Mahira Khan’s paparazzi picture “leaked” online where she can be seen smoking and Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor is standing next to her has taken the internet by the storm. Even though the buzz started with all the wrong reasons — with moral police questioning her character, attacking and harassing her only because of how she dressed and smoking “as a woman” — those standing up for her added to it and kept her a trending topic on Twitter for several hours.

This, like always, is no surprise. The criticism was directed towards her because of being a woman whereas Ranbir Kapoor went scot-free and nobody questioned him smoking or dressing the way he was dressed.

Pakistan has an acute problem when it comes to its women celebrities — a problem that can’t be fixed without owning up to it. The ingrained misogyny towards women in general and hostility towards women celebrities is getting out of control

It’s Mahira Khan now, it was Faryal Makhdoom yesterday, Qandeel Baloch before her and Veena Malik before her. No one even wanted to give benefit of the doubt to the woman in the big Amir-Faryal blow up and the man ended up being a “victim” while Faryal was called all sorts of names. The list is never ending. No one has ever questioned male actors doing similar performances here as well as in Bollywood. On the contrary, men actors like Fawad Khan, Ali Zafar and Imran Abbas have all been called “studs”, “Pakistan’s pride” for doing intimate and bold scenes in Bollywood.

Pakistan has an acute problem when it comes to its women celebrities — a problem that can’t be fixed without owning up to it. The ingrained misogyny towards women in general and hostility towards women celebrities is getting out of control.

Women celebrities are at a disadvantage even before they break into their careers. They are blocked by their own families, judged by own friends, harassed by the people in the industry before they even have a chance. And once a woman survives all that, she is never fully accepted by the public purely for who she is and what she stands for — no matter the number of “fans”.

The same fans who objectify women celebs and enjoy their performances quickly turn against them the first chance they get when it’s about taking a moral high ground on a public platform. It would have been fine if it was just about that and if the moral policing is harmless. It’s not okay because this moral policing turns into harassment, intimidation, bullying and threats of physical harm which continues to add to the acute problem. Taking the snow-ball effect, this acute problem essentially puts obstacles in the way of new entrants and aspirants who would again be caught in the same vicious circle long before they ever have a fair chance to compete.

The hypocrisy isn’t limited to fans only. It runs in celebrity-elites as well. In case of Mahira Khan, some on social media — including fellow celebs — have started standing up for her because she does not fit the profile of your typical Pakistani celeb. She is a self-made woman, a single mother who started with mopping floors and built herself to the point where she got to work with best of the best in the industry. If only, these very people stood up for another celeb who came from nothing but took it upon herself to expose the hypocritical attitudes of Pakistanis including celebs. Remember Qandeel Baloch?

Ideally, one ends an article like this one by proposing a solution but for this acute problem, there aren’t any quick fixes. But maybe we can start with the very talk shows whose anchors love to have “disgraced” women celebs alongside “Mufti sahib” for “bringing shame to the country”. Not to mention the news channels who run this as headline news but completely go blank if the male celebs do something similar.

Until that happens, let’s wrap our heads around this and move on: a woman can dress however she wants to dress. Period.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets @FarhanJanjua

Published in Daily Times, September 24th 2017.