The absurdity of the Maya Khan Brigade

This piece is more an effort to lower my blood pressure than anything else. (Apologies for typos)

The Maya Khan brigade appears to have gone on a rampage in, wait for it....a park!

Telling your parents that you are going to the “park” is never going to be the same ever again.

If you still haven’t seen the show then a clip below kind of sums up the gutter television that SAMAA is producing.

Now the last time I checked (and I didnt realise that I needed to check this to begin with), two people, of the opposite sex, sitting in a park, in broad day light, is not illegal.

Some people who support this campaign against “date's” point out that while they“offending” couples may not be meeting illegally, the fact that they are together is definitely immoral and against Islam!

Even assuming that a man and a women sitting together is indeed “immoral”, who is SAMAA TV, Maya Khan and the chattering aunties to go and hound them in a public space?

Going through the horrid clip above, you see two dozen women running through a park, shouting “wo hijab waali”, “dekho uss nai hijab pehna huwa hai”, escorted by men with name tags and uniformed men, obviously employed by one or the other private security company. If you had this great “hoard” of judgement come charging at you, anyone would feel intimidated, harassed and threatened. The last time I checked, and I may be completely ignorant about this, when I go to a public space, that is not what I expect, nor is such behaviour condoned by any legal authority.

What perhaps magnifies the absurdity of the behaviour of the women involved is their comments and reactions. At the end of the clip, all the laughing, high fives and self congratulation is disgusting! It appears as if they are on a human Safari, corralling all those that they can look down upon into the corner and shoving a camera in their face! As if passing judgement is not enough, the women indulge in a race to the bottom as each tries to out do the other, by offering further justification to explain why they are racing through a public space, harassing people!

While the hating aunties share there views on what a mangni constitutes, even offering some legal jargon to make themselves sound learned, and where you should and should not meet your f fiancée, the smugness and self righteousness increases more than proportionately as each minute passes.

Then comes the flip side of the argument. That a “free media” can do what it wants and any criticism of it is an attempt to curtail its freedom. No...the moment the supposed “free media” uses bystanders to push up their ratings, they are desperately calling for regulation to mediate their output. By infringing on the rights and privacy of others, the media, or any individual for that matter cannot claim freedom of expression as a right, as they trample those of others.

Given that the right to privacy is a basic human right and Pakistan is a signatory to the various conventions, the blatant, recorded illegality of the actions of SAMAA TV is just calling on someone to take action.

But this is perhaps the most frustrating and cynical part of this whole episode. Maya Khan and her crew pick on individuals who they know are vulnerable, who would not want the spotlight or a media trial. Maya Khan and SAMAA have no right to demand nikkahnama's from anyone and no one has to explain their relationship to them.

In writing this post, I am probably participating in the promotion of this video and the “efforts” of Maya Khan and her ragtag bunch. However, if nothing else, this episode is a clear example of how the race for ratings and fame has made our media personalities increasingly desperate.

We can boycott and refuse to partake, but sadly, there remains a large audience of people who will support such programming.

If you are not one of them, then please sign the following petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/to-mr-zafar-siddiqi-ceo-samaa-tv-stop-subah-saverey-maya-kay-sath-vigilantism-like-lal-masjid

Write into SAMAA TV:

http://www.samaa.tv/programdetail.aspx?ID=59

And lodge a complaint with PEMRA

http://www.pemra.gov.pk/feedback/

The most effective way to lobby these channels on their programming, is to write to those companies that advertise and sponsor their shows.

Finally, some argue that what Maya Khan and her brigade were upto was a good thing. They were helping to get rid of immoral activity. If we accept that argument, then we would have to accept the arguments of the Lal Masjid Brigade who would have rounded up all the women running through the park, beat them with sticks and demanded that they confine themselves behind closed doors. I hate to say this, but in this case, perhaps in the greatest interest, that would not be such a bad thing.

Actually, that would be a bad thing. No individuals rights should be curtailed for the greater good. Hear that SAMAA TV and Maya Khan? Or do you prefer playing the bully that everyone hates in the park?

Now just to cool things down and bring a smile at the end of this post, have a look at the original Hating Aunties: