 6 to 7 years old when I was sexually assaulted. They were relatives. It continued for 4 to 5 years. It was close family and I didn’t understand it then. Fourth year when it went extreme, they realised they should stop.” He added, “I have never shared this with everyone as I have to face them. I didn’t find any use of telling it to anyone. I think my dad knew about it. He said something once that made me feel like he knows it but I don’t remember clearly. Now I think dad didn’t say anything as he might have felt the same…like how do you tell anyone about it.”
Kangana told him, “Munawar, so many kids every year go through this kind of harassment but no one discusses this on a public platform. Everyone’s touched inappropriately in childhood. This has been experienced by many including me. In my town when I was quite small, a boy, who was a few years older than me, used to inappropriately touch me. But I didn’t know back then what it meant. Every child has to go through this no matter how protective their family is.”
She added, “But another important thing you said is that before sharing it, everyone feels they are responsible for the incident. This education can’t be given to kids as they are too young. You can’t sexualise them or tell them the difference between a good touch and a bad touch. It’s such a big crisis in the society. And kids suffer so much due to this. They get traumatised and scarred for life. They face so many issues later in life. So this is a platform we are using to bring awareness about child abuse and sexual abuse. Munawar and I both have faced it.”
Kangana didn’t stop there. She shared another incident that she experienced as a child. She said, “Humare mohalle mein choti hi umar ka hi ek ladka tha but humse teen chaar saal bada tha. Obviously he was exploring his sexuality. Hum bache bahot chote chote the. Hum logon ko bulate the. Humare kapde utarte the. Humko check karte the. Hum paanch cheh saal ke the. Humein uss time pe samajh nahi aata tha ki humare saath kya ho raha hai. But yeh mujhe lagta hai kaafi badi parecentage bachon ki hai who go through this and there’s a huge stigma behind this specially for men. And it is very brave of you, Munawar.”
Munawar tells Kangana the whole incident doesn’t go off his mind. Kangana tells him she understands as ‘they are your family members, the are around and you have to face it. It’s ironic that people who love you do such things. It creates emotions that you are not able to identify. It affects our choices in life. The best is to talk about it and get it off your chest. And I am happy that you shared it on this platform.’