New Delhi: The arrest of a Yale University student in Pakistan has enraged celebrity authors and artists such as Fatima Bhutto and Meesha Shafi. His crime? He modelled for a photoshoot against the backdrop of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait.
A case of obscenity was filed against Zulfiqar Mannan and another model for posing in front of a portrait of ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ Jinnah on the Islamabad Expressway.
Photos of Mannan standing next to Pakistani policemen drew criticism on social media.
You know you're in Pakistan when majority of rapists and oppressors go free but a harmless individual engaging in a photoshoot gets arrested in such a brief time. #freezulfi
— R (@reeperhaps) August 24, 2021
Release Zulfiqar Mannan https://t.co/YdtsaG5ILt
— Yasser Latif Hamdani (@theRealYLH) August 25, 2021
Islamabad Additional SP of Operations Farhat Kazmi, however, told Dawn Mannan had not been arrested and had arrived at a police station in Islamabad to offer his assistance with the case and the police took a photograph for their own records.
Along with another model, Mannan stood in front of the portrait of Jinnah bare-chested wearing a blue dress, as he tried various poses.
اسلام آباد پولیس نے ایک بڑے آپریشن کے بعد لاہور سے ملزم زوالفقار کو گرفتار کر لیا ہے جس نے قائداعظم کی پورٹریٹ کے سامنے کھڑے ہو کر شکلیں بنائیں تھیں۔۔ pic.twitter.com/KpP3SkGoLr
— Waseem Abbasi (@Wabbasi007) August 24, 2021
People in Pakistan expressed anger over the case filed against the duo and questioned a person’s right to express themselves. Many also drew comparison with how not a single person from the crowd of about 400 men who attacked a woman and filmed the harassment had yet been arrested.
You know you're in Pakistan when majority of rapists and oppressors go free but a harmless individual engaging in a photoshoot gets arrested in such a brief time. #freezulfi
— R (@reeperhaps) August 24, 2021
You know the state has failed when it starts imprisoning kids who wear different kind of clothes….. while rapists are gifted bails 👍 #freezulfi pic.twitter.com/7IErqjV8Xn
— zaakra 🏳️⚧️ (@zakrieyaa) August 24, 2021
400 people who molested a girl are still at large https://t.co/6yW4yg6AFg
— Sherry (@CherieDamour_) August 24, 2021
Not everyone was this open-minded. One person called the photoshoot “vulgar” and said that it mocked people’s faith.
No ma'am he did not just dress up but rather he along with the girl in the picture posed as to what we per our social standards consider as vulgar. In fact the photoshoot occured at a national monument with the term 'faith' in the background, thereby mocking our ideology.
— Syed Bilal Ahmed 🇵🇰🇵🇸 (@SyedBil27455832) August 25, 2021
It has been reported that the case was filed on the complaint of one Rashid Malik on 4 August. And the FIR stated that Mannan and his friend had taken pictures in revealing dresses in front of a portrait of Jinnah and made the photos go viral.
Also read: In Pakistan, posing with Jinnah lands two musicians in trouble. Authorities looking for them
Shame on police, Islamabad police useless
Furious, Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto took to Twitter to criticise the arrest.
“Shame on the police, arresting this young man for what? For a photo where he dressed up? No one was hurt. He harmed no one. On Aug 14, 400 men attacked a woman and filmed themselves terrorizing her. They filmed themselves because they knew it’s no crime to attack a girl.”
Shame on the police, arresting this young man for what? For a photo where he dressed up? No one was hurt. He harmed no one. On Aug 14, 400 men attacked a woman and filmed themselves terrorizing her. They filmed themselves because they knew it’s no crime to attack a girl. https://t.co/FSl7YhTEoD
— fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) August 25, 2021
People called out the state of freedom of expression in Pakistan and questioned exactly what was the crime committed by Zulfiqar and his friend. One user called the Islamabad Police “useless”.
What exactly guilty is Zulfi guilty of? Freedom of expression? This is so callous and a blatant disregard of due process rights #freezulfi
— Sana (@Sana_ss99) August 24, 2021
Islamabad police is good for nothing, literally!
They will harass dating couples, arrest bikers for not having proper documents, raid at parties, arrest people for having a photoshoot Infront of a Qaid e Azam statue. https://t.co/c0hIhZjmaP
— Mustafa T. Wynne (@mustafa_wynne) August 24, 2021
We knew this already, but our fundamental right to freedom of expression in getting narrower by the day Pakistan. Progress in our democracy can only be achieved by embracing pluralism even when people may offend our sentiments. https://t.co/zrWhS4Zrvt
— Sameer Tayebaly (@stayebaly) August 25, 2021
Questioning the action, Pakistani poet and actor Meesha Shafi wondered if the Qaid-E-Azam himself would have a problem with Zulfiqar’s photos.
Do you think the Quaid would have had a problem with these pictures? #FreeZulfi https://t.co/pQfdiWEcRG
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) August 24, 2021
Speaking about Mannan, one user said that he had always fought for a more tolerant Pakistan and came back from his higher studies to enrol in Teach for Pakistan programme.
“Even their lyrics were love letters to pakistan, and this is how pakistan treats them?” said the user.
Mannan is an English major at Yale University in the United States and also part of the Yale Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights. In 2018, he was among those who protested outside Ali Zafar’s concert after he was accused of sexually harassing a woman.
Can't expect anything less from Zulfiqar Mannan https://t.co/gEmT0i4JCM
— que sera sera (@humaurtein) July 19, 2018
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)