Former India pace bowler Irfan Pathan has often faced abuse from trolls of all religious hues ever since he got married in early 2016. The trolling mostly had to do with images of his wife, Safa Baig, covering or 'showing' her face.
On Tuesday, Irfan took to Twitter to respond to trolls who had criticised him over an image posted of Irfan, Safa and their son Imran on the child's Instagram account. The photograph showed his wife's face blurred. The post led to claims on social media that Irfan forced his wife to blur her face.
Irfan pointed out his wife had blurred the image "by her choice" and he was "her mate, not her master". Irfan tweeted, "This picture is posted by my queen from my son’s account. We are getting lot of hate. Let me post this here as well. She blurred this pic by her choice. And Yes,I’m her mate not her master;). #herlifeherchoice."
Irfan was trolled in 2018 over images he posted of him and his wife in Jammu and Kashmir. Irfan was asked why Safa was not showing her face.
In 2020, an image of Irfan and his wife was criticised by a Muslim cleric who claimed "A woman can show her face only to her husband and in cases involving law-related things such as Aadhaar or PAN card, only then can she show her face."
The cleric Sajid Rashidi said, "His wife isn't an actor that she somehow comes in front of the camera, she is a home maker and hence uploading her pictures like that is a shameful act. Right to freedom is only according to the Indian Constitution; what I am telling is the Islamic law and Islamic law doesn't allow this."
