A 35-year-old Pakistani man Naeem Shahzad has gone viral on the internet for his marriage to 70-year-old Mary from Canada, after meeting her on Facebook. Their union was met with scrutiny by social media users, who criticised Naeem for being a “gold-digger” and marrying the older woman for a Canadian passport. But in an interview with Urdu Point, the couple has clarified that they married for love. Naeem revealed the two met in 2012, and after 2015 the two began talking about getting married, and finally they tied the knot in 2017.
Addressing comments that he’s a gold-digger, Naeem said he married Mary because after struggling with depression and other mental health issues, adding that he could open up to the woman who supported him in every way, after which he fell in love with her.
“I’m not a gold digger. You are in my house you can see we have nothing luxurious here,” Naeem clarified. “We have necessary things like a sofa set for when guests arrive. We brought our beds from our own homes. Let people say what they want to say.”
Naeem further explained he and Mary are not living a lavish lifestyle in Canada, where they survive on the pension the woman receives.
“The most important persons for me right now are my wife, my mother and my brother,” Naeem said, further elaborating that he was prepared before marriage to listen to criticism that he’s a gold digger, but doesn’t care anymore.
Naeem revealed his wife had come back to Pakistan after six years, and the couple plan on making their living through a Youtube channel ‘Beast Brother’s PK’. The couple will stay for six months in Pakistan and six months in Canada.
Watch their complete interview below:
This case of online romance leading to marriage follows the recent string of marriages between foreign women and Pakistani men. Recently, a woman from Sweden came to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to marry 23 year old Ahmed, whom she met on Facebook.
What would be the most controversial, yet important take you have about desi society?
A user on X posed this challenge to their followers, asking for opinions about every single aspect of desi society. Whether it is excessive body shaming, poor funeral etiquettes, division of household chores within family members, or wedding obsessions, desi social media users held back nothing, leaving us with some very blunt, but direly needed takes.
Your wives are not unpaid house helpers. We wish more families would understand this.
It’s not the bahu’s responsibility to serve the whole family. If she is not willing to cook and clean for anyone except her husband no one can force her and that’s shari’ah https://t.co/CdjW2giXOO
Please understand that funerals are a time when family members need to grieve. Instead of giving them space, desi family members end up doing the opposite which is tragic to witness.
That women and girls don’t get to mourn the loss of a loved one. They are constantly expected to service food and tea to guests and look after them. The men get a head start on processing their grief and start to get some kind of a closure. Women do not. https://t.co/XlUzcRvRxy
Teach your sons to be the kind of men your daughters would feel safe around.
Turning a blind eye to the things your sons get up to but then teaching your daughters to protect themselves from such men is WILD. https://t.co/x0cWbarTAe
We hope more people start unlearning that talking about periods is a taboo.
Menstruation being a hush hush topic is the reason why a lot of women suffer in silence. It’s why conditions like endometriosis, genital TB, hypomenorrhea, dysmenorrhoea, and metrorrhagia go undiagnosed. https://t.co/D5C1S5v6MU
This prevalent practice of hiring underaged help for housekeeping or as nannies under the guise of “helping out their poor families” is such a fallacy. These kids are easily manipulated and continually fall victim to anger issues or latent predatory behaviour at the hands of- https://t.co/FWgShJuvpX
the average housewife works harder than all men who take six figure salaries. physical labour 18 hours every day (assuming they get 6 hours of sleep) on all days of the week with extra work on holidays like eid when they have to prepare grand feasts, and you say they do nothing https://t.co/xQacMzZOic
A new trend known as ‘Barbie Botox’ has been unleashed on TikTok. Women are getting Trapezius Botox in order to elongate the neck and shrink the shoulders, so it makes the person resemble a Barbie doll. The hashtag #barbiebotox has over 9.4 million views on TikTok according to Forbes, while #traptox has over 22.5 million views, with clips of popular influencers and reality tv who have gotten the procedure.
TikTok influencer Malibutoast who has over 195 K followers, shared clips of herself after having the procedure done, with users worried in her comments about whether the trend would encourage more insecurities among women on social media.
‘Wake up guys new insecurity just dropped,” wrote one user.
“Damn now I have to add… trapezius to the list of things I need to fix about myself ” another wrote.
