Meesha Shafi asks to be removed from LSA nominees list

Singer becomes the latest to do so after Eman Suleman called out the award show for nominating an accused harasser


Entertainment Desk April 23, 2019

In the past few days, multiple celebrities called out Lux Style Awards for nominating an accused sexual harasser this year. Model Eman Suleman led from the front and gave up on her LSA nomination for the same reason.

On a similar note, Meesha Shafi has asked the organisers to remove her nomination from the Best Song category. In a tweet, she thanked Eman Suleman and the brands that followed in her footsteps, before announcing her request to be removed from the nominees list.

The Mein singer has decided to ask the LSAs to remove her nomination as well.



"I want to thank Eman Suleman. What she, Generation and Saima Bargfrede have said and done is what I consider my award," the Sun Ve Balori singer shared.

"In a perfect world, I would love to see women retain their space in the industry while being safe, so that the cost of speaking up is minimized, or even done away with altogether. A cost which is all too high at present," added Meesha. "Our boycotts should not overshadow our achievements. With brave women like these, I feel optimistic about getting there one day."

"Mein is a song about finding our true self. Being aligned with a higher purpose. Being our own hero and being enough. I wrote it at a particularly difficult time in my life. When I needed to be all those things," she said about the song she was nominated for.

Shafi concluded by giving up her nomination.

"Mein stands nominated for the best song at the Lux Style Awards 2019. The irony is not lost on me given the current circumstances and I would kindly request that my name and work be removed from the list of nominees," wrote the singer.

Suleman had boycotted the award show as a nominee in a more direct statement on social media

“Not to rain on anyone’s parade but this, just isn’t for me. I’m sorry, even though I shouldn’t have to be. Maybe I’m not. I don’t know. Also, I didn’t even send in my portfolio,” she wrote on Instagram, followed by a short video.

“I was extremely honoured to be nominated for the Lux Style Awards but what I’m going to say next is going to result in a lot of eye rolls. I am tired of talking about it, honestly,” Eman says in the video. “I do not wish to be a part of an accolade which is shared with an alleged harasser; I feel no joy. Maybe nominate someone who feels happy about it. I don’t. I am basically done.”

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COMMENTS (2)

Asif | 4 years ago | Reply Good on Meesha Shafi for speaking up. The real failure again is on the Pakistani legal system and the woeful law enforcement which enable behaviour of grubs like Ali Zafar to continue. Frequently, the law and legal system is so skewed towards the powerful men that the success of proving her case would have been very difficult. Much reform needed.
AJ | 4 years ago | Reply Shouldn't have been nominated in the first place. Shouldn't others be boycotting LSA instead to boycott a slanderer who accused someone more than a year ago and has failed to produce any evidence to the court? Ali Zafar and his allies should retort and sue Meesha for defamation and slander.
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