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Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, former actor Zaira Wasim has questioned the Waqf Board\u2019s involvement in the August 15 celebrations in the territory, asking whether it was appropriate for a religious institution to lend its name to such events.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, Wasim, who quit the film industry in 2019 saying the profession \u201cthreatened\u201d her relationship with her religion, said she came across a clip from a school in Kashmir showing 15 August celebrations held for or by the Waqf Board. \u201cI have a question. Isn\u2019t waqf board a religious body entrusted with serving the Muslim community? and ideally doing so while upholding Islamic Values?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Wasim described it as \u201calmost comical\u201d that an organisation built around a religious and communal purpose was \u201csitting comfortably\u201d through an event she said a religious institution should at least question.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt lends its name to celebrations that reduce our children to stage props and performers,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy is the default way of involving children \u2014 and particularly girls \u2014 in public celebrations to make them dance to irrelevant songs? Why aren\u2019t our institutions giving them something to think about, create, learn, discuss, build or contribute?\u201d she further questioned. She said the issue was especially important \u201cin a place like Kashmir\u201d, which, she said, has had a remarkable legacy of people who understood education as a means to enlighten minds, cultivate character and equip people with knowledge and spirituality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the intellectual and cultural legacy of wonderful scholars of the past,\u201d she asked. Wasim said that if an institution\u2019s very existence is tied to a religious purpose, it is tasked with the deeper work of strengthening communities spiritually, morally and intellectually. \u201cAnd to be clear: the point is not the children. Children are often simply made to participate in whatever schools and institutions put before them,\u201d she said. \u201cPerhaps that is the real tragedy here. The question is what an institution chooses to facilitate, endorse and place under its own banner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaira Wasim made her Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal in 2016, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, former actor Zaira Wasim has questioned the Waqf Board\u2019s involvement in the August 15 celebrations in the territory, asking whether it was appropriate for a religious institution to lend its name to such events. According to Kashmir Media Service, Wasim, who quit the film industry in 2019 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-occupied-jammu-and-kashmir"],"yoast_head":"\n