Toxic male-lead Feroze Khan glorifies domestic abuse without a trigger warning

It’s 2022 and we live in a country where hugging is banned on television but graphic displays of violence are aired without any trigger warnings. Instead of highlighting the ills of society, drama serials tend to showcase abuse and violence as norms. The Feroze Khan and Sana Javed-starrer, Aye-Musht-e-Khaak had raised many eyebrows for its cringe writing but the latest episode did not just manifest an angry toxic male lead but also glorified domestic abuse in a conflicting relationship.

Trigger warning!

The graphic belligerent scene between Mustajab (Khan) and Shiza (Nimra Khan) begins as he drags her by the neck and pulls her into the room screaming at the top of his lungs. With him sweating, his pupils dilated and bloodshot veins on his forehead, even with Nimra fighting back, the dominating aspect in the scene is that it only ends up adding fuel to his wrath.

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Let’s believe it was an important scene in the plot to show that this fragile ego couldn’t stand an argument but was this graphic violence scene the only way to depict it?

A user commented, “This scene could have been done with a bit more sensitivity and less violence for sure! Why is the so-called hero indulging in abuse? Geo TV, you can't promote abuse like this!”

When the promo was uploaded on social media, viewers were not only upset at the execution but also the poor writing and acting by both stars. A flock of users also shifted the blame to Pemra and questioned why regulators allowed this to air without any warnings. Some even reported it and asked for it to be removed before the episode goes live. Another user called it out for being “triggering” and wrote, “This scene is downright triggering and glorifies violence and the toxic male lead as a protagonist. Highly disturbing!”

Content creators need to realise that people who are or have been victims of abuse can be triggered by such disturbing depictions of regularised violence disguised as alpha male behaviour. There are more important things than TRPs. Despite being called out multiple times for its problematic storyline, the show continues to unveil more layers of disturbing character traits with each episode and starts a new trend for all the wrong reasons.

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