'Abusive, unethical and disrespectful': Amna Ilyas faces backlash over kick challenge video

Actor and model Amna Ilyas has recently faced the ire of netizens after posting a video of herself 'accidentally' kicking a man in the head while attempt to do a popular internet challenge that involves the subject kicking something (usually a bottle) off a surface.

Many netizens around the world have tried their luck at the challenge, posting videos of their successful attempts on social media. The challenge requires a person to hit an object lying on top of a person's head or surface with one swift kick of the leg. Ilyas attempted the challenge as well but the actor did not hit her mark. She ended up kicking the person's head with disturbing ferocity.

Ilyas proceeded to share the video of the kick on social media in an attempt to be funny. "Bullseye," she captioned the video. "Disclaimer: nobody was hurt in the making of this video and don’t try this at home."

Netizens found the video anything but humorous though. The actor's comment section was flooded with users calling her out for an act that could have seriously injured a man. "It does look like he got hit quite a bit," a user commented underneath Ilyas' video. "That's not cool."

"Extremely disturbing act. Not cool at all," another comment read.

Artist Leena Ghani also commented on the video. 'This is not funny. This is abusive, unethical and disrespectful,' she wrote.

Other users also highlighted the reaction of celebrities, such as actors Aiman Khan who posted a comment indicating she was laughing at the video.

"Wow I saw celebrities laughing and [posting] laugh emojis in comments on this kind of video. Would you have laughed if this had happened to you?" a user angrily commented.

Netizens on Twitter also highlighted the insensitive response shown by celebrities to the video. "Actor Amna Ilyas uploaded a video kicking a guy in the head and wrote a disclaimer that nobody was hurt in the video despite literally kicking a person. Celebrities had a good laugh on it in the comments section," a user tweeted.

One user sarcastically stated they could not help but report Ilyas' account for promoting bullying and harassment. "Not me reporting Amna Ilyas's account for bullying and harassment every time I open my Instagram," they wrote.

Users also indicated that such behaviour should be condemned, regardless of the gender of the perpetrator.

While mistakes are bound to happen, Ilyas and other celebrities would fare well to remember that posting such videos as an attempt at humour is characteristic of promoting abusive behaviour. While many people love slapstick humour, there don't seem to have been any special effects or stunts involved in Ilyas' video.

When your platform is followed by hundreds of thousands of people, glorifying violence — even accidental violence — may lead to imitations by impressionable young people, regardless of disclaimers such as 'do not try this at home'. There's also not much that's funny about someone being kicked in the face.