Is Pakistan’s honour really attached to something as little as taking a few leisurely drags?
KARACHI: Another controversy surrounding Pakistan’s most loved star, Mahira Khan, has once again given keyboard warriors and trolls a field day. A video of the starlet taking a few drags of cigarette before she went on stage for a fashion show has gone viral and given many in the country a reason to bash her. A few months ago, Mahira Khan was criticised for the same when a picture of her smoking with Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor went viral, leaving her vulnerable to public criticism.
Irrespective of the fact that smoking is indeed injurious to health, the irony that its hazardous effects are only mentioned when a woman is seen smoking is frustrating. Many male actors have proudly adorned a cigarette in their fingers as an accessory for nation or international photo shoots. But never have they ever been questioned, let alone publicly humiliated for it. But whenever it is a female star in question like Mahira Khan in this instance the burden of protecting the country’s ‘honour’ falls upon her shoulders. And is Pakistan’s honour really attached to something as little as taking a few leisurely drags? And why is it only attached to the women in the country — the same women who are barely represented and are deprived of their constitutional rights?
Ramsha Jhangir
Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2018.
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