By Shekhar Bhatia for MailOnline

A British female filmmaker today said social media had made it easier for actresses to report sex assaults by rich, powerful Hollywood movie moguls like Harvey Weinstein.

She said the Oscar winner was able to abuse his powerful position for decades as women stayed quiet because they were scared of being called 'troublemakers'.

Now the safety net for women has become stronger since social media became a tool for exposing inappropriate behaviour.

But she said she had walked out of meetings when she has been patted on the bottom or propositioned to have sex in return for work.

Speaking to MailOnline, the Muslim filmmaker in her 40s, said: 'It would start with a smack on the bottom or a hand sliding down your back which would make you feel very uncomfortable.

'Then it would turn into 'why don't you go to bed with me because I can help you' and it would make me walk out.

'It was worse in the Eighties and Nineties and being an Asian woman in the media was quite lonely as we were not that prominent and white men saw you as a bit of 'exotic'.

'A well-known radio station executive would pester me saying he was going to help me make videos and he made it clear what the deal was.

'It didn't bode well with me and I got tired of it, but I didn't give up even when one man offered to get me an equity card when I was starting out if I slept with him.

'On one occasion I was in a restaurant having a meeting and this guy got so personal and way past flirtatious, that I walked out.

'I told him I was sorry that I couldn't take it anymore and that I was not for sale. But a lot of men thought they could get away with it.

'It was difficult because I knew I would be messing up my own reputation by talking to others in the industry because they might think I was just backstabbing people and that it could work against you.'

She said she never complained but stayed silent 'because I did not want to be labelled as a trouble-maker.'

'In the middle of all these bad experiences, I was trying to work professionally as I suppose these women in Hollywood were trying to do too, but they found Weinstein too over powering.'

She added: 'We kept quiet about stuff until around 1998 when we had the internet and things started shifting with people being able to share their experiences more openly.

'I think internet has changed things for a lot of people because they can go onto social media and they get this support system, whereas before who could they talk to?

'Harvey Weinstein has got money and power and he thought he could get away with it and his peers would protect hik at every level.

'It's very much a male thing and they mostly think the woman is making as fuss for nothing.

'I think Weinstein has become a sex addict and the money brought him the hotel suites and the fame.

'He thought he had power over women and he thought by getting anybody up there that he fancied, he could get what he wanted and he was playing like he was some sort of demi god.

'He also believed he could elect whether a woman could be successful in film and he would decide.

'He has actually been quite proactive in preventing people in succeeding when they have propelled his advances away.

'I don't actually blame just him because he is a personification of the shadow society and the whole human psyche which is in all of us. What you see in one person is an aspect of what is in all of us.

'It is a question of being able to moderate yourself at every step. Weinstein coudn't do that because at certain points he could treat people like he wanted for his own personal gratification because he had the money and the power.'

She said she was baffled as to why 'so many A-listers had decided to talk about Weinstein's behaviour now.'

'Where were they before: But I suppose some good will come out of it as the molesting of women and how much unhappiness it causes is now top of the agenda.

It's all about being strong enough to know one's own worth as an aspirant or achiever, and to speak up when being faced with situations of abuse.

'It's not always easy, but these days it's easier than before - and we must continue to hold ourselves in high esteem. Then these things will start to lessen and we will not feel that others can dictate terms that are unacceptable in our search for career fulfilment.'

Her next project is set to be a film about an Indian priest who sexually abused several women but who was protected by the establishment.