Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter Shaheen threatened with death and rape on Instagram

New Delhi , July 14 (HS) Actor Alia Bhatt’s sister Shaheen has shared screenshots on Instagram of hate messages and rape threats that she has been getting from unknown people.

Sharing the screenshots, Shaheen wrote: “Does this surprise you? Why? It doesn’t surprise me.” “So, I speak now to those of you who think it’s okay to send me or anyone messages full of hate: If you send me a message with the sole hope (I say hope because I promise you — nothing you say is keeping me up at night) of humiliating, insulting, or bullying me, then the following things will happen: — The messages or comments will first be blocked and reported to Instagram directly.”

Shaheen contemplated whether or not to take a strong stand against the people writing hate messages to her, and then decided to take a stand to help create a safe environment for woman in India. She then wrote, “I wondered for days whether or not this was something I should address. I debated whether it was worth the effort it would take because ush, why waste time and even 1% of mental processor power on this. But then I realised, if I believe that the world should be a place in which women can feel safe and exist without being constantly threatened, sexualised or subjected sexist/misogynistic slurs with the sole intent to humiliate them – If I believe women should be treated like HUMANS. Then that’s a world I have to help create.”

She added, “And in order to create that world I have to draw boundaries in my own life and pursue action no matter how annoying or time consuming or downright sad it is..

Addressing Instagram, she wrote, “To Instagram- you have zero tolerance policies for a lot of the content that people put up on your platform – I think it’s fair to say that misogynistic slurs, intended to subdue and oppress *should* fall under the umbrella of your zero tolerance community guidelines. But if you don’t want to receive abusive message turn off your message requests `Tired of being called a b*tch in your comments? Turn off your comments. Asking me to change the way I use a platform because of someone else’s hatred and misogyny is the equivalent of telling me that if I go out at night and get assaulted ‘I was asking for it’. I should not have to change the way I use a platform if someone is being abusive. They should. Full stop.”