Actors Mansha Pasha, Hareem Farooq and Osman Khalid Butt got candid with journalists at ZAB Media Festival’s live session this week.
The hour-long session moderated by journalist Manal Faheem Khan focused primarily on the representation of women in mainstream media. There was talk on sexual harassment, excluding women from public spaces among other things – the panelists all shared interesting thoughts on women’s representation in the media.
Osman Khalid Butt said, “The purpose of a woman [on screen] is to provoke rather than her have agency… If there’s a strong female character, that strength is extolled and not shown as the norm, [even though that’s] what regular women are. They are heroes, they have agency. There are films that show women with a lot of agency who are makers of change and not just bearers of change, but I feel we still have a long way to go as far as representation of women is concerned.”
Laal Kabootar actor Mansha Pasha added, “Our society thinks women don’t have agency, and in a lot of ways TV represents that women don’t have that kind of power to make decisions, but slowly and gradually we’re moving away from that.”
Hareem seconded Mansha, “Our film industry is very small; luckily, there are a lot of female producers out there. To a certain extent we are the decision makers, we have to fight and struggle for certain things, [and at the same time] we do have to think about the market.
“Films are still a luxury, there’s a certain audience that is going to come and watch it, not everyone can afford it. As actors and producers we can get away with showing a lot of characters on the big screen that we can’t show on TV, which will give us backlash [if it’s on the small screen].”
OKB remarked, “Our TV industry is ruled by women in prominent positions of power as opposed to cinema, which is a boys’ club, and it’s quite interesting to see that we peddle in misery when it comes to television.
“We hearken to the golden era of TV, because it didn’t peddle in misery, it showed working women. TV at that time was made for the middle class and above, [the audience which] cinema is made for now. People didn’t have the luxury of owning a TV back then.”
Hareem then asked the audience, “If a man does a solo dance will that also be called an item number?” Her question was met with silence.
“Nobody said yes.” And that’s the point that the actor was trying to make.
Speaking on reverse sexism, Osman said, “Women have had not that agency since ad infinitum. If a man is objectified he is not threatened, but if a woman is, as a society we react viciously.”
With the backlash to Mehwish Hayat’s Tamgha-i-Imtiaz win and Eman’s Suleman’s recent LSA nomination refusal still fresh in everyone’s minds, Hareem said, “We’re living in a time where women receiving such prestigious awards are questioned but nobody stands up and questions when a harasser is getting awards.”
“My biggest problem with [the backlash to] Mehwish’s Tamgha-i-Imtiaz is, how can you question a woman for her achievements but not question a man when a woman says she’s harassed by him? Nobody talks about it, nobody questions it. I think Mehwish is a brilliant actress, she’s capable of competing on an international level and good for her for winning that award.
“But why does nobody question any harasser who has been called out? Then item numbers should not be questioned either. Let’s not talk about objectifying women. then because at the end of the day the woman will still be blamed.”
“We have a habit of putting our women down, whatever they do,” Fifi chimed in. “We can have the youngest Pakistani woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize and we will put her down, we can have a woman who wins an Oscar twice and we will still put her down. What is wrong as us as a nation that we feel the need to do this? Men can be and are feminist. We need to live in a society who do support us.”
“There’s a certain demonisation of women in Pakistan. They can do no right by people.Women are pitted against each other, it’s unfortunate and it benefits no one. Women are judged for everything except for their achievements, and that needs to stop now,” Mansha concluded.
