Shah Rukh Khan urges to fight sexism, discrimination against women

Actor is recently in Davos, where he received an award for his charitable work for victims of acid attacks

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan urged the economic elite to break down barriers of discrimination against women as they gathered for the Davos forum.

The 52-year-old star of Indian blockbuster movies such as Chennai Express and My Name is Khan appeared at a celebrity gala ahead of the official start on Tuesday of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

He received an award for his charitable work for victims of acid attacks.

"From them I have learned how courage can catalyse victimhood into heroism," he told the audience of international business leaders and officials.

Actor Cate Blanchett and actor Shah Rukh Khan pose for the media after receiving the Crystal Awards, with Hilde Schwab, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Khan brings heavy star power to the agenda, as one of the biggest celebrities in India, where high-profile cases of sexual violence have caused shockwaves in recent years.

"We, the powerful, need to get out of the way, to pick the barriers apart, the ones that give us names and races and colours and hierarchies," he said.



"That is what I have learned from my beautifully scarred women," he added, referring to the acid victims.

Australian actor Cate Blanchett also received an award for her work with refugees and British singer Sir Elton John for his campaigning on HIV/AIDS.

Actor Cate Blanchett and actor Shah Rukh Khan and singer Elton John pose for the media PHOTO: REUTERS

The Davos meeting brings some 3,000 delegates from business, politics and civil society, to discuss ways to "make the world a better place", in the words of the WEF.

Among the issues on the agenda this year are gender equality and harassment, after allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men in Hollywood spawned the #MeToo movement.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in the village of Davos, in the Swiss Alps, where some of the world’s top policy makers and executives have begun gathering for the annual meeting.



Blanchett, who has won two Oscars, was named a goodwill ambassador for United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in May 2016. As part of her role, the actor has traveled to Lebanon and Jordan to meet refugees displaced by the Syrian conflict.

She warned of the consequences if more was not done to help people forced to flee their homes.

“Lost generations of uneducated, disenfranchised and displaced children not only represent a vast loss of potential but also a threat for future global security and prosperity,” she said.

More than a million people have fled parts of Africa and the Middle East to Europe in the last few years.

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