Actor-politician Urmila Matondkar has been targeted by trolls over her religious identity. Last year, her Wikipedia was edited repeatedly to claim that Urmila had converted to Islam post her marriage to a Kashmiri businessman and model, Mohsin Akhtar Mir, in 2016 and that she had changed her name to ‘Mariyam Akhtar Mir’ shortly after.
The actress has opened up about being subjected to vicious trolling online because of getting married into a Kashmiri Muslim family. Urmila called the constant troll attacks on her husband, Mohsin Akhtar, and his family “unfortunate”.
In a conversation with Mojo Story Urmila said, “He was called a terrorist, a Pakistani. I mean, there is a limit to where it should go… They have even infiltrated my Wikipedia page and they have gone and put my mother’s name as Rukhsana Ahmed and my father’s name as Shivinder Singh, two human beings who must be living somewhere in India but I don’t know of. My father’s name is Shrikant Matondkar and my mother’s name is Sunita Matondkar.”
“To top it all, my husband is not only a Muslim but a Kashmiri Muslim. We both follow our religions in an equally staunch way. That gave them a bigger platform to troll me and constantly target him and his family. It was very unfortunate,” she added.
Urmila maintained that she is not thick-skinned and said, “I don’t have a thick skin but I think sensitivity is one of the strongest points of a woman. Being able to have that compassion, that empathy and that sensitivity is what makes me a woman.”
Urmila and Mohsin got married in a private ceremony in March 2016. Designer Manish Malhotra was the only celebrity guest at the wedding. ( News18 )
