Photo Credit: Indiatimes

Actress Shabana Azmi is quite optimistic about the civil society movement in the country and said that India has a very robust democracy and people fight back whenever necessary.

"We have a very robust civil society, very robust democracy that fights back when necessary with all its strength. It thus creates space for women to negotiate for more space," Ms Azmi told the audience during a discussion in Kolkata.

The 66-year-old actress was also asked to comment on reports of moral policing, imposition of dress code on girls, arguments against triple talaq and romeo squads.

"India is a country where people are living in the same place but in absolute contradictions. And this encapsulates our multi-religious, multilingual and multi-cultural society. Similar is the position of women in this country. There are a lot of very empowered women. But again, there are cases of female foeticide also in India," she said.

However, the actress asserted that the whole situation was not "entirely depressing", and said: "When I look at the whole picture, I am an optimist. I feel the glass is half-filled and not half-empty."

Shabana Azmi will be seen next in Aparna Sen's Sonata, which also stars Lillete Dubey apart from the director herself.