One fine day, a middle class Pakistani household decided to make the shopping rounds around town, considering it is Eid season and some of the best attractions are in malls, they decided to venture out to Karachi’s Dolmen Mall. But their fun family day out was stopped short when the security guards at the entrance of Dolmen disallowed them from entering.

A local woman walking by noticed this and confronted the mall authorities. The video of her confrontation has since gone viral.

They were refused entry because they appeared to belong to a class below that of the average Dolmen Mall visitor.

The lady making the video asks the guards for one solid reason the family was refused entry, but authorities seem speechless. It makes one wonder, how many more families this happens to on a daily basis. This case was blessed to have this woman standing by and willing to question the guards and the mall authorities.

The lady in the video repeatedly points out that chichoras and troublemakers are allowed through the gates everyday, however this innocent family is left to stand outside only because they seem a little paindu and have mitti on their shoes.

It just goes to show how we as a society we are becoming more and more immune to class discrimination.

An act as simple as getting your McDonalds fries becomes harder because the restaurant is full of ‘ajeeb log‘. Whenever I walked in it has always been full of families, families we all will easily categorize as paindu. We’ve all done and so have I, but we need to take a good hard look at ourselves.

A lot of people are condemning the incident at Dolmen Mall on social media but the question isn’t why the family wasn’t let in, it is why do we as a society place too much importance on appearance and class, rather than actual substance? Why do we have to have an elevated sense of self just based on the position we hold in society?

Here’s the video of the discriminatory action of Dolmen Mall against the family

And the lady, asking them for answers:

Here’s to this incident hopefully making you stop and think if you’re going to stay part of the system or if you’re actually going to do those small acts that contribute to making a big change, eventually.

Zarra ye bhee check karein: