Is moving on really moving too fast?

A candid discussion about divorce has turned into one of the latest celebrity debates in Pakistan, after veteran actor Saba Faisal questioned how society now responds to the end of marriages, prompting strong reactions from fellow actors and fans over grief, stigma and women's right to leave difficult relationships.

Faisal made the comments during an appearance on a TV's talk show, where she reflected on what she described as a significant change in social attitudes towards divorce.

"Before, when someone used to get divorced, there used to be a 'Sog' happening for months," Faisal said, referring to the mourning and grief that traditionally followed a divorce within a family. She contrasted that response with what she sees today, saying that divorced women could now casually mention their separation during conversations before moving on with their lives.

"Dads couldn't do anything, but now when we find out girls have got divorced, it's mentioned casually over a phone call," she said, adding that she had travelled abroad afterwards and tried to figure things out.

Her comments quickly spread online, with celebrities and social media users divided over whether the changing response to divorce represents a loss of sensitivity towards marriage or a greater willingness to acknowledge that marriages can end for different reasons.

Actor Hira Khan was among the strongest voices to respond. In an Instagram story, she wrote, "It's better to go through this than to be carried through a grave," before adding, "She needs help."

Khan argued that divorce should not be confused with celebration and highlighted the circumstances that can make leaving a marriage a matter of safety and dignity. "No one celebrates divorce," she wrote, adding that women have a religiously recognised right to seek it.

She also criticised what she described as the policing and shaming of women who choose to leave marriages. "I'm half your age, but I understand this much," Khan wrote. "Perhaps I was raised to understand that a woman's dignity, safety and right to choose matter."

Faisal's daughter, actor Sadia Faisal, subsequently appeared to respond to Khan, writing, "I wish I could see this so-called actress someday."

Actor Zoya Nasir also entered the discussion, writing in the comments, "Oh. My. God. I have SO much to say, with all due respect. What a dangerous and twisted narrative."

Not everyone, however, agreed with the criticism directed at Faisal. Dr Ejaz Waris offered a more conciliatory perspective, agreeing that divorce should not be celebrated while arguing that its emotional impact can extend to both families.

Fans similarly debated whether discussions about divorce had unfairly focused on the woman's family. Some pointed out that the husband's family can also experience grief, while others argued that the depth of that pain is difficult to understand until a divorce involves one's own daughter.

At the same time, some users defended Faisal, saying her central point was simply that divorce had become more normalised and that people could now return to their everyday lives more quickly following a separation.

The controversy comes shortly after Faisal spoke at length in another interview about the way her comments are handled online. She criticised the practice of editing remarks into short clips designed to generate viral reactions.

"The respect and honour we have built over our entire lives gets severely disturbed when a couple of words are spliced together and edited into the video," she said. Calling virality "a strange illness", Faisal said she had begun taking longer breaks from public appearances because of the way apparently ordinary remarks could be repackaged into controversy.

The actor has also previously attracted criticism for her views on marriage and family, making her latest comments part of a broader public discussion around traditional expectations and changing attitudes among younger generations.

At the heart of the latest debate is a distinction that has emerged repeatedly in the reactions: acknowledging divorce as a painful experience does not necessarily mean treating it as something desirable, while reducing stigma does not necessarily erase the grief associated with the end of a marriage.

For some of Faisal's critics, a woman being able to move forward after divorce is a sign of greater acceptance rather than indifference. For those defending her, the actor was drawing attention to what she sees as a decline in the social and familial gravity once attached to the breakdown of a marriage.