Daily Times

How many times have we heard that one of the basic issues in Pakistan is education? If only the almost twenty-three million out-of-school children in our country would receive a proper education, then perhaps Pakistan would prosper. But what do we do with our internationally graduated, private school brats, who might not be illiterate but perhaps most ignorant to the socio-cultural realities at hand?

Most recently, Waleed Zaman, the creative director of Kayseria, made remarks regarding sexual harassment that would put Donald Trump to shame. While attending the premier of Ali Zafar’s new film ‘Teefa in Trouble’, he proudly proclaimed that he supported sexual harassment, not once, but a few times, all the while sporting a carefree smile on his face. Since then social media has been stormed with outcry from many feminists, activists and models, and we see the age old elitist defence of ill-timed, insensitive statements; ‘he was just being sarcastic, it was just a joke’.

The problem is being able to say such things as joke, to raise your hands in support of sexual harassment, laugh it off till you receive enough criticism that you issue an empty apology in grammatically correct English with relevant adjectives. While Mr Zaman admits to it being ‘nasty’ and vicious’ he justifies his response through his “extremely upset and angry” state at his wife being “threatened, harassed and provoked badly”. Although anyone with two eyes can see her, walking past the protestors without exchanging a word with them on video. Mr. Zaman’s response to her being harassed, is to support sexual harassers? If so why didn’t he just join the ranks of those so-called harassers who were protesting? If his wife being harassed made him feel this “helpless, singled out and bullied” — then how he turns around in support of harassment is a mind-boggling thought indeed.

Mr Zaman is not an anomaly within the ‘cultured’, liberal elite. The fact is that many others also pass ignorance, misogyny and patriarchy off as humour.

It is high time, this privileged class realizes that it is protected no more, that the rest of this country is not willing to except their blatant disregard for women rights and glaring ignorance. To create an egalitarian Pakistani society, it is not only the under-privileged that must be ‘educated’, but even those secured in the comforts of their regression by wealth and social standing.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 29^th 2018.