If our six-point agenda is not enforced, we will have an unfair men march against the societies unfairness. PHOTO: FILE
Ab Kala Rahaiga Pakistan! Yes, this is my official announcement in which I announce that I will campaign against the Gora Movement headed by Zubaida apa and co. Our agenda is simple, we want to be proud of our kala skin colour and as well as support the Kala Bagh dam, because it sounds like something we should support. Our movement will include artistes like Younis Jani and Shariq Roomi.
If Vital Signs can correct their mistake of Gorai Rung Ka Zamana by coming up with Sanwali Saloni, so can you! We are giving you an ultimatum, if the Gora Movement does not stop by the next Black Friday, we will shut down the entire country. No brown or dark-skinned person will go to work and this country will break down as we all know that our people are in majority. We have a six-point agenda that needs to be adopted by the state, they are:
1. Stop the Ab Gora Hoga Pakistan campaign on all mediums of mass communication.
2. No newspaper should be allowed to publish matrimonial commercials with the words ‘fair, white-skinned, single ready to mingle’.
3. Every fair-skinned person will pay tax for being gora, we will call it the Dil Jala Tax.
4. Gora Kabristan must be renamed Subka Kabristan.
5. No mother should be allowed to say, “Dhoop mai mat khelo, kalay hojao gai” to her children.
6. Aamina Shiekh must be made President.
Years of persecution have taken its toll and now we will fight for our right and respect. Why must all the fair-skinned people get the beautiful women (vice versa)? Why is Ali Zafar doing films in Bollywood and not our local John Rambo? Why was Arbab Ghulam Rahim ousted from politics? Why isn’t Nandita Das doing an item number?
Only two industries are clear of such discriminations: the Pakistan fashion industry because you don’t need to be fair-skinned to be blonde and the coal industry, because once you are in the mine we are all the same.
So my fellow kaloos and kaliaas, get up before it’s too late and let’s end the reign of Fair and Lovely and start the era of Brown and Hairy. If our six-point agenda is not enforced we will have an unfair men march against the societies unfairness — D-Chowk here we come!
How it all began
Zubaida Tariq commonly referred to as Zubaida apa, is one of the most prominent cultural personalities of Pakistan. Starting her career as a cooking expert at the age of 50, she has gained immense popularity on account of her knowledge and experience in home remedies. She is well-known for her personal culinary style and for her real love of traditional food. Her expertise in giving kitchen and household advice is significantly influential upon the Pakistani locality. However, her advertisement on Zubaida aapa Whitening Soap has triggered great response considering the skin colour bias it forecasts. While some view this commercial as accommodating, others see it as a step towards discrimination.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (67)
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Man this article is so funny and impressive. Hats off to Ali Gul Pir for such entertainment. Truly a great medium to get you refreshed
@Kukkar: yes he is
@Zubaida Tariq: with all due respect, instead of curbing stopping this trend of finding a gore bahu you are supporting this colour discrimination. We all respect you for who you are however such racist compaign does not suit you.
Yes Zubaida Apa, the only problem faced by Pakistanis is dark skin. All other problems; poverty, target killing, sectarian violence, corruption, murder, rape, education, education have been solved. Seems like 'gora rang' was the last thing left for Pakistanis to achieve. "Ab gora ho ga Pakistan". I applaud you Zubaida Appa for solving the last of Pakistan's problem!
@Aysha: This beauty isn't assumed everyone can clearly tell the difference and fair doesn't always mean beautiful a fair complexion person can have hyperpigmentation and acne in these skin problems its fair complexion would not matter cause due to these problems that fair person won't look attractive but a person with plain and glowing skin (doesn't matter what skin color) and good facial features will look handsome/beautiful and regardless of skin tone we have good looking people nobody's calling wheaty or caramel skin ugly as long as they are good looking which normally and mostly we are. So the main point here is facial features are the main thing that make a person attractive or beautiful but skin color and physicality also plays the important part. If your parents ever try to marry you off with some pirate would you?? you know how they look like they don't have any personality or looks so would you? Obviously not!! looks play a very important role u can't ignore that i hate to say it but our neighbour country doesn't usually have that too and no i am not being racist just a simple fact. Its easy here for everyone to say "Dark skin is sooo hot n smoke we never wanna be fair we don't need any whitening treatments etc". But when the time for marriage of those girls or boys will come most of them will be looking for some GORA or GORI not good looking facial features or looks but SKIN TONE! i know it shouldn't be like that [PEACE]
@Oats: "our Urdu speaking Karachi based media"......it seems that you need to grow up.