Isabelle Lux, another TikTok influencer who credits herself with coining the phrase ‘Botox Barbie’ detailed her own experience of getting the treatment with CNN:
“It came from the idea that you would look more like a Barbie when you get it done, which I don’t think is a bad thing. It elongates the neck, slims the shoulders and creates a very delicate physique when it’s done properly.”
Speaking to the news organisation about the growing backlash she was getting on the internet, including being called an ‘anti-feminist’, Lux defended her choice by pointing out that women shouldn’t be belittled for wanting to look a certain way.
“The desire to look a certain way has for centuries been seen as silly, a waste of time, waste of money and pointless, especially for women,” she told CNN. “But when a man wants to look a certain way, it’s scientific, it’s cool. I think that we need to stop belittling women for things that they’re interested in, including looking a certain way if they want to. It’s not silly. Like, it’s real.”
But many plastic surgeons are condemning the trend, explaining that the procedure was coined in order to help those with excessive neck pain, with a side effect of creating the illusion of a longer and slimmer neck. Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, New York City dermatologist Dr Amy Wechsler pointed out that Barbie’s features are unrealistic and these cosmetic procedures won’t make a noticeable effect on women.
“Someone years ago explained that if you take a Barbie doll and make it into an adult woman, the measurements are not really realistic. So I don’t love jumping on social media trends because they often don’t have any basis in science,” she explains. “I think that’s human nature to try to wanna copy a trend, but usually what happens — which is good — is that the trend will fizzle out if it’s not a good idea or if it’s not healthy.”
“The #BarbieBotox trend is more about slimming,” Wechsler adds. “If you relax those muscles it can make a big improvement in the feel and the look. But if someone doesn’t overuse that muscle, I don’t think it does that much.”
Speaking to CNN, Dr Parisha Acharya warned that incorrect administration of Botox could weaken the muscle completely, and then effect your ability to hold up your neck properly. She expressed concerns about the trend going viral on social media, especially when younger audiences are watching:
“I think a medical procedure should be treated as a medical procedure. And in the UK, (the aesthetics industry) is unregulated. So shockingly anyone can administer botulinum toxin injections. That could be a beautician or hairdresser with no clinical experience, no anatomy knowledge. It really does worry me.”
Dr Acharya also pointed out that the trend took the wrong message from the movie ‘Barbie’ which advocated for women to stop trying to mould themselves to appease the patriarchy, and start accepting their bodies as the way they are:
“It was very pro-feminism, and (women) were moving away from sexualizing our bodies and thinking of them as just objects,” she stressed. “I don’t like the fact that this trend is using Barbie to say we should have slim necks. We should embrace ourselves for who we are.”
Pakistan’s celebrated singer Shazia Manzoor has been honored in Ontario, Canada on Friday with The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pin. The award was presented by Canadian politician Shafqat Ali, who praised the veteran singer for her contribution to arts and culture.
“It was such an honour to host Shazia Manzoor, a recognized and renowned Pakistani singer, and to recognize her for her contribution to art and culture and her commitment to bringing South Asian communities together through her song It was such a blessing to meet the acclaimed Pride of Performance of Pakistan and to award her with Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pin Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you again soon.”
Sajal Aly is by far one of the best actors the Pakistani entertainment industry has ever produced. Her older dramas still garner praise from people who are just now getting to see the actor’s filmography. Recently, an X user responded to a tweet quoting a powerful paragraph from Trevor Noah’s book ‘Born A Crime’ where his mother talks about how men love breaking down women and molding them to their tastes, by sharing a clip from Aly’s old drama ‘Rangreza’.
In the clip, Sajal’s character is seen shutting down her father, tired of him mistreating her mother all these years. The video has received praise from social media, with people blown away by the powerful monologue, some of them stating that they had underestimated the actress for so long.
Pakistani dramas rare depict daughters who refuse to go down the sati savitri trope, standing up to their abusive dads to let him know that their misbehavior is not acceptable. Social media users were enthralled by Sajal’s powerful performance.
I love the type of roles Sajal Ali has taken on recently. Full unapologetic, powerful roles. She’s kinda taken over the baton from Saba Qamar https://t.co/92n7EKb6TS
Every time I see @Iamsajalali act, I RISE in love of her freakishly exceptional craft once again. She is a generational talent, only one of her like, matchless, flawless & impregnable. She is here to conquer to world ❤️#SajalAlyhttps://t.co/3s5B04uIGx
Never getting over this performance of Sajal’s. Everytime I come across a scene of hers from O Rangreza, I’m left in awe. Sassi is and will always be a . One of my all time favorite characters. https://t.co/VYMZ9dz2SQ
Kuch rehnay nahi dena? Yesterday night, the caretaker government announced yet another price hike in petrol charges, taking it to a historic high of Rs 301 per litre.
