Mumbai: In the latest episode of ALTBalaji and MX Player’s reality competition TV series Lock Upp, contestant and stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui opened up about sexual abuse he had to face as a little kid. During a task in the Kangana Ranaut-hosted show in which Saisha Shinde had to convince one of her co-contestants to share a secret, she asked Faruqui and he agreed. He recounted that he was six years old and was abused for years.
He added, “They were my relatives, two of them and it continued for 4-5 years. I would not understand at the time. It was close family. It went on for 4-5 years and got extreme in the fourth year. Then they realized they should stop it.” He began to cry and other contestants cried with him and hugged him. Following this sad revelation, Kangana praised Faruqui for his forthrightness and courage and said people usually avoid speaking about such things on public forums.
Kangana also said that everybody goes through some kind of inappropriate behaviour as a child. She then went on to speak about her own experiences of sexual abuse. She said, “I was a child and a young boy from our town used to inappropriately touch me. At the time, I did not know what it meant, no matter how protective your family is, all kids go through this. This guy was three to four years elder than me, perhaps he was exploring his sexuality. He would call us, get us all to strip and check us. We would not understand it at the time. There is a huge stigma behind this, especially for men. It is very brave of you, Munawar, that you chose this platform to share your experience.”