By Mashal Riaz
Twitter has always served to be a great medium for people to step up and speak about their wounds. Recently, a lot of women have opened up on Twitter about being sexually harassed using the hashtag #MeToo.
This time, Meesha Shafi, our beloved rock-star and model, claimed to have been sexually harassed by famous musician Ali Zafar.
According to her, the incidents of harassment didn’t happen when she was naive and new to the industry, but when she had already established herself as a singer, actor and mother.
“Today, I speak up because my conscience does not allow me to be silent anymore,” Meesha tweeted. “If this can happen to someone like me, an established artist, then it can happen to any young woman hoping to break into the industry and that concerns me gravely.”
Sharing this because I believe that by speaking out about my own experience of sexual harassment, I will break the culture of silence that permeates through our society. It is not easy to speak out.. but it is harder to stay silent. My conscience will not allow it anymore #MeToo pic.twitter.com/iwex7e1NLZ
— Meesha Shafi (@itsmeeshashafi) April 19, 2018
Meesha claims to break the culture of silence through her statement.
She continued, “I have been subjected, on more than one occasion, to sexual harassment of a physical nature at the hands of a colleague from my industry: Ali Zafar. These incidences did not happen when I was young, or just entering the industry. This happened to me despite the fact that I am an empowered, accomplished woman who is known for speaking her mind! This happened to me as a mother of two children.
Her full statement is as follows:
Sharing this because I believe that by speaking out about my own experience of sexual harassment, I will break the culture of silence that permeates through our society. It is not easy to speak out.. but it is harder to stay silent. My conscience will not allow it anymore #MeToo pic.twitter.com/iwex7e1NLZ
— Meesha Shafi (@itsmeeshashafi) April 19, 2018
Like any other accusation of assault, her statement is also receiving all kinds of reactions yet there are a lot of people supporting and appreciating Meesha for mustering up the courage and speaking up about this.
Silence is definitely not an option anymore!
Silence is not an option anymore. Harassment remains the most repetitive behaviour yet the least addressed in our society.
Speaking up, supporting survivors (including women, men or other gender minorities) is at the core of the solution. #TimesUp #MeToo https://t.co/9LiNIaGNng
— Snober Abbasi (@snobers) April 19, 2018
Some users are digging through Ali Zafar’s Twitter account to look for any red flags.
Ohhh the agony of the screenshot pic.twitter.com/Y3HwKMtbxN
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) April 19, 2018
Here’s an answer for those asking for proof.
PHYSICAL HARASSMENT KA PROOF KAHAN SE AAYEGA BHAI CAMERAY THORI LAGAY HEIN HAR JIGAH KUCH SOCH SAMAJH KE DISREGARD KIYA KARO MATLAB KUCH BHI BOL DETE HO
— Faizan 🏳️🌈 (@merabichrayaar) April 19, 2018
Ali has not said anything about the whole fiasco as of yet so let’s wait for his take on this.
