Actress Priyanka Chopra’s Iran stand ‘selective outrage’: Critics

Indian actress and United Nations goodwill ambassador Priyanka Chopra is facing criticism for her condemnation of the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, but maintaining silence on women’s issues back home, Qazet.az reports.

Last week, the 40-year-old Bollywood star who is now based in the United States, posted her support for the protests in Muslim-majority Iran, saying she is in “awe” of the women fighting the government there for weeks.

“The voices that speak after ages of forced silence will rightfully burst like a volcano! And they will not and MUST not be stemmed,” she wrote on Instagram where she has more than 82 million followers.

Following the death of 22-year-old Amini, thousands of Irani women hit the streets, denouncing the Iranian authorities, and removing their hijab and cutting their hair in solidarity. Dozens of protesters and security forces are reported to have been killed in nearly a month of protests.

“I am in awe of your courage and your purpose. It is not easy to risk your life, literally, to challenge the patriarchal establishment and fight for your rights. But, you are courageous women doing this every day regardless of the cost to yourselves,” Chopra wrote.

Critics, however, have accused Chopra – who was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2016 – of “selective outrage” and “double standards” by not speaking for India’s Muslim women, who have been facing attacks for wearing a hijab.