@Aysha: I didn't mean to say all the Pakistan's are fair and there is no such thing as dark skin in here i only meant to say majority if us have wheaty to light complexion here's the difference between us and indians . A common international perception based on observance of physical features is that most Pakistanis are lighter skinned than most Indians. Most Pakistanis resemble the looks of peoples inhabiting on its western borders and beyond. Indeed, many Pakistanis also resemble many Northwest Indians or higher caste Indians, but those are a minority in India. Similarly, a few people of Pakistan resemble peoples of South India, lower caste Indians, Northeast India, etc. but they are a minority in Pakistan. And besides, let's say, if some Saudis look similar to the French that does not make them one people, same applies here between Indians and Pakistanis.About 50% of Indians are Australoid-Negroid by race, 35% Caucasoid, and 15% Mongoloid in their overall genetic composition. Majority of Indians are darker in their skin complexion with wider noses shorter heights. About 70% of Pakistanis are Caucasoid by race, 20% Australoid- Negroid, and 10% Mongoloid in their overall genetic composition. Majority of Pakistanis are tall with fair skin complexion, similar to Middle Eastern and Mediterranean peoples. While the racial features of each ethnic group are not uniform, Pashtuns are the most Caucasoid, followed by Kashmiris, Baluchis, north Punjabis, and then Sindhis, Seraikis, Urdu-speakers, etc. I am not being racist or saying those products should be encouraged nor i have hatred of any skin color. And we should know the difference between us and Indians please don't try to mix us with them.
@Dhanish: And JeLo topped the list because she is beautiful i don't think it had anything to do with her being TAN
The comment of Oats is typical Punjabi holier-than-thou mentality. Let others ethnicities be and if you think only Indian/Urdu Speaking people care about color then you need to wake up and just have a look around yourself.
@Loki of Asgard: And equating Pakistani identity with any kind of beauty standards is not acceptable. Where should 'ugly' Pakistanis go then? There will be a lot of people who wouldn't fit into each and every criterion of beauty you may come up with. Also, I do not see why is it so important for us to define ourselves in comparison with the assumed (yes it is assumed) ugliness/darkness of Indians.
@Loki of Asgard: I would like to invite you to travel across the country to find out that people in Pakistan, whose ancestors have lived here for centuries can have dark complexion. There are people with fairer/paler/rosier skins as well. But equating Pakistani identity with rosy cheeks is discrimination. In any case, I am against the lame ads that promote the idea that women need to be 'fairer' in order to be successful in life & career + catching husbands/gaining power to reject men when they come up with marriage proposals (as one ad suggested). The denial in response to such ads in even more appalling. Saying that all Pakistanis are 'fair' (i.e. no dark skins exist), or saying that Pakistanis do not discriminate at all on the basis of complexion are two forms of denial which seem to be very popular here on this forum. @Sterry those who migrated from India also come in all kinds of shades, varieties and ethnicities. @ Truth, India and Pakistan are large multi-ethnic countries and there is a lot of variation in features, complexions, structures but yes I think there is a larger South Asian category we can be identified with.
@Dhanish: We havnt won those contests cause I dont think we have ever tried to get our actresses or models into that our industry is not that big thats the reason and my comment wasnt racist I am just proud of our beautiful country and we are not the same there is a difference we may have similar faces but if they see a pathan or fair skinned other hatta katta pakistani they can tell the difference they'll think we r an afghan or pakistani cause they know what we look like theres also a difference of looks and physicality one indian and pakistani teams play you can see that difference besides there uniform and you can also tell which people r pakis and indians in crowd other then there cheering for specific team or wearing team shirts you can also see it through media do our actors news casters or other people see really look like indian except few who came from indian ethnicity....
