The BBC has moved up the date to air “India’s Daughter,” a documentary that details the brutal gang-rape and murder of a New Delhi woman in 2012, after the Indian government banned local screenings.

The documentary was scheduled to air on Sunday, International Women’s Day, in India and other countries around the world.

The BBC moved the premiere forward to Wednesday at 10 p.m. U.K. time, a day after India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry ordered the country’s television channels not to air the film.

CBC will show the film in Canada on Sunday at 10 p.m.

In the documentary, one of the men sentenced to death for raping and killing the 23-year-old woman is quoted as saying that “a girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

“A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. . . . Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes,” said Mukesh Singh, who was interviewed from prison in 2013.

The violent murder sparked national outrage, and millions poured into the streets across India to protest what happened.

British director Leslee Udwin said she was “deeply saddened” by the decision to ban the film in India.

“India should be embracing this film — not blocking it with a knee jerk hysteria without even seeing it,” Udwin wrote.

Earlier this week, M.L. Sharma, a defense lawyer in the case, defended the statements he made in the documentary.

“If you keep sweets in the street then dogs will come and eat them. Why did Nirbhaya’s parents send her with anyone that late in the night? He was not her boyfriend. Is it not the parents’ responsibility to keep an eye on where she goes and with whom?” he told The Times of India.

The Indian parliament held a heated debate Wednesday on whether the film should be screened in the country.

Some legislators questioned how Udwin had gotten into the prison to do the interview with Singh. Others were uncomfortable with having India’s problems aired publicly — particularly by a foreign filmmaker.

But several lawmakers, many of them women, disagreed.

“What the man spoke reflects views of many men in India,” Anu Aga, a prominent businesswoman and legislator said.

“Every time a rape happens, the victim is blamed to have provoked the men. Let’s be aware of the view and not pretend all is well,” she said.

The decision to ban the film has caused a stir on social media, with people airing opposing views with the hashtags #IndiasDaughter, #NirbhayaInsulted and #DontRapeAgain.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Such audacity? You’re promoting rapes by putting up such documentaries,” Riya Ashok, a woman from Mumbai, tweeted.

“Does rape happen only in India? It’s an attempt to malign India on a global platform,” posted another.

Others expressed anger at the decision to ban the film, including actress Freida Pinto, who weighed in on Twitter.

“How can we change mindsets if we don’t know what we are up against?” she tweeted. “Facts are a reality we need to face head on and tackle.”

“It’s highly unfortunate,” said Ravinder Singh, an author based in New Delhi, about the ban.

“We are so fragile in our image that we are more worried about how this documentary is going to position our nation on this planet, versus the actual rape. The damage has been done,” Singh told the Star.

An Indian woman commenting on the issue online, who asked to remain anonymous, said people shouldn’t judge the film before seeing it.

She said she hoped it could be used to start a discussion on the status of women’s rights in India.

“The common man in India has the right to know about the mentalities of rapists so (he) can understand this current epidemic of rape better, and work on solving this problem at its root cause,” she told the Star.

“The public should have full rights to educate themselves.”

— With files from The Associated Press.

Read more about: