Priyanka Chopra attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala on May 1, 2017, in New York.

:: Actress Priyanka Chopra says she is dismayed by the level of sexual violence against children in Zimbabwe. She says government officials there told her many young girls are “asking for it.”

Chopra spoke Saturday after visiting the southern African country as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

She says it was “an eye-opening experience” meeting girls who had been shunned by society and thrown out of their homes after being raped. She says girls are told it’s their fault.

Chopra says some girls were as young as 3 when they were raped by relatives.

Chopra, who turned heads with her sweeping Ralph Lauren trench coat at Monday’s Met Gala in New York, says she feels its her duty to use her celebrity status to fight for worthy causes, especially violence against children.