‘Shame on those who are abusing me’

Actor Dipika Kakar of TV show Sasural Simar Ka fame created quite a stir when she converted to Islam to marry her co-star and long time beau, Shoaib Ibrahim in February this year. The couple recently celebrated their first Eid together and posted pictures on social media. That led to haters slamming and trolling Dipika for being a Hindu and celebrating a Muslim festival.

Giving it back to the trolls, Dipika retorts, “Why do I owe an explanation to you for my personal decision? Why do you expect that I will live my life on your terms and conditions? Just because I’m an actor and you get to know about my personal life doesn’t give you the right to abuse me or slam me whenever you feel like. Shame on you.”

Stating that she doesn’t like paying heed to haters and just blocks them, Dipika adds, “Where were these so called concerned people when I was going through a rough patch in my life? So, how the hell are they ruining my image by abusing me and Shoaib? I pity them that they have so much spare time to write such long hate messages for us.”

The actor-couple was subjected to similar humiliation on social media around the time of their wedding too, when the invitation card had Dipika’s name as Faiza. Defending Dipika and maintaining that converting to Islam was her personal decision, Shoaib says, “We are a very liberal family and religion has never played havoc in our lives. Dipika is free to follow whatever religion she wants to — Hindu or Muslim. We are living in the 21st century, so let’s live and happily coexist.” Asked if such nasty comments ever affected them emotionally, Shoaib says, “Not at all. We knew this would happen. Our relationship was always being speculated, hence we got used to it. I feel bad for people who thought these speculations would affect us badly, we proved them wrong.”

Dipika Kakar and Shoaib Ibrahim