Shahid Kapoor defends wife Mira Rajput's recent stay-at-home mom comment

Actor Shahid Kapoor says his wife Mira Rajput never meant to offend anyone with her recent views about being a stay-at-home mother to take care of their daughter, Misha. In an interview on International Women’s Day (March 8), Mira had spoken about why she doesn’t want to be a working mom, and how she does not want to play with her child for an hour, and then rush off to work. “Why did I have her then? She is not a puppy, you know. I want to be there for her as a mother,” she had said. Branding Mira insensitive, women wrote open letters to her about how her comments had hurt them.

Asked for his views, Shahid said at a recent event: “When Mira started the conversation, she said those were her personal comments. I don’t think she meant to comment at anybody or any category of women. I think she was talking from a very personal standpoint. I think Mira is speaking for a section of women who aren’t being represented. There are times when those women feel like they should not be celebrated..by that I mean the women who may not be doing a job outside, women who might choose to be at home, have a baby, take care of that baby and consider that something important enough to do. This is at a certain stage in their lives. At a different stage, they might choose to do something else. Like I took five months off when I was having Misha because I felt it was important for me to be with my wife and my child. So that’s a choice you make out of a certain sense of independence.”

Shahid added that public figures getting trolled for their views has become a trend now. “We are in a time where everybody is getting hurt about everything. We are also in a time when somebody important says something, a lot of people want to gain importance by saying something against them. We just live in those times. I personally find what Mira is saying is relevant. What she is saying is that women should have that choice. [You] want to go to work, men should respect that. Want to stay at home and be a housewife, men should learn to respect housewives as well. Home runs when all factors are balanced out,” said Shahid.