Meesha Shafi wants armchair woke warriors to sit down
Embroiled in a legal battle with fellow singer Ali Zafar for the past two years, former Overload vocalist Meesha Shafi has mostly steered cleared of social media. The Aaya Lariye hit maker minimised her Twitter usage and it's no longer common to see Shafi’s typical, call-a-spade-a spade sense of humour online.
But of late, it seems like the songstress is done holding back. Well, sort of. Shafi recently shared a portrait of herself reworked by renowned artist Sara Shakeel, subtly talking about being ‘woke.” She said, "We all have our share of struggles. Some hidden, some in plain view. We all pine and bicker about the way things are. Get into heated debates. Get ourselves worked up into a verbal frenzy of passion."
The Coke Studio alum then added how the very same passion could be a tool to "convince someone to change the way they think. Or the passion to persuade them to at least be somewhat outraged by the status quo." Shafi continued, "But when passion doesn’t become the fuel with which to propel ourselves into taking action, it turns into procrastination. And then guilt... till finally, it morphs into self-loathing."
The superstar then called out anyone who jumps onto bandwagons just to appear as part of the crowd. "To anyone reading this… next time you find yourself engaged in armchair wokeness, or even WhatsApp wokeness, before working yourself up into too much of a fury, pause and ask yourself, ‘Is any of this going to change anything? Am I ready to change anything? Or am I just sheeping along with a herd of reluctant activists?’ Criticising the herd mentality with such fervor, critics become a whole new flock all unto themselves." Shafi lamented on how change can be "painful and scary and hard” saying, "Like giving birth, labor pains must be felt. Sacrifices beg to be made. People who set out to make changes sometimes make it look easy. It’s not. Don’t be fooled!"
According to the actor, history shows us that people call change-makers all kinds of names. “Liars. Attention-seekers. Conspirators. Never heroes. Legends. Icons. Saviors. Truth-tellers. Warriors. Not until after they die."
The Mein crooner wondered why the change-makers would no longer be threatening once they're gone. "Because then, they’re no longer threatening. Once they’re gone, you cannot put gag orders on them. Once they’re gone, you can’t bully them any longer. Once they’re gone, you cannot ban them," she stated. "But today’s closet woke folks, will tomorrow call them heroes? This is how heroes are recognised. Always late, because they are ahead of their time. After all, if they weren’t, what could they possibly change?"
Shafi accused Zafar of sexually harassing her on numerous occasions in 2018. The latter filed a defamation suit against her soon after and the matter has been in the court ever since. Recently, Zafar also filed an FIR against Shafi and eight others with the FIA for maligning and defaming him.