Mumbai, Dec 17 (IANS): Actress Jessica Chastain thinks people prefer to talk to her about the war in the Ukraine instead of women's rights in Iran as the war-ravaged country contains "mostly white people."

Insisting she is "fiercely protective" of the fight for female rights, the 45-year-old actress told Marie Claire magazine she knows her comments may be controversial, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I'm going to say something controversial right now, and I've had a margarita, so no one's stopping me," said Chastain, who travelled to Ukraine this year where she met its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and who wore a T-shirt with "Mahsa Amini" written on it during a recent press tour in memory of the late Iranian woman also known as Jina Amini.

"I've done a lot of press recently, and a lot of people want to talk about Ukraine. But when I bring up Iran, no one wants to talk about that. I think because it's a women-led revolution, and I think because Ukraine is mostly white people."

"I'm fiercely protective of women. To me it is my great fight. I use my job to try to celebrate women, but also celebrate women as human beings. Which means, yes, I can play characters that are flawed and do terrible things sometimes. It's like my job is to constantly remind society that women are human beings."

Protests have been raging in Iran since the mysterious September 16 hospital death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after being held by the country's morality police due to an alleged improper hijab.

Chastain has tweeted in support of demonstrators for women's rights in the nation in the wake of the tragedy, "I stand with the women of Iran and will amplify their voices from afar. When one woman is attacked, it is an attack on us all."