As someone who grew up in a secular atmosphere, actor Dia Mirza says she is pained when people are viewed through a religious lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actor, who was born to a Christian father, a Bengali mother and raised in a Muslim home, says her identity has never been limited to religion, culture, caste or community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy identity has always been of a citizen of this planet and a human being. It bothers me when identities are viewed through a religious lens. If you go back to history, every time human beings have moved towards majoritarianism, they have gone away from inclusivity and they have suffered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople want to control us by driving or re-enforcing fear. The only thing which can free us from this fear is art. This is why art exists. This is why we tell stories. We tell stories to evoke human empathy, compassion and to navigate human compass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrejudices and labels limit us. We aren\u2019t born with any understanding of what faith, religion, community or country we belong to. We are taught prejudices which have done nothing but harm us. We need to unlearn all of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dia will be next seen on ZEE5\u2019s Kashmir-set web series Kaafir, which chronicles the life of a young Pakistani woman who comes to India through a strange series of circumstances and is unable to return home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The series revolves around the relationship between the woman, who is accused of militancy, and her Indian lawyer who makes her justice his sole objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoing the show has been truly empowering. It is actually with a great sense of urgency that we told this story. It\u2019s done in a manner that is inclusive. That\u2019s the most powerful thing about \u2018Kaafir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile my character may belong to Pakistan and Mohit\u2019s may belong to India, I don\u2019t think we are limited to these demarcations. People in any part of the world will resonate with these characters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked what was her understanding of the politics and conflict of Jammu and Kashmir, the actor said such conflicts serve as a reminder of how humanity has failed the region.
\n\u201cWe speak of peace, opportunity, equality and then you see what happens on the other end, where regions are torn and ravaged over a period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat have robbed children of their childhood, youth of the opportunities and have deprived them of basic human right. It\u2019s not just heartbreaking, it\u2019s deeply agonising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As someone who grew up in a secular atmosphere, actor Dia Mirza says she is pained when people are viewed through a religious lens. The actor, who was born to a Christian father, a Bengali mother and raised in a Muslim home, says her identity has never been limited to religion, culture, caste or community. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63580,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63578\/revisions\/63580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}