Is it safe to stretch my sprained ankle?

I have has a stiff ankle after I sprained my ankle. It's been 3 weeks and it still hurt. It was a grade 2 sprain. I started stretching my ankles, like turn my foot clockwise and anticlockwise in a circular motion on the sprained ankle. And guess what, it feels much better!! but I told my dad about it and he said that it's bad to stretch ur injured lingament it makes it worse. Should I stop stretching it?