Actor Atiqa Odho and model Iqra Aziz took part in a session titled ‘Are Pakistani TV serials misogynistic or do their stories actually resonate with women?” at Day 2 of the annual Lahore Literary Festival on Saturday at the Alhamra Arts Council. Journalist Fifi Haroon, who moderated the session and opened it with the question of why women in local dramas are portrayed as becahris. “We need to change the notion that a strong woman is one who gets out of the house. A strong woman can be one inside her own home,” Aziz stated “We need to change the notion that a strong woman is one who gets out of the house. A strong woman can be one inside her own home,” Aziz sated. The model questioned why stories of women like her own mother, who became first female Careem captain, were not being portrayed in Pakistani TV serials. “We need to go back to our core cultural approach to Urdu drama,” Veteran actor Odho stated. Moderator Haroon also called out the practice of stereotyping the modern woman as “bad” in local dramas. “When a girl is wearing jeans she is shown as bad, also the career oriented woman. They are shown as wanting nothing but to seduce men and having no real ambitions.” “Majority of the media is owned by men… the content now needs to change and reflect us,” Odho said adding that she had five sisiters who were all career oriented women. “None of us have time to do all this sazish… We need to tell our own stories,” she said, adding: “I believe we waste a lot of time and money on superficial content.”