With whatever is happening around the world, and I say whatever because literally anything is happening now, from a deadly virus killing lakhs of people to cyclones hitting us in full steam and earthquakes becoming a frequently recurring phenomenon, it pretty much seems like we rubbed 2020 the wrong way, or perhaps are in a very strange episode from man vs. wild. And maybe that is why, it is now more than ever that people seek positivity and compassion to get through these troubled times, and definitely not skepticism and negativity that brings them down. Something that former child actress Zaira Wasim was recently schooled on.
Zaira has acted in movies like The Sky Is Pink and Secret Superstar, and she was just about settling on the path of fame in Bollywood when she abruptly decided to step down from all of it. Last year, she took the internet by storm after she shared in a heartfelt and long message how acting has deviated her from her path and that due to religious differences, she is quitting the industry. And while many people didn’t understand her decision, they respected it.
However, this time around seems like she may have overstepped with the netizens, for she in a tweet that is now deleted, ended up justifying the locusts attacks happening across the country. She had written, “’So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood: Signs openly self-explained: but they were steeped in arrogance- a people given to sin’ – Qur’an 7:133.” No wonder, it didn’t sit right with people.
https://t.co/3ZsfR3nhUK pic.twitter.com/sz8hlpFLvZ
— Zaira Wasim (@ZairaWasimmm) June 1, 2020
Also Read : Priyanka Chopra Said Zaira Wasim’s Decision To Quit Bollywood Was A Personal Choice. Let’s Leave It At That
With excessive trolling and backlash from the people on the internet, Zaira decided to deactivate her accounts on social media for the time being. It was when Canadian journalist Tarek Fatah tweeted about it, saying “Indian Muslim actress @ZairaWasimmm mocks her own countrymen as being victims of Allah’s wrath. This is how she explains locust swarm,” that she justified herself and said her words were taken out of context.
She wrote, “While I too agree making claims like `this is wrath or a curse’ when the world is going through so much is a really insensitive one, I wish to also emphasise that making a claim on our own as big as It’s a wrath or curse of Allah upon any land* is a statement one is making on behalf of Allah, which is actually a religiously irresponsible one and a sin and also a claim I never made, let alone mock anyone.”
Her response continued, “My tweet was completely taken out of context and blown out of proportion and none of the opinions, whether good or bad, define the reality of my intentions, for that is between me and My Rabb, and something which I’m not even going to explain, for I’m only accountable to Allah and not His creation.” She then concluded by saying, “The world is going through a tough time and a lot of hatred and bigotry already, the least we could do is not add more to it.” And what also caught the most attention was her post script at the end of her tweet that read, “P.S I am not an actress anymore.”