Playing around with clever words and a side of humorous banter, Saba Qamar divulges into the complex concept of shaadi and at what age it's deemed "appropriate" to get married. In an episode she hails as 'one of my favourites', she makes a remark at the beginning when asked her age, 'Shaadi ki guzarahi hai' (passing the eligible marriage age) and to gender she answered, "object" making light of a judgemental societal view.
We constantly hear people saying they should do this or that to make a difference in society but no one ever really does and even when they do they don’t get the enough attention for it to make an impact. Pakistani celebrities are people we should be able to look up to, people who use their platform to educate our population, who have something important to say.
Unfortunately there aren’t that many out there but slowly some may take steps in the right direction following 'Cheekh' starlet, Saba Qamar, who just started a YouTube channel with one of her latest videos talking about breaking stereotypes.
The brilliant actor orchestrates her show using a satirical technique with comical elements of "real talk" with the hard core truth, discussing the taboo topic of "shaadi kab karoge" - something that everyone, and I mean everyone, thinks they have a say about. Women, what a woman is doing with her life, what she isn’t doing, why she’s not married yet, why she works, why she does not work and what other purpose does she have other than to serve a husband and her kids.
#Shaadikarokarobarnahin is one of the four hashtags that are focused on sending an important message which is to marry out of your own free will, not for society and most definitely not for your family. Marry for yourself because in the end it's your happiness on the line.
The second hashtag focuses on body-shaming, which is unfortunately one of the most common things practiced around the world, whether it’s directed towards a woman or a man, someone or the other feels the urgent need to say something that has to do with how someone else looks. In this second scene, the Baaghi star showcases a conversation revolving around shaming and putting others down as if we have all the knowledge, from the male perspective.
There’s an idea people have where everyone needs to fit into a certain physical category, skinny, athletic, petite, perfect teeth, perfect hair, fancy clothes, how heavy someone is and so on. There needs to be an understanding that we can not and should not make anyone feel bad about how they look, what we need to teach more is to love people as they are and as they look so that they themselves can also feel normal about themselves, #DamnTheBodyShamers.
The other two topics that Saba Qamar illustrated, focused on was #TalentMatters and #EducateYourMinds, discussing the latter with guest Meshal Cheema, as well as gender equality. Everyone should understand that regardless of how one looks or what SEC (socio-economic class) they are from, they are and can be just as talented, hard work matters and that people should not be discriminated against when it comes to how they look or where they are from. Learning is a difficult process but it is a lifelong process, there are always more ways to understand things and how society works, how people work and how we work too. Learn to embrace a new perspective is the hashtag for this article, #OpenToNewPerspectives.
Bringing about extremely real world topics which have been presented in a light-hearted way, under which the content being discussed is quite serious is monumental. With a variety of talented guests, the dynamic host uses different scenarios to convey the messages at hand, aptly.
Talking about it is the first step and it is encouraging to see our female leads are using their platforms to reach out to the public and highlight important issues.
