DELHI – Indian TV actress Dipika Kakar, who embraced Islam before marrying Indian actor Shoaib Ibrahim, says she is proud to be a Muslim.
“It was completely my decision. It’s something that I have willingly done, so there’s no question about it being tough,” Kakar told Times of India.
The actress converted to Islam earlier this year before marrying her “Susral Simar Ka” co-star Ibrahim.
The couple tied the knot on February 22 in Bhopal. Now, they are planning the honeymoon.
Kakar spoke about their inter-faith marriage, the feeling of being married and their relationship.
“I am very happy and proud that I have done it for myself and my happiness. My family was with me in this decision and my intentions were not to hurt anyone. This is my decision,” she said.
Ibrahim added that, before Karkar’s decision to convert to Islam, they had never bothered about belonging to different religions.
“I feel that when you are a celebrity you are constantly under the scanner and there are people who love you, but then there are also people who try to bring you down. We have always taken decisions in life only keeping our family in mind if they are happy and fine the rest of the world doesn’t matter to us. I don’t consider myself a celebrity, we are very simple people and we like to lead a simple life,” he said.
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Kakar is not the first Indian actress to convert to Islam.
Earlier in 2014, famous young Indian actress Monica decided to revert to Islam, don Islamic headscarf and quit the film industry.
In February 2014, reports said that both musicians AR Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja took the same decision to revert to Islam.
There are some 180 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India.