Former ‘Bigg Boss 6’ contestant Sapna Bhavnani says she was gangraped at the age of 24

“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 asking me to perform oral sex, eventually leading to 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,” she says. (Read her Facebook post here)

She also talked being the focus of people’s judgemental opinions around her during her growing up years, just because she smoked cigarettes and experimented with her clothing. “When I was 14, I used to talk to boys; drive motor cycles, smoke cigarettes and people in Bandra would often call me a whore because of those things. I never understood the term back then, but sure if doing all those things made me a whore – I’d take it gladly.”

Sapna Bhavnani then took her shattering experience onstage when she became part of Yael Farber’s ‘Nirbhaya’, a play that explores the depth of sexual violence against women, inter-weaving personal testimonies and bearing witness to the incredible strength of the human spirit.

‘Nirbhaya’ which also stars actress Poorna Jagannathan, premiered at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world, in August 2013. It won the coveted Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award given to an outstanding Fringe production, which raises awareness of human rights. It also won the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Award for Outstanding New Play.

She signed off this incredibly courageous post saying, “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.”

(Disclaimer: Some quotes have been edited for language )