I saw a comment on youtube wondering what was the big deal about ushna's mom being a dancer. they were thinking more on the lines of bollywood type backup dancer. however, this is different. I remembered reading this BBC article about how the culture of dance in PK is complicated. these women do have to train to be able to perform. so in that sense, it is art. basically it is like these hindi movies about olden times where they perform in dance halls in front of a small group.
however, many of these women service selected patrons for a fee to get an additional stream of income. therefore, dancers and prostitutes are often clubbed together in the same approach by society.
during the lockdown, youtube randomly recommended this video about a woman judge in PK. she was talking about how she became a judge and shared some of the cases that was most memorable.
this one case -- the lorry driver was accused of kidnapping this girl by her parents and he was brought to court. he refused the charges and said she was his second wife and had come to him willingly. he then threw a googly that the girl was a prostitute. occasionally on his long work drives, he would seek a prostitute. his wife meanwhile managed their small farm in the village. during one such trip, he came across this young girl.
for whatever reason, she ended up weeping on his shoulder. she was the breadwinner of her family despite having a brother, father and mother who were all healthy and physically able to work. instead both men were doing gambling, drugs and other vices. the girl was forcibly pushed by her parents into prostitution at a young age. now she was horrified and heartbroken that they were trying to do the same to the younger sister as well.
the guy went home extremely troubled by her plight. he ended up talking to his wife and asked if he can rescue both these girls. the wife agreed to letting him marry this girl as a second wife and this would allow the girl to bring her sister as well to their house. however, before they could bring the younger sister, he got arrested for kidnapping charges.
the judge ordered the police and NGOs to try locate the younger sister but she had already been trafficked. she could not be found. the parents and brother were arrested. the judge ended the anecdote with her thoughts on how these women are looked down upon by society when these women are being exploited by their own families. so who are the real culprits?
anyway, I was reminded of that this morning in relation with the drama. naima looking down on ushna's mom but having no idea what were the circumstances that led to her dancing. dadi making contempt comments about a woman she has never met and assuming that ushna will be some sort of reflection.
none of these people are even talking about the character of this woman. instead they are assuming that because of how she had worked for a period of time, she was a vamp. but was she really? note that the dadi is not asking why her son would seek the services of a dancer -- instead, it is all the dancer's fault for seducing the son. but what if the son like the lorry driver decided to offer marriage in order to rescue her and give her a different life?
zainab said ushna's background didn't factor in to her decision to adopt. maybe her point was that if the parents had been married and committed to each other, then there was no question of illegitimacy. the mom's past as a dancer made no difference to the marriage itself and she was loyal as a wife. hence, zainab and farooq adopting the baby after the accident was more straightforward because for them, they were adopting from a married couple who had been sincere with each other. so they didn't see it as scandalizing per se.
Edited by mango.falooda - 3 years ago
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