New Delhi: Over the years, Pakistani singer Rabi Pirzada has been in the news more for her controversial statements than her actual career.
The 30-year-old pop-singer and television host, who began her professional journey with the hit-single Dahdi Kuree in 2005, has since found herself out-of-tune with the principles and cultural allegiances of people on Twitter — that is, until now.
Pirzada shot to internet fame after posting a video on 2 September threatening to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi with snakes and reptiles for his government’s decision to repeal Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Modi tum Kashimirion ko tang kar rahe ho na. Dekho ye maine tumhare liye kya hi ready kia hai (Modi you are upsetting Kashmiris. See what I have kept ready for you),” Pirzada says rather dramatically, carrying a bundle of snakes in her hands. “So get ready to die in hell. Okay? Aur ye jo saare friends hain na ye mere waha pe tumhara feast karenge (These friends of mine will feast on you).”
A month later, and Pirzada was pictured wearing what appears to be a suicide bomber jacket with a message hinting at a warning for Modi: “#ModiHitler i just wish huh. #kashmirkibeti,” she wrote.
Today, in an ironic twist of fate, Pirzada, who had a history of attacking women on a number of issues, received widespread female solidarity after nude images and sexually suggestive videos of her were leaked online.
Hours after slamming Pakistani army spokesperson Asif Ghafoor for defending an item number in the movie Kaaf-Kangna, which featured Pakistani actress Neelum Munir, explicit videos and images of Pirzada appeared online.
Seriously disappointing, @OfficialDGISPR we all make mistakes but never refuse to admit it or explain it like this ?#chotisibaat pic.twitter.com/2SQHJPtSaz
— Rabi Pirzada (@Rabipirzada) October 31, 2019
In between, Munir, in an Instagram post, had claimed she did the video “only because this movie is a project of ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations)”.
Ghafoor had justified the item song by saying that Munir plays “an Indian girl in the movie”, therefore implying that any moral concern viewers have with the song should be displaced to Indian, and not Pakistani, culture.
Pic 1. The item song is by an indian girl in the movie as per her role, you may watch movie to know the context.
Pic 2. It is neither at GHQ (GHQ is at Rwp not Islamabad) nor of an event organised for ISPR as such.— Asif Ghafoor (@peaceforchange) October 28, 2019
Considering the short gap of time between Pirzada’s tweet and her images being leaked, many Twitter users suspect Ghafoor to be behind the breach. However, Pirzada’s former boyfriend is also being considered as a primary suspect.
Meanwhile, Pirzada, now a victim of shaming and a privacy breach herself, took to Twitter to write, “Allah will conceal the secrets of a person on the Day of Judgment who does not reveal the secrets of others in this world.” She also reportedly lodged a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing, where she asked the agency to remove her videos from social media.
Activists and outspoken netizens rallied behind Pirzada, stating that this kind of “vile campaign against Rabi Pirzada is a stark reminder of how privacy is violated to blackmail women into submission,” as international public policy and gender reforms specialist Salman Sufi wrote.
Even Meesha Shafi, accused by Pirzada of using the #MeToo movement to garner publicity, spoke out against “leaking and sharing of these private videos…when a victim is being shamed and humiliated”.
The same women who were accused of speaking up as a publicity stunt by Rabi are defending her unconditionally today. Including myself.
I highly condemn the leaking and sharing of these private videos and will always raise my voice when a victim is being shamed and humiliated. https://t.co/wUE2ZSDgor pic.twitter.com/0PQVP97iMQ
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) November 2, 2019
Women even started sharing pictures of themselves unclothed with #IAmRabiPirzada, to assert that shame and honour should not be linked with a woman’s body.
One controversy after another
Pirzada represents an interesting friction arising when a victim of patriarchal shaming and those that propagate it are embodied in the same person.
In March this year, the popstar waded into another online controversy when she compared Pakistani women’s choice of wearing a ‘dupatta’ with white women in New Zealand wearing a hijab to display solidarity with the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
During the peak of the #MeToo movement, Pirzada also cast doubts on the veracity and intentions of her famous peers’ accounts of sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is a very serious, sad and a real issue in pakistan , but people like Meesha, shermeen and aisha gulailai is making a Micky out of it and eventually real young innocent girls will continue to suffer .this “Bold and the beautiful” Spree must be discouraged .
— Rabi Pirzada (@Rabipirzada) April 21, 2018
Her dance with contentious debates takes her back to 2017, when Pirzada flashed on the Indian radar for the first time — criticising Bollywood, and Salman Khan more specifically, for encouraging crime among the youth by showing excessive violence in their movies.
In the same interview, she reportedly added that “there was a time when Pakistani cinema was at its peak, making films with moral lessons and plots highlighting social ethics. We were educating the society through our films but Bollywood has changed all of that”.
Her songs — fusion of pop-music and flashy images — gather a cool 200,000-plus views on YouTube, but on her own personal channel, controversy is evidently king. Her snake-attack video on Modi and Kashmir has 189,000 views, while the rest — from cooking and makeup tutorials to even new music videos — range from anywhere between 600 to 8,000.
Songs Mujhe Ishq Hai, Jadoo and Kisi Ke Ho Ke Raho have also made a small splash in the Pakistan music industry, landing Pirzada a weekly television show, a TV production, and eventually a 2018 film debut in Shor Sharaba.
https://www.instagram.com/shorsharabaofficia/?utm_source=ig_embed
Not all of her professional endeavours have been successful, however. Her rendition of the classic Rashq-e-Qamar was widely critiqued on the internet after its release for ruining the original song.
Pirzada was also said to make a Hollywood debut two years ago, but no news has been heard of the project since.
Also read: Indian military must not become another lying ISPR, Pakistan Army’s propaganda wing
So by depecting india in any wrong way. this fellow gafoor can show or do anything. If institute has such morality, than we know what kind of society it is of Pakistan…. Shamefull ignorant fellow s
Laughable!!! GSISPR must be scrutinised for any investment they might have made in the porn industry as well.
Pakistani culture is nothing but a cocktail of ‘lies, deceit, and duplicity’.