The electronic media in Pakistan is fast becoming an avenue where women can be seen shoulder-to-shoulder with men. However, the role of women in our media seems to be fast heading in a direction where they are increasingly rewarded for their looks and attractiveness, rather than their brains or intellect. This trend is a matter of great concern for our society with regard to its youth – young women, in particular.
A quick flick through the TV channels reveals some of the roles which Pakistani and Indian women are seen performing on our TV screens. A massive chunk goes to the Indian films and songs with women of the same skin colour and the same language battling the many hurdles which threaten to come between them and the men they love. Then there are the Pakistani dramas – Indian dramas having been banned to the mortification of many Pakistani women. They have a greater number of female characters engaged in, supposedly, what is becoming the sole occupation of Pakistani housewives: family disputes. With the bulk of the scenes always playing out within the confines of the house, it makes one wonder about the actual numerical possibility of the multitude of varying issues which keep these housewives in battle and enthral their audience for years.
The tragedy is that these characters and their daily squabbles are not depicting rural or backward characters. These are women from the affluent and so-called educated parts of our society. Issues related mostly to disputes with relatives or feuds with the daughter-in-law make one cringe. One keeps thinking what kind of message is being sent out to our women. As an aside, some new dramas are reportedly emulating the trend of PTV’s golden past by actually focusing on the issues that have resulted in our rampant moral and societal degradation, instead of solely focusing on the end result: what we have become. These dramas are imparting important social and moral lessons.
Another avenue where our women are seen in sizeable numbers on TV is fashion shows and the fashion channels. While the figures of our models are not so full, they do shed more light on the state of our malnourished women across large swathes of Pakistan, better than any drama or documentary.
I have tried to justify the concept of our women parading down runways to myself and come to the conclusion that one could either do it for fun or for the money. In the case of the former, it is really sad that there is apparently nothing more useful, valuable, beneficial, productive, meaningful and constructive to do than to seek flattery, or allow your body to be used as a billboard. In the latter case, if monetary constraints are really the case and no other option in the world is available to her and modelling saves her from taking up the oldest profession known to women, then I hold my silence.
But textiles being one of our major sectors it is delightful to see the creativity in fashion designing exhibited by the many women designers frequently on TV. Our women are also seen in the plethora of cooking shows, preparing everything halal for our consumption. That a number of items cooked on these channels are out of reach for the ordinary man and woman is an entirely separate matter. But, along with fashion designing, some girls watching these channels may find their calling in culinary pursuits.
Then there are the women politicians who air on TV from time to time. They make it clear to our womenfolk, especially the younger ones, that “we are just as bad as our male counterparts”. Far from being a source of inspiration for our young women who may aspire to join politics, they send the message that women from middle-class families shouldn’t even try to do so. In this profession in Pakistan, competence, intelligence, honesty and dedication have no role to play. What matters is having a little fashion sense, coupled with the good fortune of their being born into a feudal or industrial family with the right connections.
Pakistani TV adverts may have gone the farthest in degrading the role of women in our society. Girls on these adverts are items meant to impress young guys a given company’s mobile phone package. Some packages allow the guys to call their girls night and day, every day, because their network makes it so cheap for them to do so. Other hunters can use the internet connectivity provided by their connections to hunt down their game. Mobile phone companies have utterly trashed the place of women in our society in a bid to outdo their competitors, by throwing out all norms of decency and cultural sensitivities and by importing and promoting a culture which has consequences which our culture and society are not ready to handle.
The degradation of the role of women due to the cutthroat competition between competitors vying for greater audience can also be witnessed by the abundance of news channels and their pretty female newsreaders. While some of the dainty ladies are actually really good and deliver the daily news in a professional manner. The others who cannot even time their pauses or synchronise their pitch, its highs and lows, with the ups and downs of the incidents being reported in the news, are obviously there for their looks.
What message is a young Pakistani girl receiving from our media? Are we sending the message that looks are of primary importance for a woman to get a job on TV? As a society, do we want to subject our women to such degrading conditions for success? Will we forsake our religious, cultural and social identity in order to beat competitors and make monetary gain any way we can? Do women have a place on our channels doing things other than cooking and fashion designing?
Will we ever see women on TV do other things like discussing how to start up a business or how to start a career in politics or how to go back to school? When will TV tell our girls that they can also become engineers, scientists or horticulturists? Will there ever be a drama about the girls who successfully became air force pilots? Or about a woman from an ordinary background successfully leading a political uprising against some evil in society?
In this general low for Pakistani women in the media, the sudden appearance of the beaming faces of our women’s cricket team came like a bright flash of hope. Girls watching TV across Pakistan caught a glimmer of our really modern Pakistani women. Women who defied our decadent culture and “progressive” media and stood out amongst women from the most populous continent in the world comprising countries that are major economic powerhouses.
They have focus and self-confidence. They send out the message that no matter where a Pakistani girl hails from or no matter what her background, if she has the dream, talent, determination and dedication, she can pull off any feat which women in other parts of the world can perform. By winning the gold medal they have shown that our women too can lead and set the track. They send out a message to our girls to never let societal expectations, and especially not advertising and the media, stop them from using their own brains. They are an inspiration for all of us and are a real brand of Pakistani women.
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