‘I’m Muslim but don’t offer namaz’: Indian actress Shabana Azmi on religion, secularism

Veteran Indian actor Shabana Azmi has said she identifies as a Muslim but does not practise religious rituals, describing religion as a private matter in which the state should not interfere.

“I am a Muslim, and I like Eid, Urdu, the food, I like all of that. But we don’t read namaz, and we have no association with religion as such,” she said in a recent interview shared on the YouTube channel of the Indian Institute of Management and United Nations (IIMUN), The Indian Express reported.

Speaking about her upbringing, Shabana said her father, renowned Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi, was an atheist, while her mother, actor Shaukat Azmi, practised Islam to some extent but not seriously.

Shabana said she sometimes uses Islamic expressions such as “mashallah” and “inshallah” in everyday conversation, although her husband, veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar, often questions her use of such phrases.

She explained that the expressions had become part of her everyday language rather than reflecting a religious conviction.

Describing Akhtar as a “staunch atheist”, Shabana said she believes people should be allowed to find comfort in religious practice without being offended for doing so.

Akhtar, however, argues that atheists also have the right to feel offended by religious expressions, she said.

Shabana added that she had never felt particularly curious about religion and viewed belief in God as a personal matter.

“If you feel good after praying, then I don’t have any problem with it at all,” she said, reiterating that the state should not interfere in people's religious choices.

In an earlier interview with Zoom, Shabana also spoke about religious polarisation in India, saying that both Hindu and Muslim extremists were intolerant of her and Akhtar's views.

She said the couple had faced criticism from hardliners in both communities, with some religious figures issuing fatwas and others accusing them of being terrorists.

Shabana argued that the fundamental divide was not between Hindus and Muslims but between liberal-minded people and those who were intolerant.

“The liberal Hindu and Muslim are on the same side and the intolerant Hindu and Muslim are on the same side,” she said.

She added that viewing the issue through this lens could help counter attempts to use religion to divide people.