Yas Island,28 Sept

In a country as diverse as India, there has been huge progress in terms of women empowerment but in some instances there's more to be done, says veteran actor Shabana Azmi.

The actor, who has played characters of varying shades in her career spanning 50 years, addressed the issue of women safety both on and off screen at the IIFA Utsavam green carpet on Friday night.

"... Women in India have had their own journey across centuries. India is a country that has lived for several centuries simultaneously. So, we live back-to-back from the 18th, 19th century, 20th to 21st century and that leads to a lot of contradictions.

"When there's such diversity there will be contradictions in terms of how empowered women are. In some instances there's huge progress, in some instances we have much more to do. It is the way India is," Azmi told PTI here.

Her remarks come in the wake of the alleged rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata and the Justice Hema Committee report on women's exploitation in Malayalam cinema.-PTI