Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari has sent a letter to the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), asking her to remove Indian actress Priyanka Chopra as a global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador over her warmongering comments.
At a BeautyCon event in Los Angeles on August 12, Chopra was accosted by a Pakistani-American activist, Ayesha Malik, over a tweet posted by the actor in favor of the Indian army following the Pulwama attack earlier this year.
Jai Hind #IndianArmedForces ?? ??
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) February 26, 2019
“You are United Nations Goodwill ambassador for peace and you are encouraging nuclear war [against] Pakistan,” Malik had said.
In her letter written to UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, Mazari pointed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Indian occupied Kashmir, saying it was a result of “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s violation of all international conventions that it is a signatory to, along with UN Security Council resolutions”.
Sent letter to UNICEF chief regarding UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace Ms Chopra pic.twitter.com/PQ3vwYjTVz
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 21, 2019
Mazari pinpointed that India’s Hindu nationalist government was conducting a “campaign of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims” in the held territory.
“The Indian occupation forces have also intensified their campaign of using pellet guns against women and children as well as violence and abuse of women in IoK,” she wrote, adding that the Modi government’s policy was similar to the “Nazi doctrine of ethnic cleansing, racism, fascism and genocide”.
She pointed out that Chopra had publicly endorsed this position of the Indian government position in addition to supporting the nuclear threat issued to Pakistan by the Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
“All this goes completely against the principles of peace and goodwill that Ms Chopra is supposed to uphold as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace,” Mazari said, adding that the actress’ jingoism and support for war undermine the credibility of her position as a UN representative.
“Unless she is removed immediately, the very idea of a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace becomes a mockery globally,” she said, urging the Unicef chief to immediately de-notify Chopra as their ambassador.
In a subsequent article, Malik wrote that “She [Chopra] claimed to be patriotic – but in reality, she was being nationalistic.”
