Daily Times

Pakistani model Areeba Habib has apologised to drama actress Zara Noor Abbas for ridiculing her runway walk. Earlier, Areeba had posted a video of her colleagues, Farwa and Javeria, mocking Zara’s walk during Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW).

Zara who walked for Huma Adnan on day one of FPW, shared Areeba’s video on Instagram and called out the models for mocking her. Last night, Areeba took to Instagram and posted a statement ‘to offer a formal apology’.

“I take full responsibility for uploading the video, and my colleagues had nothing to do with it,” she wrote.

“The video shows a couple of girls – friends, colleagues – having their own fun in their own time and space, at the conclusion of a long day at work, something that all normal people are allowed to do but I accept that it should not have been done at someone else’s expense, especially publically,” the model added.

Areeba continued, “Given that the video was private, yet again, I stand by my stance: we respect all women and their craft very much. It seems like this incident has in fact been blown out of proportion by the third parties involved which is why I thought it would be best to take this chance to apologise for any inconvenience that this video may have caused to #ZaraNoorAbbas and bring all this to an end.”

Calling out the models, Zara had said, “You girls look amazing in this video and thank you for making me learn a few things about the world. Now I can’t complain why women in the world have to fight so much for gender equality. That is because women don’t build women. They bash at each other like this. They don’t know that it is the women who don’t let each other grow.”

“I am an actor, not a model. I can’t even imagine to be a model. It is so effortlessly amazing and tiring at the same time. But as an entertainer, it is my job to entertain my audiences. And that’s what I did with my walk which was based on the theme of a warrior princess thus the belt and the boots were incorporated in my outfit. That is why designers choose actors as showstoppers for their walks. To add more drama. Some liked it, some didn’t. My designer was happy and so was I,” the drama actress had further said.

Published in Daily Times, April 15^th 2018.