NEW DELHI: A number of grassroots women's activists in Delhi are calling for the India government to bar the selling of the upcoming issue that will have the first Indian woman on the cover. The groups, who have yet to go public with their demands, met in the upscale Jor Bagh neighborhood on Wednesday, with some 25 women attending. They are to voice their frustration at Sherlyn Chopra going full nude, leaving nothing to the imagination, in a recent shoot for American adult magazine Playboy. They told Bikyamasr.com that they will establish a Facebook group and urge the authorities to ensure Indians cannot view the naked images of Chopra. Chopra herself admitted she has not told her Muslim mother about the photoshoot, but told the BBC: “My sister is proud of my achievement. I haven't told anything to my mother but I think I will visit her and tell her that she has to accept me the way I am.” “People feel that I have brought shame to the country but some have encouraged me as well,” she said. Chopra said she had approached Playboy and claimed on Twitter that her late father, who was a doctor and a Christian, would have been “so proud.” But in India, where women are often sexualized and objectified, women say, the photo shoot will do more harm than good for the country. Local booksellers told Bikyamasr.com that the Chopra issues is likely to see massive sales. “We are looking to have twice as many, but that is if we can get them," he said. With Indian women's rights activists lamenting the sexualization of women in the country, they fear the backlash from Chopra's nude shoot with the American adult magazine. Although they grant Chopra the right to do what she wants with her body, show it off to whomever, including the world, they argue it could be a negative for the country, hit by a massive number of sexual violence toward women in recent months. Chopra released the photos in a series of tweets on her personal Twitter account on Thursday. The nude shoot has sparked anger among women's rights advocates in the country, saying that India has already “sexualized" women and the nude shoot will only “heighten the stereotypes." Sunita Gudnanti, a social worker who works with battered women in Delhi, told Bikyamasr.com that she is disappointed in Chopra's decision to do the photo shoot. “I have heard so many stories of women being beaten up by their spouses or boyfriends because they refused to do something the man read or saw online, so the idea that an Indian woman will go nude for the magazine is likely to sexualize the issue of women's rights and heighten the stereotypes that women are objects," she said. Chopra, who is currently in Los Angeles, announced she would be shooting for the adult magazine this week, and “has already gone through hair and make-up trial sessions." The Indian woman has reportedly also taken up shop in Playboy owner Hugh Hefner's mansion. When published, Chopra will be the first Indian to grace the cover of the magazine. She said the shoot will be “explicit," which Gudnanti argues will be a negative for Indian society. “We deal with sexual violence towards women on a daily basis here and one of the reasons for this explosion, we believe, is that the media has sexualized and made women objects," she argued. “Look at Times of India's website and others, it is full of articles about women and sex, their bodies and images of naked or little clothed women. It is very sad," she added. Speaking to Times of India from the US, Chopra said she felt “proud to be the first Indian to do it," and added, “The youth is racing towards liberalization, and that's why being unconventional in your choices is no longer a taboo."
