Mumbai (PTI): Celebrity hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani, known for her stint on “Bigg Boss 6”, has revealed in an emotional Facebook post that she was gangraped in Chicago when she was 24.
Sapna, now 44, said it took her two decades to break her silence on the fateful night that she has tried forgetting about every day.
“After my father’s death, I moved to Chicago where there were so many like me and it gave me the freedom to get inked, experiment with my hair and just be myself. One Christmas Eve in Chicago, I walked out of a bar alone late at night in a short dress and red lipstick.
“I was 24 and had been drinking, when from a dumpster a group of guys walked upto me and put a gun to my head… Eventually leading to a gang rape. I remember walking home, showering and pushing this incident to the back of my mind for years and never letting it break my spirit, I still wear short dresses and the brightest red on my lips,” Sapna said via “Humans of Bombay”, a website that lets people of Mumbai share their experiences and incidents.
The reality TV star said while it is important for women to open up about violence in any form but she also believes hiding one’s misery is not a sign of weakness.
“We live in a world where everyone stresses the importance of voicing yourself or walking out of tough situations, but I just want to say this— no one wants to be beaten up, get raped or sell their bodies.
“It took me 20 years to voice my incident, but for me a woman keeping it all within her because she has no other choice isn’t a sign of weakness- it’s a mark of strength and something we need to start respecting,” she said.
