Pakistani entertainer Sehar Shinwari has been made popular on Indian Twitter space over past few weeks ever since she joked around how she would marry someone from that country if that country’s cricket team loses to Pakistan or defeats India in the recently concluded T20 World Cup.
I'll marry a Zimbabwean guy, if their team miraculously beats India in next match 🙂
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 3, 2022
Like how ahead of India vs Zimbabwe, she had tweeted she would marry a Zimbabwean if it defeats India. This tweet went viral with many from India mocking the proposition.
She has been off and on tweeting such marriage propositions.
If Sri Lanka wins today I’ll marry a Sri Lankan guy 😊
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) September 11, 2022
For a country that perhaps only cricket to look forward to for any wins, Shinwari’s obsession bordering unknowingly on selfdeprecation is quite understandable.
Another obsession Pakistanis have is with India and India’s politics. This is quite evident from this tweet by Shinwari from last night.
I bet BJP is going to get a shameful defeat in Gujarat state elections. If it dint happen, call me anything you want then 🙂
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 16, 2022
Shinwari tweeted how she will bet that BJP will lose in Gujarat and if it does not happen, one can call her anything she wants. She clearly has earned herself a lot of following from India because Indians, too, like to mock Pakistanis who are defiant about posting their L’s. Obviously, her tweet got a lot of reactions and it got ratio’ed.
Soon after she tweeted how it will be Aam Aadmi Party that will win elections in Gujarat.
Aam Admi Party of Arvind Kejrival will make huge upset in Gujarat for BJP according to prediction 😊
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 16, 2022
Excited about the attention she is getting from India, Shinwari again tweeted praises for Arvind Kejriwal.
Aam Admi Party can truly take India out of poverty and toilets deficiency 👍
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 16, 2022
In internet slang, what Shinwari is doing is called ‘sh*tposting’ and baiting. Basically tweet something off topic or provocative just to get some kind of reaction usually to increase reach or popularity or number of followers. This is a common tactic used for going ‘viral’ on social media. Often, such popularity is leveraged by people or brands for monetary gains by taking money in exchange of advertising or marketing some product.
As one can see, Sehar Shinwari has a line in her Twitter bio which invites people to reach out to her for brand promotions via her Direct Message option.
Shinwari’s tweets have been anti-Narendra Modi and pro-Rahul Gandhi.
Only Rahul Gandhi ji can save India from hatemongers BJP & RSS 🙏
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) September 27, 2022
Recently, Shinwari tweeted how only Rahul Gandhi can ‘save’ India from BJP and RSS.
Rahul Gandhi ji can rescue india from from becoming Hindutwa Nazi state. Every Indian who wants to see a progressive and pluralistic India should support congress ✋
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) September 27, 2022
Shinwari also doesn’t quite like the RSS.
I've no animosity towards India. Infact I love this country & its rich culture. But I shall not stop criticism on religious hatemongers everywhere whether they're in Pakistan in form of TLP or in India as RSS/BJP. We need leaders like Imran Khan & Rahul Gandhi.
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) September 26, 2022
Interestingly, this is also the language Congress supporters and leaders use to refer to the RSS by dehumanising the ones associated with them.
After watching results in Rajasthan Chattisgarh and Madhya Prdesh now its clearly Congress Party is coming back in Takht-e-Delhi and I must congratulate @RahulGandhi in advance for becoming Pradhan Mantry of India in 2019 🙂
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) December 11, 2018
#MadhyaPradeshElections2018
In 2018, ahead of 2019 General Elections, Shinwari had rooted for Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister of India.
I wish @sherryontopp is made foregn minister of India when @RahulGandhi came in power 🙂#MinimumIncomeGuarantee
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) March 25, 2019
Sidhu was accused by former Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh of being uncomfortably close to Pakistani leaders.
Narendra Modi is the present day Ravan
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) October 26, 2022
Unsurprisingly, she is not a huge fan of PM Modi.
Modi government is like a cancer in the heart of South Asia that is not letting this region to see a long lasting peace.
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) October 5, 2022
She also throws the ‘bhakt’ jibes and wants the CAA repealed.
So according BJP bhakts, criticizing that extremist Yogi Adithyanath and Modi is equal to criticizing Hinduism. 🤔
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 14, 2022
Muslims of India need to learn from Sikhs about how to remain incessant in struggle for their rights. Had they continued protest in Shaheen Bagh and other major cities, Modi would've already revoked citizenship laws by now.
