In a recent conversation on Frieha Altaf’s FWhy Podcast, Pakistani actor Zhalay Sarhadi shared her personal experiences with miscarriages, health challenges, and the standards of physical appearance in the entertainment industry.
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She began sharing, “Firstly, it’s not because of anything lacking in you – it just happens. That’s what my doctor told me. My first pregnancy was amazing. My daughter was MashAllah (healthy).”
“Later on, I had three pregnancies – they all ended very early on. One was in six weeks, one was in eight weeks, the last one was also five or six weeks. The first one was a little bit of a shock because my daughter was four…The miscarriage wasn’t that bad. I went to recheck and there was no heartbeat, I had a DNC, it ended. It took me back a little, wondering what had happened. But the attachment with the pregnancy was absent at the time,” Zhalay revealed.
“The second time was when I was shooting for Jalebi. If you’ve seen that scene where I’m beating a man whilst on top of him, I was actually going to have an operation the next day…I had already had a miscarriage and it was a bad one at that.”
“I won’t take any names because I don’t want a lawsuit on my hands, but I was misdiagnosed and they said, ‘No no, it’s fine.’ I felt it wasn’t fine…There was bleeding, cramps, other things that weren’t normal,” she added.
Upon getting a second opinion, Zhalay discovered that she had “developed hypothyroidism.”
“I cried for days, I didn’t know why I was crying,” she shared. “Then I had a miscarriage again a few years later. We weren’t really trying, per se, but I decided that this has to stop…I can’t deal with this. It’s traumatic on a mental and physical level.”
The actor also discussed the sensitive issue of body dysmorphia prevalent among brown due to European features, including a certain height, fair complexion, and straight hair, deemed perfect. Sharing her own experience of bullying at the age of 14 for being a chubby child with a “42-inch waist,” Zhalay recalled how she ultimately lost weight and reduced to “24-inch waist” and later contracting anorexia.
