WhatsApp status: Muslim teacher sacked in India for celebrating Pakistan win
October 26, 2021
A Muslim teacher in India’s Rajasthan was sacked after she celebrated Pakistan’s historic victory in Sunday’s T20 World Cup match.
According to media reports, Nafeesa Attari, a private school teacher, had put up a WhatsApp status expressing her happiness over India’s loss in the T20 World Cup opener.
Attari expressed happiness through her WhatsApp status along with pictures of Pakistani cricketers, writing "We wonnn".
The matter came to the fore when a parent asked the teacher whether she supported Pakistan and Attari replied in the affirmative with a "yes".
After screenshots of the teacher's status on WhatsApp spread, the school management expelled her from her job.
Later, in a video statement, the teacher claimed that her post was taken out of context.
Attari said that during the match, her family got divided into two teams, and each team supported either side. As her team was supporting Pakistan, she posted the status on WhatsApp.
This is not the only incident that took place after Pakistan thrashed India in the match. Kashmiri students in a college were also beaten up for celebrating Pakistan’s performance.
A student at an engineering and technology institute said dozens of men armed with hockey sticks and batons attacked them as they watched the closing stages of the game.
"They entered our room, switched off the lights and beat us. They destroyed our laptops," the student told AFP, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of fear of more trouble.
"We are safe now and we have support from our college. But we didn't expect this at all. We are Indians."
Indian Muslim bowler Mohammed Shami, too, was abused online after his side lost the first-ever World Cup match.
Shami, 31, became a target after the defeat in Dubai, even though Indian captain Virat Kohli acknowledged that his side had been "outplayed".
Hundreds of messages were left on Shami's Instagram account saying he was a "traitor" and should be thrown out of the Indian team.
