Mathira deems Faysal Quraishi’s statement on married women ‘sad’

VJ Mathira recently took to social media to criticise actor Faysal’s Quraishi’s comments on the difficulties of working with married women in an interview, who prefers instead to work with younger, unmarried women. Deeming the actor’s statement problematic, Mathira questioned why a woman’s ability to “multitask” isn’t appreciated, and that her career is made to suffer after marriage due to the preconceived notion that women with domestic responsibilities cannot excel when it comes to work.

Mathira wrote on her Instagram story, “One should appreciate a woman doing multitasking. Why is it [that] a woman’s career goes down the drain if they [get married] and have kids?” She added further, “It’s pretty sad to hear a statement like this.”

On how the female actors he started out with are no longer seen starring alongside him in leading roles, with his recent co-stars being from the younger lot of actors, Faysal explained that the women he worked with early on in his career have become engrossed in domestic responsibilities. “This has been a bit of an issue,” the actor shared, adding, “I think it’s because women end up getting married and taking care of their children so it’s more difficult for them [to continue their careers]. When I worked with Sunita [Marshall], she would always be worried about her kids. Shaista [Lodhi] would always be on the phone and would tell me how she didn’t know how to focus on work. When we were doing Baba Jani with Savera [Nadeem], she’d have [her children on video] the entire time. She’d be taking care of her kids and doing scenes at the same time.”

Elaborating further on how the careers of women in the industry take a back seat after marriage, Faysal continued, “Women are burdened a lot more. Men say they are running the house, but the actual work is done by the women. Even if she is an actor, she’ll be looking at the kids and groceries and whatnot at the same time.”

Citing the example of actor Iqra Aziz, he added, “This is an issue with female actors, they work fine until they are married. Even if you look at Iqra [Aziz], you notice how she’s taken on less work ever since she had a baby.”