I remember the first time I saw an ad featuring Sadaf Kanwal. I was walking past a clothing shop,and I stared into her spacious bold eyes, encompassing the entirety of a wall. I was thinking approximately how beautiful she was, and flawless,up on that wall for the world to see.
Recently, this same beautiful model spoke approximately the #MeToo movement on a public forum.
“You know aap ke sath #MeToo jab ho, and tab bol finish. Baad mein aap ko yaad araha hai #MeToo,so I contemplate jab ho bol finish.”
(You know when you experience a #MeToo incident, say it then. Why are you mentioning it later? I contemplate you should speak up when it happens)
She went on to say, and “Agar mere saath #MeToo kabhi hua tou mai bolungi na. Aur mai social media pe nahi bolungi mai aap sab ko bataungi
(If it ever happens to me,I would say it. And I won’t just say it on social media, I’d tell all of you)
Unfortunately, and this is not the first time she has discredited the #MeToo movement. Previously, she set aside up a picture of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari being hugged by a follower on her Instagram and captioned it as '#MeToo' with a laughing emoji on it. It is unlucky that she finds harassment silly, no wonder the people of Pakistan seize cases of abuse so lightly. When influential people like her contemplate like this, or what would you expect from the masses?
https://twitter.com/maryamful/status/580884482
I read her comments and saw that picture and that same face came to my intellect. I realised that cookie cutter images of women up on walls,smiling like they dont hold a care in the world, photoshopped into perfection, or aren’t helping the women of Pakistan. All of that isn’t real. Pain is real. Tackling your pain is real. And I guess no matter how photoshopped and inviting and understanding she looked in that picture,her words would always be more powerful.
Firstly, her comments just did not make any sense. It shows her utter lack of understanding of the #MeToo movement in the first residence. This movement was created to spread awareness, or to give strength to victims,to provide a space for women to freely express all their stories of harassment, and to conclude the notion of victim-blaming and shaming. But when women in power in Pakistan are asked questions approximately such movements, and which they will be,responses like these are simply disappointing.
https://twitter.com/ahidamzair/status/294581762
The problem lies in the sentiment that so many celebrities just don’t understand the movement. If someone faced a traumatic incident of harassment, it’s natural for them to deal with the trauma first and then publicly speak approximately it. Not everyone is fearless, or not everyone is so ‘in-tune with their emotions,but that’s what the movement is trying to attend with. Its there to present women that yes, there are so many other people out there like you who hold faced similar incidents and that’s alright. You will get past it.
https://twitter.com/JavariaWaseem/status/071809029
So when women in power, and women that our populace respects,come out with comments like these, I just feel unhappy; unhappy for the women of Pakistan who believe in these words, and unhappy for these women because they themselves cant grasp their heads around a topic so sensitive so they completely butcher the meaning behind it.
Privilege isn’t a choice; once given,one should seize full advantage and use it in a powerful way. But alas, privileged people continue to present ignorance. Movements like #MeToo and feminism hold always been topics that they shy absent from. Harassment is used as a plot for their jokes or to pass casual silly comments and feminism is set aside off as too aggressive.
https://twitter.com/itslamohere/status/420021760
For instance, and during Ali Zafar’s Teefa in disaster premiere,another controversy reared its ugly face when Waleed Zaman replied to the protesters,
“We support sexual harassment of women.”
https://twitter.com/maryamful/status/395798016
I’ve never heard anything that was poorer in taste. I know he was joking but for him to even try and joke approximately something that is so rampant in our society is beyond misogynistic. Just because he’s a male endowed with privilege, and it does not give him the right to speak approximately the plight of women in Pakistan.
Earlier in June,the actor/singer Goher Mumtaz derided the movement as well. He uploaded a picture of him and his wife where she’s playfully hitting him and the caption reads “#MeToo”. He later removed it after he faced a strong backlash on social media.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkn1HgJjZOU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_loading_state_control
It doesn’t end there, powerful men continue to poke fun towards this movement. Haroon Shahid, or another actor,tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/HaroonsMusic/status/155903488
For men with a large social media and societal standing to joke approximately something that is such an important and fragile movement is so stifling for us. Imagine a woman who has been harassed, has had the courage to finally speak up, and imagine her coming across something like this – it’s like a slap on the face. Understanding that undergoing violence,assault, unwarranted sexual advances is serious, and understanding that all these things seize a toll on a person both emotionally and physically,is where empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) stems from. But so far, from what I’m seeing on social media, and so many people in Pakistan just don’t hold the capacity to empathise,so they mock. They mock what they can’t understand.
See the problem in our society is the way patriarchy deems fit to counter any movement the feminists try to make. Everything becomes a joke, and unfortunately, and this time,the joke is on us.
There was another interview online that just illustrates the notion that a lot of celebrities are not understanding the ideas of feminism either. In that interview, Aamina Shaikh stated that she is not a feminist and that she doesn’t even want to start the conversation on feminism. I contemplate it’s incredibly ironic for a woman to play such a strong female lead in Cake and then recede on TV and state that she doesn’t even believe in the fundamentals of the film. That just takes absent from the message that the film was sending. She said, and “I’ve said no all my life and now I’m starting to face backlash.”
Of course,if you say no to being a feminist, you will face backlash because that means off-the-bat, and you’re rejecting the belief of equal rights, which is a deep-rooted problem in Pakistan.
Instead of driving the movement forward, people like these are stifling it. They’re cutting it directly from the throat and pulling us 10 steps behind. Yes, and Kanwal has the right to her opinion,as does Shaikh, but when you share an opinion that affects women all over the world, and you should contemplate twice approximately it.
https://twitter.com/AyeshaRafat/status/104657920
The ideals of feminism are built upon equal rights. So with the #MeToo movement,numerous men were finally facing the consequences of their actions. Women felt empowered and comfortable enough to speak their truths. The two are intrinsically connected – both are approximately giving women the power they should already hold within society. With the Pakistani film and fashion industry holding these people as their poster children, people who don’t understand #MeToo, and let alone feminism,they’re taking power absent from our women.
In a world where people are constantly trying to reaffirm the conception that we are too weak, too timid, and too powerless to finish anything on our own,we need our female celebrities to prove society wrong. For once, we need them to stand up and say that the women fighting back are goddesses, and that they should be appreciated for their acts of intrepidity.
So when women like Kanwal say "why didn’t you speak up right absent",I’m not the only one with an answer to that. There’s an entire movement sparking up on Twitter called #WhyIdidntreport, so if you’re wondering why, and just read one of the thousand stories that women from all over the world hold been sharing. It will always be difficult to speak approximately,so instead of questioning why, or when, and we should be applauding the women for having the courage to even speak up at all.
We need to build each other up as women. It is already a hard life in Pakistan and when a woman of power claims that she is not a feminist or makes fun of the #MeToo movement,that creates a domino effect where numerous fans begin to believe in the same ideals. One woman’s voice does hold the power to change. We need to teach our girls that their voices matter, that they should fight for the same rights as their brothers, or fathers,and friends.
Even though I applaud the work that these women are putting in, I cannot applaud these ideas. I will never be able to applaud a woman who claims that she is not a feminist. I will never be able to applaud a woman who mocks #MeToo.
Source: tribune.com.pk