Teen singer Nahid Afrin of Indian Idol fame seemed unfazed on Wednesday, by an alleged fatwa a group of Islamic clerics issued banning her from performing in any public entertainment event.
Nahid had made her Bollywood debut last year singing in the film Akira for Sonakshi Sinha, who as a judge in the TV reality show had promised to have the teenager do playback singing for her in her next movie, her mother said.
Coming back to the incident, according to a report in The Week, the pamphlet by the Assam clerics was issued against Nahid Afrin, first runner-up in the reality TV show Indian Idol Junior, keeping in mind a performance scheduled for March 25 – which was to take place in the vicinity of a mosque and a graveyard.
The clerics asked Afrin to stop performing in public and announced that her programmes ought to be boycotted.
Zee News reported that leaflets which contained the names of the clerics, were distributed across the Hojai and Nagaon districts of central Assam.
Assam chief minister Sarbanand Sonowal condemned the ‘fatwa’ and directed police to provide security to the singer. The tenth grade student and musical sensation from the state was scheduled to participate in a musical show to be held at Udali Sonai Bibi College, in Lanka area of Nagaon district, on March 25.
On hearing of the ‘fatwa’, Nahid, who lives in Biswanath Chariali, initially broke down and said, “I am speechless.”
However, on Wednesday, she said, “I think my music is God’s gift to me. I will never bow to it (such warnings) and never leave singing.”
Afrin has received support from singer Vishal Dadlani and Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
