Last week, TV actress Rida Isfahani appeared on YouTuber Nadir Ali’s podcast and made shocking statements about her allegedly abusive relationship with her ex-husband, Salman Shiekh, whom she had married in 2019. The latter reached out to Lens this week and shared his side of the story with proof of his rebuttal.
Speaking exclusively to this scribe, he initiated his statement with an oath that he was telling the truth with Allah as his witness, and that he would not attack her character in the manner that she has ‘defamed’ him.
“The most important thing is that I own my words,” the health and fitness instructor stressed.
He claimed that he had never raised his hand at her but that Rida Isfahani had physically and verbally abused him.
“I did not respond to it in kind because she is a woman and I’m a man. A man is always more powerful; a woman is not, and a man, as a protector of women, should never hit them,” he said.
I did not want to say anything but I eventually had to respond to the lies. I swear to Allah that these are all lies. The maximum I did was raise my hands in front of me in self-defense against her blows, which even our religion permits.
“The biggest lie she told was that I had assaulted her with a hot [clothes] iron. I have never attempted to physically harm her, I swear to Allah. The second biggest lie is that I had threatened to throw her off the third floor,” Salman Sheikh said.
“I married her in April and by May, and even before our marriage, I got to know about certain objectionable videos of her because of which people considered her to be a porn artiste. I started getting those videos of hers removed from various platforms, he said.
I contacted the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan, the Digital Millenium Copyright authorities, as well as YouTube, and every platform that was involved for this purpose. The first four to five months of our marriage were spent in this effort because of this, my profession was affected. My gym [business], where I was a partner, was neglected because my sole focus was getting her [reputation] cleared. This is the mark of a sincere person.
I have proof of all my removal of the objectionable content about her from various websites which I have shared with you. I stayed up for nights and worked all morning sending emails and even got her video removed from Yellowplum Limited, which does not fall under the DMCA or the DRF.
Salman Sheikh continued, “The biggest thing is, a person should not be ‘ehsaan faramosh’. I allowed my profession to suffer because of her. I went against my family for her. I left people just to pamper her and to help remove her bad memories and that bad patch involving a viral bathroom video of her. Only my heart knows how I withstood all this”.
I have been very depressed. It was disturbing when I used to get messages and calls from unknown numbers and was sent naked pictures of her while I was married to her. You can imagine my state of mind. I was ruined because of all of this. I fought with everyone for her and this is what I was dealt with in return. I can give you proof of all of this.
“On the contrary, she raised all these false allegations against me. She didn’t consider all the things I did for her, he lamented.
“Everyone knows me,” Salman Sheikh asserted and added “I’m a well-known international health and fitness expert who teaches health and fitness as well. I am a dialectical behavioral therapist; and what about her?”
You can see in her video with this YouTuber [Nadir Ali] that she is not in the right state of mind. She says I attempted to throw her off the third floor; this is a very serious allegation. This is defamation of me, which is why I’m responding to it. Allah is my witness and knows what I am saying is true. I have suffered so much because of her.
Rida Isfahani’s ex-husband went on to make a surprising revelation.
“I supported both her and her family financially. When I stopped to during the COVID-19 lockdown, their attitude toward me changed. The lockdown was a financially tough time for many people and it wasn’t easy for them to support others then. My health and fitness career took a bad hit during this time but I put my affairs aside and prioritized her family’s needs and tried my best to get their public image cleaned up,” he recalled.
Another strange facet of Salman Sheikh’s revelations was that Rida Isfahani purportedly had differences with his mother and sister. He said that she wanted him to abandon his family and live separately with her.
“I couldn’t because my brother is paralyzed and my mother and sister are married. I couldn’t comply with her wishes. Ironically, now she has made them the heroes in her story and villainized me! Lies upon lies!” he declared.
Salman Sheikh also mentioned that he regrets marrying Rida Isfahani.
“People had tried to dissuade me and told me I was going to marry a person who was ‘badnaam-e-zamana‘. Even media persons told me that she had had affairs with so-and-so but I said ‘no, when Allah Ta’ala gives us chances after mistakes and sins, how dare we not give his people another chance as well?’ he reasoned.
“I will say this, may God give everyone discernment and show everyone the right path. I have surrendered my decision to Allah. I am happy with my life; I’m satisfied. I do not want my name to be associated with hers. I have moved on and I don’t want to have any contact with her again,” Salman Sheikh said pointedly.
He remarked, “Without proof, everything is useless. She said so much about me without proof and this is defamation under the law. You can tell from a person’s face when they are lying, and you can see her face in her video with the YouTuber that she is nervous and not confident. There is a lot of difference between acting and lying”.
Salman Sheikh concluded,
It’s been three years since things ended between us and she should not have said all this about me. I had closed this chapter but she started discussing these matters again. She resurfaced to ‘clear her name’ but didn’t realize it would have repercussions because people will search for her again and after all my hard work this will prompt people to upload the videos they have of her again. This will only be detrimental to her. That’s all I want to say.
What do you think of Salman Sheik’s stance against what he believes is character assassination by his ex-wife? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
I stand by this man. I know him personally, he is a gem honest and loving person. The girl is fake and seems to be fake. Its not necessary that men always wrong. Most of the time here in our country girls plays victim cards. This is the example of playing that role
The real gentleman, role model and such a nice person. Salman is a professional health and fitness expert. The girl seems to be fake. I saw her interview, she doesn’t seems to be in senses.
next time Kachra Ghar pe mat leke aana boss Hope you have gotta lesson we all were shocked jab you got married to a pakistani Leone.. 😀