More women came forward accusing Ali Zafar of sexual harassment
Zafar denied the accusations, threatening legal action against the actress.
(Web Desk) – A day after leading female singer Meesha Shafi accused Ali Zafar of sexual harassment, more women have come forward to allege that the actor misbehaved with them on various occasions.
Following the revelation by the actress-cum-singer in a lengthy Twitter post yesterday in which said she had been subjected to sexual harassment "of a physical nature" at the hands of Zafar on more than one occasion, a journalist Maham Javaid tweeted that Zafar had tried to kiss her cousin "many years ago".
"So @itsmeeshashafi s brave sharing of her experience reminded me of a story about @AliZafarsays from many many years ago, when Ali Zafar tried to kiss my cousin and pull my cousin into a restroom with him. Luckily my cousin s friends were there to push Ali Zafar off," she wrote.
Blogger Humna Raza recounted her experience of being inappropriately touched by Ali Zafar during a public event.
She said: “One and a half year ago I was at an event and I kind of saw Ali Zafar there. I was with my husband and my friends. I was very excited to see him and so I left the group and decided to go and get a selfie with him just like any fan would. So, amidst the crowd and everyone, I made my way to him and asked, can I get a selfie with you? He didn t say anything, he gave me a smirk (NOT smile) and gestured by opening one of his arms with what I took as a yes. I carne and stood right next to him and was about to click that photo when I felt his hand go up the side of my waist. GO UP MY WAIST properly, clearly. I don t want to be too explicit. I felt it, and I KNEW what happened - like I knew. But I thought I was crazy. Kind of. But I wasn t sure. I thought I misunderstood, and was thinking things lol but I also knew. I was lying to myself. I KNEW what had just happened.”
Make-up artist Leena Ghani is the third woman who shared her story on social media. She said while clicking a selfie with Zafar, she felt him touching her inappropriately.
"In the many years I have known Ali, he has on several occasions crossed boundaries of what is appropriate behaviour between friends. I have chosen to ignore it out of respect for his family, but today I feel I must speak my truth in light of recent revelations. His behaviour displays a clear lack of respct for women. Inappropriate contact, groping, sexual comments should not fall in the grey area between humour and indecency... In such cases most women like myself run from such a situation and hope to God you never cross paths again. And when by some misfortune you do, you hide from him. Hoping his sleazy eyes and hands don t find you again. His hands don t make their way up a nd down your waist or hold you too tight while you desperately try to wiggle and run..." she wrote.
Follwong the allegations, Zafar denied the accusations, threatening legal action against the actress.
"I intend to take this through the courts of law, and to address this professionally and seriously rather than to lodge any accusations here," he wrote on Twitter.
The #MeToo and #Timesup campaigns have gone global since allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein were published last October, sparking an avalanche of accusations against other powerful men.
However, the movement has been slow to catch on in Pakistan, where women have fought for their rights for years in a patriarchal society where so-called "honour" killings and attacks on women remain commonplace.
In a report released earlier this week by watchdog Human Rights Commission Pakistan, the group said violence against women remained troubling, with 5,660 related crimes reported in the country s four provinces in the first 10 months of 2017.
In August, firebrand opposition leader Imran Khan was also hit with allegations of sexual misconduct by a female lawmaker who accused the famed cricketer of sending obscene text messages and promoting a culture of sexism within his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
