Actor Zara Noor Abbas speaks about sexism in the Pakistani film industry that holds women more accountable than men.
The Badshah Begum actor recently spoke about her acting career and touched on sexism in an interview with FUCHSIA Magazine.
The subject came up when the actor talked about the idea behind a piece of art she published in 2020 that had a woman’s face with questions written over it. She claimed to have made a statement that received negative feedback and sparked backlash on social media.
“I was avoiding reading all articles — it was fair because I felt like [people online] ask really unnecessary questions — ‘when and why did this happen? Why was it like this?’ You just read a statement and add your own connotation to it, stating your own opinion. It is so unnecessary [and] it is [directed at] women. Men are not asked that many questions. There is a lot of sexism on social media,” she said.
This shifted the direction of the conversation toward discrimination in her profession to which Zara admitted, “There is a lot of sexism in the industry. I’m very loved by my entire team but I do notice (the difference in behavior) between male actors and female actors. With male actors, they become buddies. If the call time becomes late, they say don’t worry. But if a female actor’s call time is 6 am and she doesn’t wake up at six and arrives at seven mistakenly, a complaint is lodged. And it goes to the production, to the director, to everyone.”
“Whereas the guy is told he has a margin of 15 minutes and lights are set up meanwhile. So this happens, I’ve seen that the boys become boys, become friends while the girls are busy (arguing) ‘You told me this is how it’ll go, etc.”
The Zebaish actor concluded by saying, “Everyone should be respected, there should be equality that isn’t there.”