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) November 20, 2021
CAA does not affect the Indian citizens in any way irrespective of their faith. CAA only fast-tracks the Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from their neighbouring Islamic countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It does not ban citizenship of Muslims from these countries either. They will be eligible under other laws prevalent in the country. CAA is specifically for the persecuted religious minorities from these three countries only. The propaganda against these laws has been mindboggling to say the least.
Modi was thrown out of Punjab by the people of Khalistan today. Sardars rocked Hindutwa Sarkar shocked 😀
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) January 5, 2022
Shinwari also supports ‘Khalistan’ the Pakistan’s ISI supported separatist propaganda that seeks a separate ‘country’ Khalistan for Sikhs.
I want to tell my all Sardar pravan in Indian Occupied Ambarsar tey Chandigarh
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) August 27, 2021
Khalistan Jindabad ✌️
Shinwari’s account has also been trying to create a Hindus vs Sikh divide.
Heard most of the victims in Haryana blast belonged to Sikh community. Clearly looks like hindutwa group is trying to turn Khalistan into another war zone through terror activities. Silence of United States & West is going to cost this region an irreparable damage.
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) December 23, 2021
This was quite often used during the so-called farmer protests which had Khalistani elements supporting and financing the protests at Delhi border.
Indian Sikhs need someone like Bhagat Singh who can get them rid off this Hindutwa Rashtra and make a free country for them in the heart of Eastern Punjab.#Khalistan #FarmersProtest
— Sehar Shinwari (@SeharShinwari) October 7, 2021
Sehar Shinwari, who clearly seems very much clued in on Indian politics, has a verified Twitter account. However, very little of her is actually known. There is no media articles, no videos on YouTube which acknowledge her as an actress.
However, on Avt Khyber, there is no match found for Sehar Shinwari.
In fact, there is no mention of Sehar Shinwari on the YouTube channel either.
A little more digging led one to some ‘mini tv series’ by the name Khuboona Na Mri on Khyber News, but the episode uploaded in 2017 does not have English subtitles and one cannot clearly identify if the woman claiming to be Sehar Shinwari on Twitter is same as the actress who was part of the serial.
Their Instagram account, the one linked in their Twitter bio, is a private account with almost 35,000 followers. However, it is not a verified account.
In fact, her presence has been so little that the only media mentions she has has been two weeks back, that too in Indian media. None of the Pakistani media has ever written anything about her. Dawn, The Nation, other major Pakistani publications have not had a single article about her. No Pakistani media has talked about her. In a country where television dramas are a major escape from reality, it is interesting how she has not been part of anything till now and still has a verified badge on her profile.
Pakistan is known to deploy PsyOps to drive international narrative against India. Especially by talking about issues such as Kashmir and ‘plight of Muslims in Hindutva regime’. It is known how the ‘Khalistani’ jibe against Indian cricketer Arshdeep was a Pakistani fuelled propaganda happily spread further by ‘fact-checkers’ who hold Indian passports and citizenship.
In October 2021, India lost the match against Pakistan in T20 World Cup. At that time, Indian Cricketer Mohammed Shami became the target of a propagandist who claimed Indians abused and blamed Shami for the defeat because “he is a Muslim”. There was so much bourhaha over the fabricated mass abuse of Shami that veteran players like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag also fell into their trap.
Interestingly, at that many Twitter users pointed out that they did not see any post abusing Shami before the propaganda started to mushroom on social media platforms. Many Indian cricket fans were obviously upset at the loss and expressed anger, but there were no messages abusing him for being a Muslim. India has had Muslim cricketers, from the Pataudis, to Mohammad Azharuddin to Zahir Khan to Mohammad Kaif. When India lost matches under leadership of Azharuddin as captain, he would be on receiving end of wrath because of his position as captain of Indian cricket team, but not because of his faith.
In fact, Mohammad Shami has been earlier abused by Islamists and called a ‘bad Muslim’ for celebrating his daughter’s birthday. But none of these celebrity cricketers and ‘fact-checkers’ had then pointed it out. Shah Rukh Khan was abused for five years in a row by Islamists for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi this year. Sara Ali Khan gets cancelled as Muslim for visiting temple – none of this gets outrage from the ‘liberal secular’ lobby. None of this even gets mentioned.
At this point, one cannot say for sure whether ‘Sehar Shirwani’ is a real account of an actual female actress who did one off role in an obscure serial back in 2017 and is extremely well-versed in Indian politics or is just some honeytrap/propaganda account run by Pakistani intelligence agencies for some ulterior motives.