6 days ago

Javed Akhtar Recalls Farhan’s Childhood Question About Religious Identity

Javed Akhtar Recalls Farhan’s Childhood Question About Religious Identity
"Are We Muslims?" Javed Akhtar Recalls 8-Year-Old Farhan Akhtar's Query About Identity · NDTV

Javed Akhtar talked about how his children, Farhan and Zoya, grew up.

He said their mother, Honey Irani, did most of the work of raising them during their formative years.

Javed said he did not teach them to follow a particular religion.

When Farhan was about seven or eight, he asked whether they were Muslims.

Javed told him that the community or place where someone is born is less important than the person they become.

He described the children as growing up without a religious identity being given to them.

Javed is proud that Farhan and Zoya became successful through their own work.

He also said he encouraged them to read, and they now read more than he does.

Key facts

Speaker
Javed Akhtar
Children
Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar
Former wife
Honey Irani
Religious upbringing
Akhtar said he did not introduce a religion to his children and described them as “areligious.”
Farhan’s age in anecdote
About seven or eight years old
Upbringing
Akhtar credited Honey Irani with the major role in raising and shaping the children.
Reading
Akhtar said he helped instill a reading habit, but Farhan and Zoya now read more than he does.

Quotes

Javed Akhtar

Veteran lyricist and screenwriter, and Farhan Akhtar’s father

“Well, I am proud of them because not that they are successful, they are doing well, they are living well but they have achieved all this strictly on their own. No thanks to the parents. They have done it on their own.”
NDTV
“Major major credit goes to Honey; she has brought them up. When Honey and I parted, Zoya was perhaps 11, he was 9 and a half and these were the formative years.”
indianexpress.com NDTV

Sources

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