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Veena Malik: ‘I wasn’t missing, just resting’
Controversial star Veena Malik speaks her mind.
Veena Malik who was MIA for two days, says she had checked in to a hotel in Mumbai. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
Currently, Veena Malik is one of the most talked about people in Pakistan. The star was ‘missing’ for two days but returned on Sunday morning, stating that she had been “resting”.
Rumours that Malik staged her own disappearance for publicity were afloat in Pakistan, while the Indian media was reporting that the actor had fled the country in a burkha after over-staying her visa. But Malik is very much in India and says that she checked into a hotel in Mumbai “to crash”. “I had free time at my disposal and since I had been working for the past 48 hours, I checked in a hotel and went to sleep.”
“When I woke up, I saw that there were numerous calls and text messages on my cell phone,” she adds.
PR Manager Sohail Rashid earlier claimed that the last text he received from her was on December 16 at 4:24 am. To which Malik answers, “I don’t tell people around me what I am going to do in my down time. However, I think I called my mother after checking in the hotel and told her that I was very tired.”
While talking about her visa extension issue, which has gained immense media publicity over the last few days, the star says, “This visa issue hype that has been created is wrong. If I am in a neighbouring country, I am there legally. I believe I am old enough to take care of myself and before assuming that I was kidnapped or murdered, the media should have thought about that.”
Meanwhile, Veena had reportedly received death threats because of her controversial shoot in FHM India magazine but the actor states, “Firstly, I am not receiving any death threats. I am safe and my family is safe. As far as the shoot is concerned; don’t American girls wear bikinis and have CIA painted on their bodies? This is exactly what happened here. It was Kabeer Sharma’s idea and we did it for fun. People should not take this seriously.”
According to the star, “The controversy was fuelled by western media which misreported my daring act as, ‘Muslim girl posed nude’. I did not pose nude, I did a bold shoot. I am living on my own terms, I have the courage to do whatever I feel like doing and people should either support it or remain quiet. BBC reported that I said ‘Pakistan is a stone-age country’, which is a misinterpretation of my words again. What I actually meant was, ‘the entire world is still stuck in stone-age and not just Pakistan.’ I meant that modernisation has to do with your mindset and not just technological advancements.”
The actor continues to say that the pictures of her in the magazine were morphed, and when asked if she will go to the court, Veena is adamant, “Yes, I won’t back out now. I got played.”
The highly publicised star believes that her fans in Pakistan will accept her once the controversy settles down. “Many corrupt politicians have been allowed to live in my country, then why can’t I?”
Malik states, “Our entertainment industry should ask the world, ‘Why can’t a Pakistani woman dress up the way she wants to?’ There are so many Indian Muslim models who wear bikinis but Pakistani girls can’t — this is because Pakistani girls have never asserted their right. I am the one who took up this initiative.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2011.
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Reader Comments (31)
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She isnt worth all this news coverage.
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Good or Bad, atleast she is daring enough to do wotever is on her mind!
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Well I’m glad your alright and I do support you and your right of freedom. See this is what I was defending on all the other forums about how people were misinterpreting everything Veena said and did.
But Miss Malik, as far as your statement
“Our entertainment industry should ask the world, ‘Why can’t a Pakistani woman dress up the way she wants to?’ There are so many Indian Muslim models who wear bikinis but Pakistani girls can’t — this is because Pakistani girls have never asserted their right. I am the one who took up this initiative.”
I don’t think it is right to take an initiative is to act Vulgar, especially if you are a Muslim. Regardless of how the world portrays us dominant Males, there are still some of us who have fought and will give always all the rights a Woman deserves, but there are limits. If a woman says she wants to study and her family won’t let her, we will fight for her right, but if she says she wants to walk around Karachi beach in a Bikini, then obviously we won’t support her. Islam places the Women in high regard. Not only Islam but all of the major religions Christianity, and Judaism. So don’t do something that Americans or “INDIAN Muslim” girls do and make it look right. Straighten your own Grave.
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Miss Veena please enjoy your own freedom do not talk about freedom of other girls
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She makes headline news even when she’s asleep – now that’s special.
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This is not a part if entertainment … Ist jst type of to make cash by jst parts of body !!! I think she dont hav tialent and skils to do a job with efecient way !!! So now she is just putoff her clotes and said look at me an pay me .. Sounds like shameless.. Evry country uav ther own culture but by looking western people she jst impread and ready to put off all cloths .. I think the pease of cloths that was remaing she must putoff thm as well … May be somone can more thn that amount .. Bcz after few years her body will be useless … She have jst only this time to cah every body part !!!l
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veena malik is ahed of her time thats the one problem otherwise she is charming, daring, beautiful and honest … i love her and may god bless her.