In a statement, the finance ministry said that the reason behind the hike included escalating prices in the international market as well as shifts in exchange rates.
But social media users were in dismay that after exorbitant electricity bills, they will have to pay unheard of sums for fuel.
Sab se pehle tou, get used to the social distancing times and start staying more at home, like this user put it.
If history has proven something, its that SRK will always get the last word.
Recently, the official trailer of the action/thriller ‘Jawan’ was released on Youtube. A clip from the trailer has generated a lot of buzz. Right when the clip credits Gauri Khan as the producer of the film, Shah Rukh can be heard saying, ‘Betay ko hath lagane se pehlay baap say baat karo.”
As soon as the clip was noticed by social media, netizens applauded the burn, praising SRK for aiming the stinger directly at the people responsible for his son Aryan’s arrest.
After the controversial drama ‘Hadsa’ was slammed by social media users for allegedly depicting without consent the ordeal of the motorway rape case that happened in 2020, several social media users slammed lead actress Hadiqa Kiani for her ‘tone-deaf’ statement, as well as writer Zanjabeel Asim Shah, and demanded that PEMRA take down the show.
Now, a controversial dialogue from the drama has made rounds on social media, where the main character, Taskeen, can be heard saying “Jaisay murday ke jism mein rooh waapis nahi aati..waisay hee khoi hui izzat waapis nahi aati.” The clip was shared by Geo’s official Instagram account, as can be seen below.
The dialogue was spoken in episode 5, after Taskeen is recovering in the hospital from her wounds after the violence.
The controversial dialogue has launched more uproar on social media, with users demanding to know how it got approved by Hadiqa, who’s repertoire includes feminist dramas that empowered women.
Activist Leena Ghani pointed out:
‘What excuse is Hadiqa Kiani going to give us now? That she didn’t read the dialogues? Was she forced to say ‘Khoi huwi izzat..’ Izzat victims nahi hotey balkay rapists ki koi izzat nahi hoti. Is this how @harpalgeotv wants to spread awareness by victim blaming and gaslighting survivors of sexual abuse? Why doesn’t anyone in the industry have a backbone and why can’t they ever do the right thing?”
Actress Nadia Jamil slammed the dialogue as “disgusting”, and said no survivor of rape has her honor robbed.
“Firstly NO HONOUR OF MINE WAS ROBBED WHEN I WAS RAPED. NO HONOUR OF ANY RAPE SURVIVOR IS ROBBED. THOSE WHO RAPED HAD AND HAVE NO HONOUR. THEY are the ones who should feel and be in shame. Not the victim.”
The actress called out PEMRA and GEO for encouraging the ugly narrative of shame that would further marginalise survivors of rape, and said it took her years of therapy and coaching to come to a place where she herself- as a survivor of child abuse- could not feel ashamed about her trama.
“The narrative of SHAME that is dumped on rape survivors is horrible. It’s a burden we carry through our lives. It took me years of therapy, prayer and coaching to come to a place of solid self worth and self respect within myself. Today movements like #notmyshame Shatter the Shame that survivors of abuse and rape have carried. Allowing us to belong to a tribe that recognises, the shame was never ours to carry, or suffer, to begin with. People like @ejtayloruk work hard to build a community where survivors feel empowered and safe. Please do not encourage this ugly narrative of shame for survivors @GeoTvNews@reportpemra you have a responsibility that comes with your power. Many men and women watching this may have been raped and it’s the last thing they need to hear AND it’s a lie.”
This is disgusting. As a survivor of child sexual abuse and rape I am offended and disgusted by this comment.
For those who cannot read Urdu the dialogue basically says:
“Like a corpse cannot come back to life.. lost honour can never come back.”
Nadia Afghan also criticised content heads for their “insensitive and callous” approach towards sensitive topics like rape, and their only motive is to make more money out of it, saying that she was “disgusted and heartbroken.”
