Mere Pass Tum Ho, a new drama serial starring Huamyun Saeed, Ayeza Khan and Adnan Siddiqui is the talk of the town as its story revolves around a woman who is willing to leave her husband for another rich man.
The screen writer and director of the drama, Khalilur Rehman Qamar has always been known for his gripping storytelling. Misogyny is always been the key to his characters and stories.
In a recent interview, Qamar defended his ideas about how he sees society.
“It (Mere Pass Tum Ho) is a story of several men, not just one. I have come across multiple married couples who go through the same ordeal. I’ve observed when a married woman cheats, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all. The reason behind her not feeling guilty is because she has been backed by another man. When an unmarried woman cheats, she feels guilty.”
He further said, “But when a married man betrays his wife, he feels guilty. He feels embarrassed.”
Qamar emphasized that women should not criticized his new drama Mere Pass Tum Ho because women themselves ridicule men.
“I’m only narrating this story in your [women’s] favour. Like it or not, I don’t call every woman a woman. To me, the only beautiful trait a woman can possess is her loyalty and her haya/modesty. If a woman isn’t loyal then she is not a woman. Register an FIR against me for if you don’t subscribe to my point of view but I won’t budge.”
He dragged the #MeToo movement in the interview that if any woman will try to bash me with it, he will not care about it at all.
“Get someone to try me under #MeToo, I won’t care about that either. But I won’t be able to call every woman a woman. That simply isn’t true for me.”
By further clarifying the story of the drama, Qamar said that this drama is for all the good women, who remain loyal to their husbands.
“A man leaves all his honour, his self-esteem with his wife when he goes out to earn a living. And I curse those women who violate that trust. That was the concept behind Mere Pass Tum Ho and so I’m fighting for the ‘good women’. It would be unfair to these [good] women to be classified along with those who aren’t loyal.”
The director elaborated that he is a feminist himself, but he knows where to be feminist and where not to.
“Trust me, you’ll not find a bigger feminist in Pakistan, but I fight for good women only. Loyalty is a woman’s virtue; don’t challenge it.”
While giving the interview, Qamar told an incident where he had a conversation with a feminist group regarding equality, he replied to them that if women want equality then they should also do everything what men do.
“A few weeks ago, a feminist group had a conversation with me regarding equality. I asked them if they’ve ever heard about a gang of men kidnapping a woman? They assured me they have. I asked them then why don’t women do the same? If you wish to strive for equality then kidnap men as well. Rob a bus, gang rape a man, so that I can understand what you [women] mean by equality.”
He then mockingly said that men have hijacked women’s rights so cunningly that women don’t really understand what their actual rights are.
“Rather than figuring out your own rights, you’re only asking your part from men’s rights. That’s never going to happen! The most one of these feminist groups can do is chant slogans against me, tweet a few thousand tweets but that’s it! Women can’t do anything else.”
Qamar beliefs regarding women are very different than many other men, he believed that if women will ever challenge men, the whole society will collapse.
To explain his view, he shared another story,
“I was once in conversation with Sultana Siddiqui, and she asked me, ‘Khalil, why don’t you write anything against men?’ I asked her what should I write about men? Should I abuse him? I would, but then what? She said, ‘What do you mean? Even men remarry and indulge in extramarital affairs. Why do you choose to be so selective?’ I just had one question in response, ‘But with whom? A woman, right?’”
According to Qamar, if a woman learns to say ‘NO’ to men, then men will never think to have an extramarital affair.
The interviewer finally asked him about how loyalty should be excercised between both man and woman, Qamar came up with a reply that a woman is always insecure about another woman, not about another man.
“You have to understand this philosophy. A wife is worried about what? Another woman. That other woman isn’t a man. So riddle me this: you are destroying a man and you’re the one who’s complaining about it as well.”
He concluded by saying, “A man cannot say no. He just can’t. A good woman can.”
What are your thoughts on Qamar’s view on women? Let us know in the comments section below.