The disingenuous pronouncements of the privileged commentariat condemning the buri aurats are a frequent occurrence in the mediascape of this country. Such Buri Aurats or Churails(as the widely popular webseries has sought to reclaim this label) are responsible for every calamity inflicted upon this nation .Their devious yet alluring charm and unrelenting malevolence has unmatched power and alas our unsuspecting nation falls victim to it. Such narrow minded pronouncements are then given a boost by seemingly oblivious, sheltered and most importantly indifferent segments of both petite and haute bourgeoisie .
However ,this endorsement of moral brigade obscures the element of class that bestows a certain privilege on these members of the upper echelons of the society which enables them to do rampant and callous moral policing themselves without facing any consequences unlike the so called morally contemptible women whose very life is at stake due to the freehand given to the moral brigade. The freehand and the freedom to be judge, jury and executioner of these women. Indeed that’s the only freedom someone can have in this country i.e. the freedom to moral police as you please.
The opprobrium that is cast on such women is a badge of dishonor which follows them for life even leading to death in most cases according to the database of Acid Survivors Foundation nearly 3412 cases of acid attacks have been reported in Pakistan from 1999 till 2019 while around 1500 honor killings took place between 2016-2018 according to figures from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan .
When a population is repressed certain men feel that the only way they can have a woman ,the only way to exert control over her is to moral police her and that’s precisely why privileged upper class women and female celebrities need to stop making pandering statements such as saying that this is the only place where you are respected for being covered up that the more you cover up the more respect will come your way .However, they fail to acknowledge and realize the classist undertones lurking in their messaging .The moral brigade often doesn’t demand that you cover up out of respect but because they want to control you and sexualize your body they exhibit amorous tendencies towards young children as well and absurdly demand that young kids cover up too but privileged upper class women aren’t going to be affected by giving into the moral brigade when you are at the top of the class ladder nobody can do anything major to you because you have the means to even leave this country if things get unbearable but women from middle and lower class backgrounds like the late Qandeel Baloch weren’t doing things that the moral brigade finds objectionable because they are sluts but because of financial hardships .We need to display empathy for these women our indifference towards them because of our class privilege makes us one deaf to their struggles and what’s worse is on the eve of her tragic murder we were sill slut shaming her just to prove our moral credentials to the unrelenting constant nuisance that is the moral brigade .
It might be a controversial statement but feminism isn’t distrusted by large swathes of the masses the plebs ,It hasn’t really caught on in our society not just in men but also among women belonging to the middle and lower middle class for them feminism represents a pastime and a favored indulgence for upper class bourgeoisie women with a lot of free time in their hands .Feminism then is just a canard to negate class reductionism because the hyper privileged urbanites got no regard for the plebs .True egalitarianism can only prevail in a class conscious society. Where we recognize that women belonging to vulnerable communities such as the trans community often have to resort to behavior that we classify as objectionable such as sex work because of economic deprivation .We need to applaud and replicate programs like the BISP instead of giving into and appeasing the moral brigade and keep piling restrictions on common folks.
Similarly cheering for ban on Tik Tok also reflects your class privilege how is it going to harm anyone if a laborer takes some time of his her busy day to make a video on Tik Tok. Appeasing the moral brigade and concern trolling about vulgarity doesn’t boost your moral credentials it just reflects your unearned and toxic privilege that you employ to subjugate the plebs of this country with the moral brigade being your willing accomplice .
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