Rizwana Hasan said that in response to the host’s question, she had said, “The way women in the society protested against those making derogatory comments, gave legal notices and the government also put forth its point, they ultimately apologised. We (women in the society) should work to ensure that the extremist forces making such derogatory remarks do not become mainstream. I said that women in the society – not in the government – have stopped those forces from becoming mainstream.”
Clarifying her statement, Rizwana Hasan said that at one point during the conversation the host raised the issue of elections. At that time he had said that he would work on those initiatives of the opposition which are related to women empowerment. After this she returned to the original question and spoke again about extremism.
He claimed that during the entire discussion he did not mention the name of any political party as it was not relevant to the question. Saying that the opposition is definitely part of the mainstream, Rizwana Hasan said, “The claim that I said I did not allow any party to come into the mainstream is just a misinterpretation, irrelevant and misleading. My comment was about extremist forces; I did not make any statement about any political party.”