An 18-year-old Bollywood star Zaira Wasim ended her film career, saying that the profession "threatened" her relationship with her religion.
"5 years ago I made a decision that changed my life forever. As I stepped my foot in Bollywood, it opened doors of massive popularity for me. I started to become the prime candidate of public attention, I was projected as the gospel of the idea of success and was often identified as a role model for the youth. However, that’s never something that I set out to do or become, especially with regards to my ideas of success and failure. For a very long time now it has felt like I have struggled to become someone else. As I had just started to explore and make sense of the things to which I dedicated my time, efforts and emotions and tried to grab hold of a new lifestyle, it was only for me to realise that though I may fit here perfectly, I do not belong here. This field indeed brought a lot of love, support, and applause my way, but what it also did was to lead me to a path of ignorance, as I silently and unconsciously transitioned out of imaan. While I continued to work in an environment that consistently interfered with my imaan, my relationship with my religion was threatened", Zaira wrote in a lengthy Facebook post.
Kashmir-born Zaira Wasim is from a Muslim family. Her father is an Executive manager in Srinagar and her mother is a teacher. She made her debut in 2016 in Bollywood.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"