How Ali Zafar puppeteers Pakistani media to invalidate strong women
As the debate on media censorship rages on in Pakistan, there’s another, smaller one that needs to be looked upon and analysed — that of how paid PR juggernaut is somehow successfully drowning the voices of the survivors of sexual harassment.
By attempting to discredit them, labeling the calling out of sexual harassment publicly as a conspiracy against one, very average film, and depicting predators as messiahs of women’s rights, this silent — but very worrisome — trend is on an upward trajectory with the help of upholders of patriarchy and capitalists. The dirty work, needless to say, is done by the middlemen who make under-the-table payments and the paid social media trolls who will go out on a limb to save the harasser.
Meesha Shafi’s recent “failure” to turn up at the court in Lahore over a defamation case filed by Ali Zafar, her alleged abuser, brought all kinds of euphoria — and provided something to celebrate — to the harasser’s defenders, who took this opportunity to indulge further in the character assassination of a brave woman, who, despite being aware of the societal repercussions, stepped up to the abusive, powerful men who use their control to violate the privacy and personal space of those under them.
Media outlets gleefully reported that Meesha did not make an appearance at the Lahore court, which had summoned her in the Ali Zafar-led defamation case. Numerous others implied that there was something fishy behind the survivor’s inability to present herself in the court.
There were a number of media outlets, fashion blogs on Instagram as well as influencers and wannabe lifestyle ‘journalists’, who celebrated — YES CELEBRATED — this development, for they claimed it was a victory for Zafar.
“Meesha Shafi fails to reply in Zafar-Shafi case,” read one such post.
Twitter was full of accounts — recently created, with just a handful of followers — shoving distasteful statements in the faces of those who have chosen to support Meesha.
“Can’t believe you’re buying that shit,” one user said.
“‘traveling’ my ass,” said another, while a third accused Meesha of “cheap publicity”.
According to a copy of the court order obtained by Dheet Magazine, the legal instruction, dated July 5, 2018, states: “Summons/notice be issued in the name of the defendant has not been received.”
“For the sake of justice, let summons/notice be again issued in the name of the defendant. The process server is directed to affix the summons/notice in case of non-service. Plaintiff is further directed to send the TCS courier to the address of defendant again.
“Now to come up for 13.08.2018.”
To make it simpler to understand, Zafar is the plaintiff in the defamation case and Meesha the defendant.
Further, while speaking to Dheet Magazine, lawyer Nighat Dad confirmed that the singer was indeed traveling and had not received the notice personally.
In case some people conveniently missed reading it above, let me reiterate: “Summons/notice be issued in the name of the defendant has not been received.”
In addition, note that while people have been told — and media, as always, has hyped it up — that Zafar filed a defamation case, Meesha, too, has filed one pertaining to harassment.
Zafar’s, however, is a reactionary litigation.
The concoction of skewed narrative being fed to the common public is brewed by Zafar and his minions. The case is still at the “notices stage”.
With the court having barred Meesha — and by extension, her legal counsel — from making any comments about Zafar, the latter has pounced upon this opportunity to create a facade of innocence and altruism.
Funnily enough, Mister Selflessly-Caring-For-All had the social media presence of his “Ali Zafar Foundation” become active just a few days ago — July 7.
When this was pointed out by Usama Khilji, an activist, the Zafar trolls resorted to bashing him. One even suggested that Ali Zafar “has not harassed every woman he has come in contact with, only ‘6–7’ of them” — as if that should count as benevolence.
As a journalist, I find it highly unethical for the media to be partial to a certain subject in the story. Yet, that is what transpired on July 5 — Meesha’s second hearing.
So many people trumpeted about her not appearing at the court — and did not mention that she had not received the notice in the first place — that it was hard to single out reality from bigoted viewpoints splattered all over the Internet.
What’s even more hard to digest is that — while Pakistan’s #MeToo and #TimesUp movement has faced a lot more hurdles than the global one — the rotten cherry on top is the despicable and disgusting denial of some women, who, instead of supporting survivors, side with a predator. This harsh truth is quite telling of the internalised misogyny our society has been nurturing like a miraculous baby born after seasons upon seasons of communal supplication.
Why, I must ask, would a woman willingly put everything — her respect, reputation, career — on the line knowing our patriarchal society, knowing that she would be called names, knowing that her character would be attacked should she out her harasser if she was lying?
That’s because she’s speaking the truth. The courage of having gone through something traumatic and talking about it later — publicly — is immense. See between the lines, beyond the curtains, see what has been purposefully hidden from you by those who control the narrative with wealth.
Stand with her.
Respect her.
Believe her.
