We can’t show a woman being assaulted and falling in love with the same man, says Mahira Khan

Mahira Khan, who was recently listed in BBC’s ‘100 women of 2020′ for being outspoken about social issues, in a recent interview said that the media, including actors, filmmakers and drama makers, need to take responsibility to change the narrative.

In a recent interview, the actor said: “Something happens, there is a lot of noise about it. Everybody gets on the streets, everybody talks about it on the media, and then what? And then it dies out. Another news comes out, another story comes out or another rape happens! Then that is just another name or another hashtag attached to it. The problem is that we are not ready to educate our public, create programs that educate children, we are not ready to talk about it openly and I think we need to change that narrative.”

She continued: “I also take responsibility for it. I am a big part of the media of this country. I feel that our films, our television serials, we have to change the narrative.”

“We can’t just show a woman being assaulted (by a man) and then falling in love with him and show him to be the hero. A hero cannot be someone who is abusive. So, I think somewhere even we have to take that initiative.”

Mahira also talked about her stance on fairness creams and why she refuses to endorse them.

“I’ve been approached from the beginning of my career, not just as an actor – even when I was a VJ – I was approached to do a lot of fairness cream products, skin whitening products,” shared the actor. “It doesn’t make sense to me, it never made sense to me. So, I am endorsing the idea that a darker girl, a man is not as attractive as someone with a fairer complexion? It just didn’t make sense to me.”

Mahira also took a moment to recall her first award as an actor. In the interview, she said that though she has received many awards over the years, the award – Lux Style Award for Best Actress – she received for Humsafar is her most special.

“This is my first award as an actor, for a drama that really launched me, in the year that I was launched,” said Mahira. “I won many awards after that but this remains very, very special.”