Who are any of us to question her choices: Omar Abdullah on Zaira Wasim quitting films

Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Sunday came out in support of Bollywood star Zaira Wasim’s decision to quit acting. Taking to micro blogging website Twitter, Omar wrote: "Who are any of us to question Zaira Wasim's choices? It's her life to do with as she pleases. All I will do is wish her well & hope that whatever she does makes her happy."

Zaira Wasim who will be soon seen in Shonali Bose's 'The Sky is Pink' has disassociated from the field of acting. Sharing a heartfelt note on Instagram, she talked about how the decision that she made 5 years ago changed her life. The Dangal star said that she made the decision fearing her acting career is invading her religion. She was honoured with National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement by Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India, at a ceremony in New Delhi in 2017.

Zaira Wasim rose to prominence by starring as a aspiring singer in the musical drama Secret Superstar in 2017 staring Amir Khan.

"I officially declare my disassociation with this field," the 18-year-old actress announced. "The reason why I am openly doing so is not to paint a holier picture of myself but this is the least I can do to start afresh and this is just my first step as I have arrived at the clarity of realisation of the path I wish to be on," she added.

“As I complete 5 years today, I want to confess that I am not truly happy with this identity i.e my line of work. For a very long time now it has felt like I have struggled to become someone else. As I had just started to explore and make sense of the things to which I dedicated my time, efforts and emotions and tried to grab hold of a new lifestyle, it was only for me to realise that though I may fit here perfectly, I do not belong here,” she wrote.

Explaining her decision, she wrote, “this field indeed brought a lot of love, support, and applause my way, but what it also did was to lead me to a path of ignorance, as I silently and unconsciously transitioned out of imaan. While I continued to work in an environment that consistently interfered with my imaan, my relationship with my religion was threatened.”