Ushna Shah recently made an appearance on Maliha Rehman’s show and amongst other things, the conversation revolved around Feroze Khan, for whom the actress spoke up and called people out for bullying. Getting more into the details of why she felt the need to speak up against all the backlash the actor was getting for allegedly abusing his ex-wife, Ushna explained how she is against mob justice and tearing people down.
People’s mission is to tear people apart. When this controversy came out, it was very difficult. Because we were not speaking. And I was getting dragged into it. And I didn’t know why. Because when I wasn’t saying anything, I couldn’t process what had happened. There were articles being written about me ‘Why Is She Not Saying Anything?’ So then I said of course, my heart will always be with the woman, guilty or not guilty, we are being suppressed by the millennia,” she said.
“Even if it were in my family, if my sister in law says something, my first reaction would be to listen to her. That might be unfair for men. But it has been unfair for women for much longer than that,” she added.
When Maliha pushed for Ushna to explain how there were already grievances between the two way before the controversy broke out, the actress explained how tough the situation was for her.
“We had finished shooting for our drama for a while. I wasn’t in touch with him. I wasn’t even in the country when this controversy broke out. I’m a firm believer of not trying to kick people while they’re already down. Whatever did or didn’t go wrong there has nothing to do with what the people are talking about regarding his case,” she said.
“And I had grievances with him. He had his with me. We were in a very different area of what we saw as morality in our viewpoint of the world. His is very different. Mine’s very different. We were also friends once. There was also a level of kindness. I was also hurt. He may have been hurt also, I don’t know,” she added.
The rest of the conversation followed with Ushna reiterating the example of Dr. Aamir Liaquat and how she regretted not speaking up for him when he was being bullied. She quoted his death as the reason why she chose to speak up against the bullying faced by Feroze Khan.
“I just don’t believe in mob justice that can hurt someone. When I find out someone is that hurt, that’s when I speak up. And you’re not just hurting them, you’re hurting their mothers, you’re hurting their children who can read this, you’re hurting their sisters. You’re torturing the whole family,” she said.
“If you want to condemn an alleged action, condemn it. I’m not saying stay quiet. Once you’ve condemned it, channel that same energy in supporting the alleged victim, legally or morally,” she added.
Watch her full conversation below.