Oats@ Starting something with sheer discrimination like people of karachi and people in punjab/kashmir is even more childish.. Very honestly, my all relatives in Punjab keep on suggesting me creams and totkas and I invite them living in extremely tropical weather of Karachi for 4, 5 months, let alone my whole life being spent here. Above all, it was satire based article
@Kukkar: Yes its the same guy
As I man I've always preferred the darker skinned lasses over the lighter skinned ones. So please dusky ladies, don't change!
The errors in this article spoilt the fun of reading it.
Is the Author Ali Gul Pir the same singer of Waderay ka Beta or a different person? Just curious
@Sterry hritik is Hindu he doesn't have Muslim ancestry. nothing common with you and before partition whole subcontinent was called india btw. @loki of Asgard well but yet the world prefers exotic beauties and tan themselves to get our skin tone don't they? They don't prefer pale white beauties. But likes of Jennifer Lopez, kim kardashian etc. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/04/jennifer-lopez-people-most-beautiful-zac-efron.html
get out of your superficial world u haven't seen 1.2billion people to judge others. And let me prove how you are wrong in making that assumption tell me how many world pageants have Pakistan won in beauty context it participated? Never. While india has won ash,sush,Lara,Diana,dia,aditi,priyanka,yukta,Nicole endless list get my point ? Indians even respresented as miss america, Fiji and many countries. Victoria secrets model monikangana,ujwala,kalle.Tell me that when pakistani wins or models for these ok? Btw even sunny leone(karenjit kaur) is indian. ET be fair and publish this you allow baseless idiotic racist comment but not rational rebuttal
ET why did u censure the comment? @oats oh yes blame everything on india that will get rid of your guilt/shame/problems right? Blame it on others,turn a blind eye and get rid of responsibility. Bigotry at its best. @aysha Pakistanis and Indians look same. A westerner will call you desi be pakistani or indians because they can't tell the difference. Until we tell our country of origin its difficult even for Pakistanis or Indians to make out unless it's been told or make out by accent. South Indian belt may look bit dusky. But the North Indian Punjab,himachal, Uttaranchal etc belt is same as Pakistan. And the extreme north east are fair and have Asian eyes. India has more diverse population that's the only diff. @ author nandita sen is a serious art movie actress. She doesnt do commercialised cinema or item sng. About dusky beauties, mayb u didn't see Smita patil or kajol or rani mukherji. Mayb u didn't see bipasha,depika,chitrangana,keona item songs etc. all bong beauties that's in bollywood have exotic tanned skin than pale white. Like any industries we have diversity that represent india fair,pale, peachy, dusky,exotic,dark etc in bollywood.
@doom: And those jillions of brands are still here because our people are encouraging it but i have seen mostly girls dont apply it to get fair they apply it as a foundation when going out somewhere but in the end all skin tones are good looking if you take good care of your skin and we should be grateful we dont have that indian ot bengladeshi type skin our light gandumi and usual skin tone is much lighter then what is their's
@sterry: Wow I didnt know that about Hrithik but i am just proud of being a Pakistani cause we have beauties :) just like any other arab country
@Aysha: Well that boy is sure right about the thing that we are indeed much different and and very fair skinned and even no less then a GORA if we we compare indian skin to our skin tone we have mostly beautiful people even without that fair skin tone our people are attractive and good and decent looking then them... they only have that sort of beauty in media and showbiz but we have it walking down the streets and everywhere
"Aamina Shiekh must be made President."
This agenda is the best one and really made me LOL! :p
Ab Gora Hoga Pakistan Aapa apply the soap first to your own family then advise the Nation! We don't expect these type of irrational statements from you especially due to your high pro cultural stance
Bravo!!
Hilarious and beautifully written. should come up with a song as well mate
@Aysha: Even in India, there are differences in races because not all Indians are same colour. For example Indians in the Northwest closer to Pakistan like Sikhs are fairer but Indians in Tamil and Telagu or eastern areas like Bihar are darker. Because Pakistanis are from northwest, they are usually fairer. Of course lots of Pakistanis come from India so they will look like people where they came from in India. Dark skinned Pakistanis can be seen in TV and dramas all the time. For example Maria Wasti is dark skinned but she is popular TV actress. A lot of so called fair Indian actors and actresses like Hrithik Roshan have roots in Pakistan too.
