What Is This Bullshitism?

Every day we spend our energy on our rights for free speech, but the moment someone’s opinion goes against our own, out come the ‘ism’ cards and the finger pointing starts. This week a veteran actor Firdous Jamal was in an interview on an ARY show called Salam Zindagi with Faisal Qureshi. In a segment based on giving advice to artist whose pictures were displayed, when shown Mahira Khan’s picture Firdous Jamal said that Mahira Khan was at best a mediocre model and old enough to do roles of a mother. Out came the social media gods and began the name calling as is the trend. He was called an ageist (there is such a thing) and a sexist.

Calm your tits, people. It was just his opinion, it does not take away anything from Mahira. Pinkie promise.

That wasn’t all

The news channels picked it up like there are no bigger issues in the world. Samaa, Bol, Geo…all the channels started airing it like a war was declared. People, mostly of the media fraternity, started giving him flak for his opinion, which I will reiterate was asked. It became a saga. Now, Mahira Khan could have easily quashed by saying, ‘I respect is opinion and he’s entitled to it; all I will say is that I will work harder and change his opinion.’ But that would have switched off the limelight she had on her. As they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Instead she went on to post this on her Instagram

View this post on Instagram

Desi me rollin’ they hatin’ 💋

A post shared by Mahira Khan (@mahirahkhan) on Jul 28, 2019 at 3:27am PDT

When some sense prevailed or was talked into her a few days later she posted this:

View this post on Instagram

We are the present. What we do and how we do it, is our future. Thank you to all those who have come out to support me- I did not ask for it and that makes it even more special. As an artist I am proud of my industry. I’m grateful to my senior artists for paving the way for people like me and so many others. I am also proud of myself. In this journey of mine, I can proudly say that I have done what I thought was right and never succumbed to what others thought was right for me. That – I will continue to do. InshAllah. In a world full of hate, let’s choose to love. Let’s be tolerant of other people’s opinions and let our fight be against the mindset -that a successful woman is a scary thought. No it isn’t. It’s a beautiful and empowering one. Let us stop picking on one another so that this industry and our country thrives like no other. I read somewhere that ‘Stardom’ in Latin means – thank you to the fans when it was lonely. Stardom it is then! Love and Gratitude, X

A post shared by Mahira Khan (@mahirahkhan) on Jul 29, 2019 at 5:00am PDT

That wasn’t all (part 2)

Momina Duraid went on her social media and announced the ban of Firdous Jamal from MD productions. Not only that she used vile words like “we are ashamed of him”, “MD Productions will not work with him again in any capacity because of his sexist, regressive, and discriminatory attitude.” I can’t even. Actually, I will. How disrespectful and uncultured of her to speak like that about a man who gave the best years of his life to help build the very fraternity she is trying to ban him from.

Of course, there were many who went with what was trending and took Mahira’s side because if you stand close enough to the limelight there are chances people might see you too. But I don’t want to talk about those extras. I want to talk about people like Feroz Khan, Shaan, and Veena Malik who stood up against this bullshitism.

my question is this what freedom of speech gets you ?! Getting someone’s bread and butter cancelled ?? If it does … then I want every single bastard out there bashing any human being on the internet get cancelled the same way !! Coz you can’t ! 🙂
Enough is enough ! pic.twitter.com/kUz6GA7xpU

— Feroze Khan (@ferozekhaan) August 1, 2019

#Letsbringourprideback🇵🇰 an artist lives in his own zone, he speaks a different language, his choice of words might be hated , but his endless dedication to his work & his brilliance in acting can never be disrespected. #livinglegend #halloffame #forgiveforgetmoveon 🙏🏼🇵🇰❤️ pic.twitter.com/l7VaiOWsHw

— Shaan Shahid (@mshaanshahid) July 31, 2019

Sad to see whats happening around.Only couple of ppl frm the industry suporting FJ.
چڑھتے سورج کی پوجا اور مومنہ درید سے بین ہونے کا ڈر۔۔۔۔حد ہے۔
What precedent this whole fiasco has set?Stay silent & support the favourites, else you will be kickout. Shameful #supportfirdousjamal

— VEENA MALIK (@iVeenaKhan) August 1, 2019

They are right to question: what precedent are setting here? Pander to the hand that rules or else be destroyed? That disrespecting legends is okay? First Badar Khalil fell prey to this and now Firdous Jamal. Who’s next?

Thank you all ! Let’s keep #supportfirdousjamal alive ! Because its against oppression. pic.twitter.com/2fM33onp23

— Hamza Firdous (@hamza_firdous) August 2, 2019

The hashtag started by Hamza Firdous #SupportFirdousJamal started trending on Twitter with people supporting the legend in throngs. Not most in the ‘fraternity’, but a lot of the public. The hashtag called out Momina on her insolence and pointing out that a personal opinion is not a state matter and definitely not something that justifies the reaction, which if we play by her own rules is hate speech. They reminded her how actors like him have seen the real struggle, pre-internet days as opposed to gaining fame through a click. Many agreed that he wasn’t wrong, Mahira is just a pretty face and that is hardly a talent.

So, let me ask you this, are we actually proponents for the freedom of speech or are we too eclipsed with ‘ism’ coloured glasses that everything all of a sudden has to be black or white? Whatever happened to tolerance that we ask for ourselves every minute of the day, huh?

Who else is getting tired of these negative hashtags that are being used to make non-issues into issues? Yeah, me too.