Shabana Azmi on Namaz, Faith and the Real Divide

Shabana Azmi has spent decades answering questions about her Muslim identity. Her latest answer is both simple and pointed: she is a cultural Muslim who does not read namaz and wants faith kept out of state affairs.

In a conversation shared on IIMUN’s YouTube channel, the 76-year-old actor described a home shaped by two very different parents. Her father, poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi, was an atheist, while her mother practised religion only casually. That mix, she said, left her with the warmth of the culture without a formal religious practice.

Faith as culture, not ritual

Azmi was clear that her connection to Islam is cultural and linguistic rather than devotional. “Yes, I am a Muslim, and I like Eid, Urdu, the food, I like all of that,” she said. “But we don’t read namaz, and we have no association with religion as such.”

She also recalled a small household friction with her husband, writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, whom she described as a staunch atheist. When she says “mashallah” or “inshallah,” he asks why she keeps using those phrases. Azmi’s answer is that they are simply part of her language, not a declaration of belief.

Faith should stay private

The actor’s central argument is about where religion belongs. She called the concept of God a private matter and said the state should not get involved. If someone feels good after praying, she said, she has no problem with that at all. But no one’s faith should be turned into public policy.

That position puts her and Javed Akhtar in an unusual spot. Azmi said extremists from intolerant communities on both sides criticise them — fatwas from one direction and accusations from another. She sees that as proof of their secular credentials.

The real fight is liberal versus intolerant

Azmi offered a reframing that is likely to travel far beyond the interview:

• Do not read the moment as Hindu versus Muslim.
• The split, she said, is between liberals and the intolerant.
• Liberal Hindus and liberal Muslims stand together against intolerance.

“We need to understand that it is not a fight between Hindu and Muslim, it is a fight between the liberals and the intolerant,” she said. Removing religion as a tool of division, she added, is what “takes away the poison.”

On the work front, Azmi was last seen in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Partition drama Batwara 1947, which released in theatres on August 14, 2026.

Source: India Today