#MeToo: Shama is ‘scarred’ for life

Actor Shama Sikander, who has starred in TV shows such as Yeh Meri Life Hai and Baal Veer, was in the news when she revealed that she was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder in 2016. One incident that triggered it, she tells us, was a sexual harassment attempt on her when she was a teen, which she rues has left her ‘scarred’.

“Everything was affected. I was young when I started my career. A young girl of 13 or 14 has no freaking idea what is all this, a man touching you. People of your father, grandfather’s age, touching you, calling you ‘beta’, teaching you how to sleep around with people! Don’t call me beta then. Are you going to do the same thing to your daughter?” rues Shama, narrating her #MeToo experience.

She goes on, “You want to have that kind of relationship, keep it clear. The problem is people don’t keep it clear. If two people want to sleep with each other, it’s their will or wish. But harassing or forcing somebody to do it is criminal.”

Opening up about an incident that happened years ago, the actor shares, “One person, whom I don’t want to name, held my face and tried to kiss me forcefully. I had to push him away and ran away from that office. It was a horrendous experience and scarred me for my whole life. One of the reasons for my depression was that every man just wants to possess a woman, but there’s a soul too. I feel very deeply, and I felt hurt. A lot of my friends have done stupid things. They did that because they were unaware… they came and said sorry to me.”

Shama, however, feels that giving such people the title of ‘perpetrators’ is wrong. “We should have meditation centres, therapy sessions…It’s the conditioning where it comes from. Until and unless we don’t go that deep, we will solve two cases, but what about the other cases, other women who have no voice and can’t talk about this?” Shama signs off.

PHOTO:VIRAL BHAYANI Shama Sikander feels men should stop looking at women as objects