Ira Khan, the daughter of Bollywood star Aamir Khan, has revealed that she was sexually abused and harassed when she was 14. Ira Khan, who is now 23, has been sharing about her mental struggles, her privilege, depression, and dealing with her parents' divorce. She has been speaking about these matters through Instagram.
In the video that she released on November 1, Ira had spoken about her privilege. In the video that lasted for nine minutes, she shared what she had gone through around her parents' divorce, depression, and sexual abuse. Captioning the video, she said, "I never spoke to anyone about anything because I assumed that my privilege meant I should handle my stuff on my own, or if there was something bigger, it would make people need a better answer than "I don't know".
She states, "It made me feel like I needed a better answer and until I had that answer, my feelings weren't something I should bother anyone else with. No problem was big enough to ponder too long about. What would anyone do? I had everything. What would anyone say? I had said it all. I still think there's a small part of me that thinks I'm making all this up, that I have nothing to feel bad about, that I'm not trying hard enough, that maybe I'm overreacting".
"Old habits die hard. It takes me feeling my worst to make myself believe that it’s bad enough to take seriously. And no matter how many things I have, how nice to me people are because of my dad, how nice to me people are because they love and care about me... if I feel a certain way, a certain not nice way, then how much can rationally trying to explain these things to myself do?", she added.
Ira was diagnosed with depression four years ago and in this video, she shared about how she has been struggling with depression amid the privilege of having supportive parents and family. By citing that she is financially well-off including a support system, Aamir Khan's daughter said that she would pull herself out of the feelings by these three things - there are people in the world who are dying and starving and her problems were not as big, she shouldn't take herself seriously as we are all tiny, inconsequential beings in a large cosmos and no matter what was happening in her life, it will not be such a big issue.
Speaking about her parents' divorce, Ira Khan said that she was not feeling traumatized by it because it was amicable, is also a privilege. She said, "They are (her parents) friends, the whole family is still friends. We are not broken by any means. My parents were very good about being parents to Junaid and me, even after divorce, and when people would say 'Oh I am so sorry to hear about your parents' divorce, I would be like 'What are you talking about? It's not a bag thing".
She revealed that she was sexually abused when she was 14 and she was too young to understand what was going on, which in turn delayed from seeking help. In the video, she said, "When I was 14, I was sexually harassed- abused. That was slightly an odd situation as I didn't know what that person was doing and if they knew what they were doing. It wasn't happening every day. So, it took me a year to be sure that they knew what they are doing and that is what they are doing and immediately, I wrote my parents an e-mail and I got myself out of the situation".
While speaking about how it was after getting out of the situation, Ira said, "Once I was out of the situation, I didn't feel bad anymore. I wasn't scared. I felt like this is not happening to me anymore and it's over. And I moved on. It was not something that could be making me feel as bad as I was feeling". Speaking about depression and mental health issues, Ira said, "Many people ask me why I am depressed... I don't know and I can't give you a straight answer to that question".
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