‘My Mother was Upset, Father Embarrassed’, Ghazala Wahab Recalls

International Women’s Day 2021: Ghazala Wahab Shares the Before & After of Her #MeToo Moment

Ghazala Wahab exclusive interview on her #MeToo moment in 2018 when she publicly accused former BJP minister MJ Akbar of sexual assault.

Image: Modified by Shruti Mathur/The Quint 

“My mother sent me the screenshot of Urdu translation of my account of sexual assault. She was upset.”

Ghazala Wahab, who put out a detailed account in 2018 bringing to light how she was sexually assaulted by former union minister MJ Akbar more than two decades ago, looked visibly pained recounting her #MeToo moment.

In this International Women’s Day special interview, Wahab told The Quint how the act of putting it all out there was a difficult one for various reasons.

Yet, she wasn’t scared.

Wahab shares that she was not concerned about Akbar filing a lawsuit against her as well. “What I had written was so detailed and graphic that he wouldn’t have thought of contesting it in the court.” She says, however, that before going public with her story she was a little worried about being dismissed as a publicity seeker. Wahab also says that #MeToo should not be seen as a movement, but a moment in our lives.

“Once you call it a movement, you immediately put an expiry date on it and leave the responsibility of ‘leadership’ to only a select few,” she says.

VIDEO EDITOR: Puneet Bhatia
COPY EDITOR: Saundarya Talwar AND Anurupa Sen
TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Akmal Izhar