In the wake of #MeToo there’s a wave of women coming out with harassment stories and Ayesha Omar is one of them. She didn’t exactly accuse a certain someone of sexually harassing her but she admitted that she has been sexually harassed in the industry numerous times. Talking about the Meesha-Ali controversy she said,
“If a person has collected the strength to speak up about an injustice or something that has been bothering her or has been in her heart for a while, the way we, as a nation react, the way we slander, negate and we are so in utter denial of it is disturbing,”
The ‘Karachi Se Lahore’ starlet expressed her inability to share her own experiences due to a lack of strength to discuss it at this time.
“I hope, someday I have the strength and I am brave enough to talk about it but when people like Meesha or others who have the courage to speak up against harassment are accused of trying to pull publicity stunts.”
She continued,
“The initial reactions to Meesha’s statement were that she was doing it for money or publicity but what publicly is she to gain out of accusing somebody of harassing her. All publicity is not good publicity and she is only gaining negative publicity out of this. All she is getting is vulgar comments, angry comments, and accusations. I know she is a strong, bold and outspoken woman and she will not stand any injustice…she will speak up about it.”
She further exerted how important it is for everyone to have examples of strong women like Meesha who help others find their voice too,
“It has taken Meesha so long to speak about something that has been happening since years and she didn’t have the strength to talk about it, so think about all those women who go through sexual harassment on a daily basis and they don’t have the strength and courage to talk about it publicly or in their families.”
In response to a question about Ali Zafar’s response to the matter, Ayesha said the singer has the right to deny anything said against him if there is no proof of it.
“If someone says something about me tomorrow, I will also deny it, but it doesn’t mean that the honesty or intentions of a person talking about an experience they have undergone should be doubted.”
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