'Purely my choice': Zaira Wasim comes out in support of woman eating in a niqab

Former actress Zaira Wasim, of Dangal and Secret Superstar fame made headlines when she decided to leave her acting career in 2019. She cited religious beliefs and faith as the reason for her retirement. Despite stepping away from acting, Zaira maintains an active presence on Twitter, where she frequently shares quotes and poems. In a recent instance, she responded to a photo of a woman wearing a niqab while eating, saying that it is purely a matter of personal choice. Reacting to the tweet, Zaira Wasim replied, "Just attended a wedding. Ate exactly like this. Purely my choice. Even when everyone around me kept nagging me that I take the niqab off. I didn’t. We don’t do it for you. Deal with it (sic)."

Just attended a wedding. Ate exactly like this. Purely my choice. Even when everyone around me kept nagging me that I take the niqab off. I didn’t.

We don’t do it for you. Deal with it. https://t.co/Gu9AXQka8v

— Zaira Wasim (@ZairaWasimmm) May 28, 2023

In June 2019, Zaira Wasim took to Facebook to write a detailed note to announce that she had quit acting for religious reasons. She wrote that she has realised that "though I may fit here perfectly, I do not belong here". "Five years ago, I made a decision that changed my life forever. As I stepped my foot in Bollywood, it opened doors of massive popularity for me. I started to become the prime candidate of public attention, I was projected as the gospel of the idea of success and was often identified as a role model for the youth. However, that's never something that I set out to do or become, especially with regards to my ideas of success and failure, which I had just started to explore and understand," Wasim said in the lengthy post.Zaira Wasim, who hails from Kashmir, made her Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's Dangal in 2016. She played the role of young Babita Phogat, a wrestler. She received praises for her portrayal of the young wrestler from the film critics and audiences alike. In 2017, she appeared in Aamir Khan's home production Secret Superstar. Zaira was last seen in Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar-starrer The Sky Is Pink. She played the lead role of Aisha Chaudhary in Shonali Bose's film.