Break your silence: Actress reveals she was abused as child [video]

In a powerful video titled 'Breaking the Cycle of Violence,' actress Poorna Jagannathan not only revealed her painful past but also urged others to break the silence of sexual violence at a tender age.

Poorna, of 'Delhi Belly' and US TV series 'House of Cards' fame, has revealed she was sexually assaulted at the age of nine.

In the video the actress addresses the importance of speaking up about gender-based violence.

A video for World Bank's WEvolve campaign, she said that her first experience of sexual abuse was at the age of nine by a family friend.

The daughter of a diplomat, she also had to deal with an alcoholic father.

In the video she speaks about feeling helpless as it was someone close to the family who was harming her.

"There was a neighbour and family friend who got his hands on me. He obviously told me not to tell anyone. I have encountered so many incidents as a child and as a young adult. They were violent but I wouldn’t speak about it. There was a code that you wouldn’t talk about it."

She also speaks of her harrowing experience in Delhi buses and says, "... You enter into that cage and what happens inside is totally out of your control."

After the 2012 gangrape and brutalization of a 23-year-old medical student on a Delhi bus, Poorna produced and appeared in 'Nirbhaya,' a play by Yael Farber in which participants spoke up about experiencing sexual assault.

'Nirbhaya' won the 2013 Amnesty International Award.

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