Not an abuser sympathiser: Ushna on not wanting Feroze Khan to meet the same fate as Aamir Liaquat

'I don't believe in killing people for a crime that doesn’t warrant an execution, even if they're found guilty'

Actor Ushna Shah, who recently stood up against bullies hating on actor Feroze Khan for allegedly abusing his former wife Syeda Aliza Sultan, has now penned a note addressing the backlash she faced for her opinion. Calling the world an “ugly and toxic” place, she stated that she’s not apologetic for her conscience while emphasising that she’s not an “abuser sympathiser," but a "human sympathiser." 

On Saturday, Shah took to her Instagram Story and penned a long note clarifying that she was merely asking people to not push Khan to a suicidal limit for a crime that doesn’t warrant an execution, even if he is proven guilty.

Sharing her goodwill to support her point, she started, “This Ramazan, I’ve stood up to a powerful corporation in solidarity with a woman who lost her father to them. I’ve stood up for a friend taken into custody unjustly. And I’ve urged people to not abuse an ex-colleague who allegedly wronged a woman, to a point where we might lose him like we lost Aamir Liaquat.”

Shah asserted that she is a witness to the brutality of online comments and the negativity can be life-threatening. “I have urged people not to go to the other end of the extreme from which there is no turning back, for I have seen what social media does; the punishment for stealing may be chopping hands, but we tend to chop heads.”

Giving an example of her own wedding, she added, “The backlash at my choice to wear the supposed ‘Indian style lehenga’ and dance at my own wedding, was a prime example. So, when hundreds of thousands of people abuse a person for whatever they allegedly did and abuse their family relentlessly, day and night, nonstop, I know what that can do and it isn’t fair punishment. What I stand for is as per my own conscience. I’m allowed my own introspection, even if it faces backlash. I don’t have to adhere to the extreme right or left. I won’t apologise for it.”

The Parizaad actor stated that she is empathising with Khan as a human for she does not want him to feel excluded and unwanted in society, but that does not mean that she’s invalidating what his ex-wife has alleged. “I am not an ‘abuser sympathiser’. I am a human sympathiser and I don't believe in killing people for a crime that doesn’t warrant an execution, even if the alleged criminal was found guilty,” she wrote.

Concluding, Shah highlighted how people have been divided into binaries of extreme conservative minds and extreme woke minds and that there’s barely room for a middle ground – but she refuses to remain in a binary.  “I’ve had enough of faceless mob justice, the world has become too ugly and toxic, from the extreme conservative to the extreme woke end. I have a voice, and I will lend it to any cause I see fit, be it animals, be it, women who are allegedly wronged, be it actors who passed away and deserved (and vocally expected) more recognition from the people I work for, and be it alleged wrong-doers who are being punished too extremely,” she wrote adding that this is who she is.

“This is how I am wired, this is how I can face myself and my God.  If my voice bothers the world, don't make news out of it. I will not sell out my conscience,” she concluded.