After Hadiqa Kiani, the writer behind the controversial drama ‘Hadsa’ has come forward to address allegations that the script is based on the horrific motorway rape case, in which a woman was gang-raped in 2020 in front of her young children. Episode 5 of the drama shows the female lead, Taskeen, and her son driving down a highway at night when their car suddenly stops. Soon after, a group of men arrive who subject the female lead to torture and rape. Journalist Fereeha Idrees called the story a serious violation of privacy, and demanded that PEMRA shut down the show for exploiting a survivor’s trauma for ratings, without her or her family’s approval.
Now, in a conversation with BBC Urdu, the writer has denied these allegations, pointing out that every woman, regardless of her background, can suffer from rape:
“The similarity is just a coincidence. Every woman who goes through this incident, whether she is rich or poor, or whether she comes from an educated family or not, will get affected. Our dramas speak about our sufferings and our situations.”
‘When you fight this war, you’re also getting your catharsis,” he said.
Zanjabeel went on to discuss writing on other topics like child sexual abuse and said that sometimes, drama scripts can bear resemblance to real life cases.
“I have shown a young son who was getting married. We often say that a woman is going out alone, but she would still be helpless even if her husband went with her.”
Since the allegations by Idrees went viral, on X, formerly Twitter, the hashtag #banhadsa began trending, with social media users criticing the cast and crew behind for violating the privacy of the rape survivor, and called for PEMRA to ban the drama. To which, Zanjabeel had responded:
“PEMRA had banned my drama ‘Pyaar Ke Sadqaay’ too. But does this mean girls are not abused inside their homes? PEMRA had annoyed even Bee Gul so much over her drama ‘Darr Si Jaati Hai’. If they keep doing this, then should we only make dramas about saas-bahu conflicts? If we can’t make dramas about sensitive topics, then should we only make romance dramas,” he asked.
Hadiqa Kiani released a statement on her social media account, saying that when she first read the script there were similarities with the motorway rape case, but after discussions with the writer and team, she understood that the drama was entirely different.
Her statement was slammed by social media users, who demanded that she stop gaslighting survivors of rape and trauma.
In any decent society, you’d be sued for every last penny you have, and then some.
But fear not, for this is Pakistan.
Your transgression will be forgotten in a few days, and some new terrible thing will capture everyone’s attention. https://t.co/z92Smr9s2K
If your first guess after reading the script was the motorway incident, how can you say with so much confidence that it was not based on it? Just because the team behind it said so? The survivor is TELLING you it’s exactly the same and a massive trigger. Shut it down. No excuses https://t.co/jr50pxMaFX
The victim/survivor picked up in a split second that it’s about her. That’s enough an evidence that #HADSA IS about the horrific incident that involved her children too. Astonishing that despite going through the script you didn’t once cross checked it with a reliable source. https://t.co/psJ15006gT
I want to ask this industry how many more rape stories will you show, how many domestic violence ones, how many slaps will we continue to see women subjected? When will these horrific stories stop becoming trends for greedy makers to sensationalize & cash on? https://t.co/BUe2ZNSkDI
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s recent endorsements were met with severe backlash from the public, including an NGO which felt the actor was encouraging younger minds to play online games. The actor recently endorsed a gaming app A23, an online platform, for which a commercial was released in which the ‘Pathaan’ actor said “Chalo saath khelein’.
Protests followed and were led by the NGO Untouch Youth Foundation, which called for celebrities to be held accountable for promoting online gaming apps which could ‘corrupt their minds of the youth of India’. Demonstrations were held outside Mannat house, SRK’s residence, and police officials were deployed in case of security threats.
In an official statement, the organisation said they were calling for a protest against gaming apps like Zuppee, Jungly Rummy, and called out actors who endorsed these products.
“Famous actors and actresses work in these advertisements and they are working towards misguiding society. The protest will be held outside Shah Rukh Khan’s Mannat bungalow on behalf of Untouch India Foundation.”
The president of Untouch India Foundation, Krishchandra Adal, said:
“The new generation is involved in playing Junglee rummy. If someone is playing Junglee rummy or gambling outside, the police arrest them, but big Bollywood stars promoting online games are misleading the young generation. The Bollywood stars also know it is wrong, but they are getting money so they are promoting them. We make these stars famous by watching their movies and spending our money on them. We demand these advertisements to stop. These apps are illegal, we can not find them on Google, but these apps are uploaded on private websites.”