Zubaida apa should be the first customer of her soap!! Duh!!! Why cant we talk about education, poverty, braindrain, safety issues etc etc ? I mean, c'mon!!
Oats, For someone supposedly against discrimination based on color, yours is a pretty biased and racist comment. *There is an entire world outside your 'Punjabi/ Kashmiri' home so all your generalizations based on people you personally "know of" are ridiculous. *It is equally naïve to characterize media as "Urdu speaking Karachi based." Express Tribune, for example, is an English language newspaper that has people from all ethnicities working and writing for it. The writer of this satire is Sindhi speaking. Most of the media personalities and big names are Punjabis. *If skin color were only an issue for "some people in the media" then there wouldn't be massive sales of skin lightening creams all over the country. People do care about color and that is why we keep seeing new creams, potions and soaps appearing in the market. * It's racist to suggest only Indians care about "silly concepts of skin color and skin tone." Many other Asian and Middle Easterners are obsessed with skin color too and hence skin bleaching and whitening creams are a household name in many third world countries.
@oats oh yes blame everything on india that will get rid of your guilt/shame/problems right? Blame it on others,turn a blind eye and get rid of responsibility. Bigotry at its best. @aysha Pakistanis and Indians look same. A westerner will call you desi be pakistani or indians because they can't tell the difference. Until we tell our country of origin its difficult even for Pakistanis or Indians to make out unless it's been told or make out by accent. South Indian belt may look bit dusky. But the North Indian Punjab,himachal, Uttaranchal etc belt is same as Pakistan. And the extreme north east are fair and have Asian eyes. India has more diverse population that's the only diff. @ author nandita sen is a serious art movie actress. She doesnt do commercialised cinema or item sng. About dusky beauties, mayb u didn't see Smita patil or kajol or rani mukherji. Mayb u didn't see bipasha,depika,chitrangana,keona item songs etc. all bong beauties that's in bollywood have exotic tanned skin than pale white. Like any industries we have diversity that represent india fair,pale, peachy, dusky,exotic,dark etc in bollywood.
@Saad: Because once you go black, you never go back unless you're Micheal Jackson. Sorry I couldn't resist.
Zubaida apa probably gets paod buttloads to endorse ridonk z-list products. Good for her. She does look a bit scary in the whiteface she wears for the ad. Not good for her.
Simple Love the article and the intention behind it. We all must stand against this color discrimination.
Assalam Alaekum,
Brilliant, nice article...made us lol....early morninng...keep it up
Are you kidding me?
Wow! Thts co00l man ;) I just hate the line "Ab Gora Hoga Pakistan" They don't even know the value of their beautiful olive complexion...people in west die to get their complexion burnt a bit!!!
Time for Zubaida Aapa to add Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' in her iPod playlist!
@Oats: I think this isn't true. There is a lot of discrimination against dark skin. why do you think 'fair and lovely' is so popular. It is not about any particular ethnicity. I remember one day in our class there was a guy who said that Pakistanis are different from Indians because we are fair-skinned. And I have heard this argument more than once, from pale (or fair, as they like to call themselves) skinned men and also women of different ethnicity. Where does that put all the dark skinned Pakistanis? Also about Iran: Iranian Balochis are discriminated against because of their dark skin.
@Akash: Dear Akash you don't pick your complexion, you are born with it. Also, Ali Gul Pir is not a woman.
Stop making fun of me.I am trying to serve people who have obsessed with their skin color, however it doesn't mean that , i hate black people, look! we are the creation of Allah Almighty,and no matter what skin color we have, my intentions are clear. But on the other side the main motive of this product launching was to overcome the young female problem who are going through the process of marriage proposal refusal ,nothing else.
