'People started judging me before watching Astaghfaar'

Veena Malik’s Ramazan show “Astaghfaar” was cancelled after the promo received immense criticism from the masses, but the actor finds it sad that people started judging her before even watching the show.

“Even before the show was released, people started saying that Veena Malik is not allowed to do this show. It is very sad,” said Malik in an interview to BBC Urdu. “Neither did people see the show nor did they know what the show is like. It would have made sense if people reacted at the end of the show, but this does not make any sense to me… It was very very strange behavior.”

When asked why the show was called off, Malik said that she did not know the inside details, but she knew that the channel received a lot of “serious threats”.

Describing the show, Malik said, “This is a beautiful concept and I have not done a show like this before. In the holy month of Ramazan, I made an effort to learn something related to religion and I made an effort to sit with people and interact with them as to why this is a blessed month and what good things we should do in this month and what all do we need to learn in life.”

But when a caller asked whether her future will be a religious one or one full of scandals, Malik snapped back saying that people are being judgemental when they say there is a rift between her and her religion. “Religion is a very personal matter for me. I am very religious, but it is something between me and my God. I don’t think a third person can stand in front of me and judge how religious I am or I am not.”

Another caller asked her to move towards religion, to which Malik said that she had been studying Islam since she was ten. “The difference between me and others is that I have read the Holy Quran with translation, which most people do not. I may not be a complete or perfect Muslim, but I constantly try to understand Islam better.”

Malik also hinted that she might join politics as she has done social work and knows people well, but when asked about marriage, Malik was clear that she is “not in the mood”.

“When the time is right, I will get married.”