During a recent interview, actor Adeel Hashmi spoke out about his horrific experience of sexual abuse in a 1980s secondary boys school with renowned makeup artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Masarrat Misbah.
“I was in grade 7 or 8, and because I was in a public school, my class had many students who had been failing for a couple of years,” Hashmi revealed in a heartfelt interview. Since I had just been promoted from grade 6, they had been in the same class for years, so they were much older than me.
“I wasn’t large or tall either. I am extremely timid, almost like a cross between a cat and a mouse in terms of temperament. And these eight or ten students would pick on me,” the well-known person recalled. “I can tell you about one incident that happened around that time, but I probably won’t tell you everything, and I might cry a little bit in the middle. In the seventh grade, I experienced sexual assault.
When this wasn’t a [widely accepted] idea, they would sexually abuse me. This is a school for guys alone. Hashmi recalled that “no teacher, no elder, my brother, or my parents could do anything.”
The actor revealed that he struggled to find the guts to talk about his experience with his parents and professors since he was unsure of how to handle the matter. “I only recall once telling my brother that these hostel kids are bullying me, and I wonder if I should tell our father about it,” he stated. And he said, “No, you have to figure it out on your own.”
In addition, Hashmi stated that this incident was only one of many that he had experienced. In contrast to the common desire for people to relive their childhood, he is grateful that those days are in the past and doesn’t want to think about them ever again.
