New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI): No country can be successful, and remains stunted, if its women do not express themselves, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said it is important to bring women back into the conversation and allow them to do what they want to do.

His remarks in an Instagram post came as an addition to his reply made during his Thursday's "Ask Me Anything" session.

Gandhi on Friday said, "I was thinking to myself that the energy of India's women is trapped, is not allowed to express itself, is not allowed to imagine.

"To me, no country can be successful if the women in that country are not expressing themselves. I think a lot of my politics and a lot of what politics should be in this country is in making people understand that our country is stunted, incomplete, without the expression of our women," Gandhi said in his video on Instagram.

The Congress leader asserted that it is not just about women doing well in business or in the political system, but about them being able to express themselves in their homes and walk the streets comfortably.

"That is them putting a point of view that many others don't agree with, that is them questioning their parents, their husbands, their brothers, sisters, whatever. So a certain amount of freedom from this patriarchy, from the rigid control that India's men impose on their women, is required if India has to really develop," the former Congress chief said.

"This is something I really believe strongly in. It is embedded in the political philosophy that I subscribe to. It has been assaulted, put in the back seat, pushed back, challenged.

"One of the things we absolutely have to do is to reinvigorate it, bring women back into the conversation where they should be and allow them to express themselves and do what they want to do," Gandhi said.

Gandhi, on Thursday, was asked about his message to the young women fighting for their right to study, to which he had responded: "India's women are our strength, our biggest asset." The Congress leader expressed his dissatisfaction with the way women are treated in the country, in its education system, and in its corporate system.

"Women deserve equal space in every sphere of life. In fact, I believe they deserve more than equal space in every sphere of life," he said. PTI ASK VN VN

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