Shahroz Sabzwari defends Sadaf Kanwal over ‘uneducated’ feminism remarks
Majority of women support her views, he says
Shahroz Sabzwari believes that people who are digging up old videos of his wife and model Sadaf Kanwal to oppose her views on feminism have already weakened their argument by doing so.
“Most women have supported Sadaf,” Shahroz said on SAMAA TV’s show 7 se 8. “If she’s been trending for the last four days, it is for a positive reason.”
On Saturday, Sadaf’s interpretation of feminism from an interview went viral and she faced backlash for reducing it to household chores and taking care of husbands.
“In our society, our culture is our husband,” Sadaf said. “I have to pick up his shoes, iron his clothes (which I seldom do, but I know where they are kept). I should know where Sherry’s [Shehroz] stuff is and what and when he has to eat.”
Sadaf ascribed feminism to increasing “liberals” in society, alluding to the Aurat March, and said that because she is a woman, she should know more about her husband than he does.
Related: Sadaf Kanwal’s ‘problematic’ feminism statement enrages Twitter
Shahroz said Sadaf wasn’t made to say at gunpoint what she said, nor is she an oppressed woman. Had she not been receiving the same respect and affection from her husband, she would not have said what she did on television, the actor added.
“The positivity people saw after Sadaf’s statement was hard to digest for some people, who said Sadaf was an oppressed woman who was being oppressed further by her own statements,” Shahroz said. When you start slinging mud at someone by raking up their past, you weaken the case yourself and it doesn’t affect others at all, he added.
Actor Salma Zafar Asim remarked that Sadaf might have said it out of innocence, and by just considering her circumstance in life or her context.
“What disappointed people are the present circumstances [ongoing violence against women],” said Salma. “But we, the women living in cities, are very strong. Look at rural women who are killed and thrown away.”
She added that it was hard for people to digest such comments from a woman who had been walking the ramp until recently.
Shahroz said that he and Sadaf respect and stand with every single oppressed woman.
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