Actress Rima Kallingal, who recently attended an open forum at the Regional International Film Festival of Kerala (RIFFK), in Ernakulam, faced severe cyber attacks for wearing a short skirt. The cyberattacks began soon after the visuals of the actress speaking in the open forum appeared on YouTube channels. In the video, the actress is seen wearing a casual white shirt and knee length denim skirt. Most of the comments under her videos were abusive and some even questioned the actress' personal freedom.

While someone asked if she saw the clothes she was wearing when she came to talk about sexual violence in films, some started moral policing by teaching her how to dress "decently". Going by the comments, it looks like Malayalis are yet to come to terms with the fact that 'women have legs'. For the unversed, it was less than two years ago, many Mollywood celebs and Kerala girls created a wave on Instagram by posting photos of themselves flaunting their legs with the caption #WomenHave Legs. The wave was started after several netizens cyber attacked teenage actress Anaswara Rajan for showing off her legs in a photo shoot. Though two years have passed by, still nothing seems to have changed the mindset of people!

Rima Kallingal has always been at the forefront in the fight for the rights of women in the industry for the past several years. Also one of the founding members of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) formed in the aftermath of the sexual assault on her friend and fellow actor in 2017, the actress was talking at the open forum about sexual harassment at workplace. In the discussion, the actress said that it is unbelievable that there has never been a place in a state like Kerala for so long for the people working in the film industry to talk about their bad experience in the film industry. Check out the videos below to listen to her speech -