New Delhi: Pakistani actor Javed Sheikh, who has worked in Bollywood movies such as Om Shanti Om, doesn’t seem to support consent when it comes to women’s rights. His recent comments on a podcast decrying Aurat March’s slogan, ‘Mera Jism, Meri Marzi’, which means my body, my choice, has created a stir among women and activists.
In a conversation with FHM Pakistan’s host Adnan Faisal, the 62-year-old actor began by saying that he respects women but then went on to add that women should behave like women.
“This is an Islamic country, you are born in a Muslim family,” he said. When Faisal tried to explain that the slogan was about consent, Sheikh disagreed.
To make matters worse, he added that while this might be a modern world, the more a woman is covered, the more beautiful she appears.
His comments have caused a furore across Pakistan. National dailies such as Dawn and Express Tribune have published editorials criticising his comment
“… He thinks that the slogan is about men and the male gaze when in reality, it isn’t about men at all. It is about all genders having the ability to have control over their own bodies — including refusing to be touched, stared at, or harassed. It is about the everyday struggles of women who have to think twice before stepping out of the house,” wrote Hawwa Fazal for Dawn.
On social media, too, women pointed out that his comments and dismissal of women’s rights were a reflection of deep-rooted misogyny prevalent in society.
“The extremely shy Javed Sheikh feels scandalised by ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi‘ because he believes in the ‘Tera Jism Meri Marzi’ school of thought instead,” one user tweeted on X.
Another user wrote with a not-so-subtle twist to his comment. “Javed Sheikh renounces his marzi over his jism. Anyone willing to volunteer to take charge of his body?” she wrote.
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Why decide for women?
The women’s collective, Aurat March, is yet to release a statement. But an organiser and member of Aurat March Karachi told ThePrint that Pakistani women can speak for themselves and don’t want people like Sheikh to do so.
“Who is he to give a certificate to women’s imagination or be a protector of theirs? It is high time now that women speak up on their opinions of modesty, their wish to cover, Western ideals, and their womanhood on their own. And they have been doing so quite well. We don’t really need men like Javed Sheikh to speak for us,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.
Feminists in Pakistan commonly use the slogan ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi’ to support bodily autonomy and speak up against gender-based violence. It gained popularity during that march, which has been held on International Women’s Day every year since 2018.
Since its inauguration six years ago, Aurat March has always faced resistance in Pakistan. Earlier this year, actor Nazish Jahangir criticised it as a ‘fake feminist movement’ on another podcast, blaming it for the increase in divorces across the subcontinent.
“It is astonishing to me that in the year 2023, women’s proclamation that they should have control of their own bodies is viewed through the lens of sexual immodesty. Sadly, the truth is that women’s bodies are viewed as being the property of their male kin—when they are unmarried, they “belong” to their fathers and after marriage to their husbands,” Pakistani actor and writer Mira Sethi told ThePrint.