This whole “fairness" thing needs to end. Every human being needs 20 minutes of sunlight everyday for their health. The only time I'm reminded of my skin color is when I go back to Pakistan and see all of my unnaturally white cousins.
its criminal to set trends like this, zubaida appa is only a tool we can recognize here but what do u think of all those stupid morning shows,they show such thngs on daily bases, " gora rang karain,use pine apple scrub on ur feet,eat this n drink that to reduce fat, u must look like kareena kapoor n lot more". is there any end??? Ali Gul Pir thanks for bringing this on board.
@Sumaira: Cherry blossom is already there
you shouid take it as a challenge and give zubaida appa a compitition, come up with a cream that can dark skin tone.
I have seen zubaida aapa crying on live television pleading people not to make fun of her. She makes herself a laughing stock just for the sake of getting endorsement deals
With all due respect to "Zubaida Appa" age and everything -- the woman is making fun of her self at this point in time with an add like that... I do not think any of our mother's would actually do an add like this or even promote the idea that if you are fair you get everything n if you are not you are so doomed.. and add like hers is just hopeless.. "GORA HO GA PAKISTAN" WHATS THE BIG POINT IN BEING GORA. IT DOENT GET YOU ANY THING.
I and a few other friends came across this ad last night while watching TV. Following its end we were all like, OMG! WTH...!! I must admit that in present day it's the most annoying commercial ad. I'm not a "white skinned" person and have been living in a western country, goray ka des, for last three years. And honestly speaking, I've never felt any need of getting fairer. Zubeida aapa pls! STOP this CREEPY CAMPAIGN!
ALL skin colors are equally beautiful; white, black, brown etc. @Oats, Actually people in Punjab are among the most skin colour conscious people I have seen. So many of my friends couldn't get proposals because they were not stereotypically fair. Ironically, it is aunties themselves who want the most beautiful DILs with the perfect, peachy complexions even if they were far from, judging by their own standards, "beautiful" even in their prime. Lol.
how stupid and childish....let people have their freedom you have yours too
Piece of crap!!!
ali i love you for this! i MIGHT just start listening to your songs after this!!!
yes, i must agree, this is a disgrace. I am outraged by this add.
I will join your campaign. Proud of who we are!
Women will always be women. (Sometimes the men join in too.) If color means nothing than the author should not be against "fairness" either. It is just a choice - like we pick the color of our clothes.
I am surprised how Zubaida appa agreed to launch such a product by her name. Is she lacking of some funds???? She gained huge respect and love by her cooking and household tips. She should maintain that.
Thank you for writing this!!! Zubeida Apas totkas are the bane of my existence.
The article clearly shows that the people in Pakistan have nothing to do except publishing garbage
@Oats: I think you are right because Zubaida Apa is originally from Hyderabad, Deccan in South India and I imagine that skin colour is a big issue there. Although this article is sarcasm it shows people just need to love themselves in order for others to love them too.
If the western people crave for their skin to be of darker shade, What's wrong if some of us wants our skin to be of lighter color?
Thank you for writing this article. It made my day. For a moment there I thought you were serious. Too bad it's only satire. Funny though.
Ha ha..absolutely brilliant!!! Ace piece!! Good job! Now plzzzz do soemthing again for govt. to reopen YouTube!!
Loved it.
Just 1 suggestion, rather request. Please D-Chowk nahi. Protest MA Jinnah Road pe!!
well this article is even lame
I'm amazed as how hair are holding on despite going down on the skin side.
You've been much too kind to Zubaida aapa; more kind than such racism deserves. But to be fair (the other kind), we should start with Unilever. If they can make jillions off blatant racism, Zubapa is nothing.
No Pakistani I know of obsesses about skin color even though some people in the media think it is an issue. Perhaps it seems our Urdu speaking Karachi based media doesn't reflect the thinking of all of Pakistan? More silly concepts of skin color and skin tone brought over from India. I don't think that dark skinned Arabs or dark skinned Iranians feel lesser than their lighter compatriots. In my Punjabi / Kashmiri home, darker skinned family members are no better or lesser than fairer skinned members. We are all Pakistanis. In today's world, it's time to give this childish discussion about color a rest! Worry about ability and your heart! If some self conscious people want to use a soap that will damage their skin, that's their business alone.