Instead of just bashing our neighbours, we should spread awareness amongst teens and adults
LAHORE: India has had a long sought obsession with fair skin. From their ads, endorsed by celebrities, to their snowy-white female leads in Bollywood, the obsession has only grown. And the promise of the country’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) medical wing just strengthens it. The RSS is promising “dark-skinned” parents customised babies with a fair complexion. Apparently, a workshop will be held, explaining procedures through ancient secrets on how to conceive a ‘susantan’ or a super baby.
We, on this side of the border, can dismiss this by calling out our neighbours for enforcing such bizarre tactic to attain fair skin. But by doing this we will be choosing to ignore the problem that exists in our own houses and letting our girls use extreme tactics to attain the goal of ‘fair skin’ themselves. If in India colonisation and Bollywood contributes to the fair skin obsession, in Pakistan too, the desire of a gori bahu has done equal harm.
Woman after woman are seen using whitening bleach on their faces at parlours. What many women don’t realise is that face bleach is a hydroquinone chemical, which can have severe side effects, such as irritation of skin or even swelling of broken skin areas. In fact, in most parlours at affluent localities injections that reduce melanin pigment in the body, leading to fairer complexion, are vastly used, which comes with a hefty price tag. Besides, such measures only create a stigma that discriminates against dark-skinned people. This often leads to psychological trauma and discontentment of one’s appearance.
Instead of just bashing our neighbours, we should spread awareness amongst teens and adults. Ban the sale of skin-whitening creams and advocate for a healthy life partner than a white, fair and thin.
Mira Butt
Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2017.
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