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I am glad she, the asset of Pakistan, and her assets, declared and undeclared, are safe.
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enough is enough now.someone must teach that lady who always creates problems not only for herself ,but also for PAKISTAN.she is wrongly painting the image of pakistan and the eastern culture.in pakistan girls always take part in every walk of life while observing some limits.
brieflyRecommend
Would you please stop selling us a celebrity that’s hardly a celebrity?
I know a dozen moderate girls more fashionable, better looking and stable-minded.
What is wrong with Pakistanis? An imbalanced enemy-of-the-world is being sold as a celebrity? If we are to imitate West, please choose someone who does it better. Please don’t try to create unworthy role models. She’s turning out to be as hard core as Taliban, only on the opposite side.
What a nation of wannabes.Recommend
Talk about justifying yourself!!!
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please let ms malik live the way she wants ……every day muslims are murdered/blown up by muslims in muslim majority countries except in india (150 million population)….stop the murders if you care……than to criticise someone who is exercising her choice of life !Recommend
It’s her life and she is responsible for how she decides to spend it but I’m really curious if she has any plans to return to Pakistan soon? My gut feeling is she has none, so lets stop crying our throats hoarse for someone who doesn’t care and when we have no power to stop her from doing what she wants.
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veena malik…………………. i think u should atleast respect the fact u are a muslim and thank god that u have been blessed with this. being an entertainer does not give you the right to walk around naked and especially in ISLAM it does not allow a woman to even show one hair of her head, ok i understand we cant be perfect but we should atleast be afraid of our ALLAH one day we do need to show our faces to them and just think when ur face will be the most ugliest form the rest what will you say in your defence please try to understand your religion b4 u say some thing like that again there is still time for forgivness from your creator…………….may ALLAH guide you to the right path AMEEN……(no offence)
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Stop giving publicityRecommend
She was resting and her fans were having a “Heart Break”
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@Ali: “I don’t think it is right to take an initiative is to act Vulgar, especially if you are a Muslim.”
Youre right. Muslims are the most enlightened people in the world and NEVER do anything vulgar. Although it’s funny how Pakistan ranks as the number one consumer of internet porn. stop with the preaching you hypocrite! Who are you to tell anyone to sort out their grave? Or how other people dress or live their lives??
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The norm of islam is in the transformation of one’s self rather than in the revolution to change everyone else…We will be accountable and judged only on the basis of our own actions.
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@Bebo who says “i think u should atleast respect the fact u are a muslim and thank god that u have been blessed with this”
Actually, she feels that she’s cursed with this. Most sane, liberal Muslims feel that way.
It’s not so much because of Islam. Recommend
Our question remains what would happen to patel sb, who tagged and then detached
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I don’t understand what the hell is the problem of Pakistani and Indian people. It shouldn’t matter what someone wants to wear or so. Shame on these narrow minded people
I support you veena, do whatever you want to do its your life.
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And please don’t drag everything towards religion, that is the reason Pakistan is one of the least developed country :S
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Wish Veena had brains, she could have been a greatest asset for secret services.
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Media, particularly in Pakistan, seems to have gone berserk over this Veena thing. I think she is getting a bit of extra publicity in India and the west, because of the fact that she comes from a deeply conservative society like Pakistan where every Tom, Dick and Harry wears religion on his sleeves. Otherwise, her achievements as an actress, are close to zero. Veena Malik has to walk hundreds of miles before reaching anywhere near the status enjoyed by the queens of Bollywood like Madhubala, Nargis, Nutan, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patel, Madhuri Dixit and countless others. These are the names that still elicit awe and admiration amongst the people of every generation in the sub-continent and beyond.
Veena certainly doesn’t deserve the attention she is getting.
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@Shehryar: Are you Muslim? If so, then you and veena are hypcorites! Because you say you support nudism which is not allowed in Islam.
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As a daughter, mother, wife, sister and a teacher in a girls school, I want to convey that you as a woman have tortured and humiliated the honour of pakistani women. Our heads are bowed down with shame and we ask Allah SWT how deep our country people including the editors of The Express Tribune can fall. may Allah SWT guide us, shukriyaRecommend
@ Fatima Qureshi
what did veena do to make Pakistan and Islam vulnerable?Recommend
@Judas Priest. No I’m not. Didn’t know that being a Pakistani automatically meant you have to be a Muslim. And if I was one, I wouldn’t have such a weak faith in my religion that other people’s actions or words would cause me to ‘bow my head in shame’ like you and some other people here do. Live and let live.
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express group become famous coz of veena, doing program on her and continuous articles in express turbine
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veenw its ur life.do whatever u want.i have no objection if u pose nude
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@Shehryar: Even if you are not a Muslim, you should respect their faith and culture as 98% of Pakistanis are Muslims and I bet your parents must also be.
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