Meesha's mother Saba Hameed records testimony in Ali Zafar defamation case

Saba Hameed claimed that she knows about all the women Ali Zafar has harassed.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Saba Hameed, mother of Meesha Shafi, recorded her statement in court today stating that her daughter informed her about the harrassement incidents two weeks prior to exposing Ali Zafar, but she did not urge Meesha to go public. 

Additional Session Judge Amjad Ali Shah heard the Rs1 billion defamation case filed by actor-singer Ali Zafar against Meesha Shafi for accusing him of sexual harassment.

Saba Hameed admitted that there are incidents of harassment in the film industry which do not get exposed. She stated that she was shocked to hear about the incident with her daughter. “I did not urge her on going public but apprised her about the positive and negative consequences of going public with the accusations”, she added.

Responding to lawyer’s question, mother of Meesha Shafi claimed that she knows about all the women Ali Zafar has harassed but she does not want to name them. “Why should women who don’t want to report their incident be named?” she asserted.

She said that after getting harassed three times, Meesha had made up her mind that she would not go to a place again where Zafar was.

Saba was asked by Ali’s lawyer as to why Meesha didn’t inform her immediately after getting harassed.

“I think it was because she was embarrassed,” she said. “Usually, women in Pakistan don’t talk about getting harassed.”

The court adjourned the proceedings till November 2 and called for further witnesses to record the testimony at the next hearing.

On April 20, as the #MeToo campaign empowered a lot of women to come forward and express what they had been keeping silent about for a long time, famous singer Meesha Shafi has opened up on a very touchy subject claiming to have been sexually harassed by colleague and fellow singer, Ali Zafar!

Meesha, in a Twitter post said: “If this can happen to someone like me, an established artist, then it can happen to any young woman hoping to break into the industry and that concerns me gravely.”

The 36-year-old mother of two stated: “Sharing this because I believe that by speaking out about my own experience of sexual harassment, I will break the culture of silence that permeates through our society. It is not easy to speak out.. but it is harder to stay silent. My conscience will not allow it anymore.”

On Sept. 18, Pakistani singer Meesha Shafi had filed a Rs2 billion defamation suit against fellow artist Ali Zafar in Lahore sessions court for making false allegations against her.

Sources told that the suit includes Rs1bn for hurting singer’s reputation while Rs1bn has been demanded for "mental torture and agony".

She also requested the court to declare Ali Zafar’s statements as false and defamatory.

"It is prayed that the defendant (Zafar) be permanently restrained from making any further defamatory statement against the plaintiff (Shafi)," the suit stated.