Entertainment Desk

Actress Shabnam Faria was quite vocal in support of the students during the July movement. She had expected that something significant would change in the country after this Mass Uprising. However, due to some recent events and criticisms from a group of detractors, the actress is disheartened.

On Wednesday (June 18) evening, in a long Facebook status, Faria stated that she no longer holds any expectations from her own country. She also mentioned that she “never compromises ethics for dollars.”

In her status, Shabnam Faria wrote, “There’s a story, right? About an imam and a thief on a winter morning? The imam thinks, what a good person, he came out in this cold for Fajr prayer! The thief thinks, what a decent-looking man, beard and all, still he steals! What did we learn from this story? That people judge others by their own mindset and thinking!”

Faria said, “But believe me, not all people in the world sell their ‘ethics’ for money (you can read that as dollars). For many in this world, money isn’t ‘everything.’ People do go against the tide. They take risks.”

Then referring to the July incident, the actress said, “In June, when the movement was at its peak, right after the internet was shut down, among the celebrities who were asked to make videos condemning the arson attacks on metro rail/BTV, I was one of them. At first, I asked for time and said I’d think about it. Naturally, I didn’t have the courage at the time to directly refuse. They also said, take your time, the internet is down anyway. Since WhatsApp was blocked, I messaged Siam – ‘Did you get a call?’ He told me he did and had declined. That gave me the courage too, and I also said no.”

Faria said, “I had no intention of unnecessarily going around telling all this. At that time, it was just the right thing to do, and I didn’t want any special credit for saying no. Since I’m personally not directly or indirectly involved in politics, nor do I have any intention or plan to be in the near future, still when I see people writing imaginary stories like ‘they’ve eaten dollar money’ – there’s nothing to do but laugh.”