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Can't hold the culture card and choose when to play it: Shaniera Akram schools critics on hypocrisy

Can't hold the culture card and choose when to play it: Shaniera Akram schools critics on hypocrisy

The activist received backlash for supporting the University of Lahore couple.
18 Mar, 2021

From hosting lavish weddings during a pandemic to the depressing state of the waste filled Seaview Beach all the way to cops rollerblading around the city, Pakistan's most beloved bhabhi Shaniera Akram is protective of her adopted country and the people living in it.

This is why when the nation broke out in chaos following the expulsion of a girl hugging a boy at the University of Lahore, the activist spoke up in protest, arguing that love shouldn't be punished like a crime.

However, after having received a ton of backlash from conservative audiences for her post, Akram recently took to social media to call out public hypocrisy, defending herself against people who were quick to judge her intentions and place in the country — going to the extent of calling her an outsider with 'foreign values.'

"I have fallen in our culture and our family values and the way we are as a country," she protested, reminding people that she speaks only from a different perspective because she was brought up in the multicultural city of Melbourne. "Growing up I didn't have just one culture I had many."

She said in Pakistan, there are reports of child abuse, honour killings, children being abandoned in garbage heaps and tortured. This isn't our culture either but it still happens, she reminded Instagram.

"We can't just hold the culture card and then choose when we want to play it," she said.

Assuring people she had nothing but love and respect for Pakistani values, she asked them to understand her point of view. "Cut me a little slack," she said, asking people not to attack her over not thinking an act of love was worse than violence.

"Spread love not hate!"

Despite not being born in Pakistan, Akram has proved time and again that she is Pakistani at heart. Being Pakistani also means that we call out the bad things in society and try to fix them. Akram never shies away from speaking her mind in that regard and we love her for it.

Comments

Owais Mar 18, 2021 05:31pm
No Asian or Pakistani would be allowed to be so vocal and critical of their societies in their part of the world as they are here ! Look at the Meghan case, despite being a celebrity in her own !
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Ibrahim S Mar 18, 2021 05:36pm
Please don’t trash her for speaking the truth . Very soon tide is going to turn against her for not being born Muslim and a Pakistani. We live in alternate reality where everyone is great.
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M. Saeed Mar 18, 2021 05:50pm
It is highly commendable that Mrs Shaniera Akram calls out the bad things in our society and try to fix them, after becoming an active part of our society. But to correct the ages long customs would take a much more concerted and methodical effort to become effective. Immediate negative reaction was very obvious.
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Lord Ickenham Mar 18, 2021 05:54pm
Wont last long in this culture
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N. Rahim Mar 18, 2021 05:58pm
Bravo Bhabi. Please keep it up and show them what they don't want to. My support for you.
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Jamal Mar 18, 2021 06:07pm
She may have grown in a multicultural city but she converted to Islam because she realized it was better. She should follow its values. By the way “being indifferent” is not the same as “ being different”. She should perhaps correct her tweet.
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Leo Mar 18, 2021 06:14pm
What made you to think you could adjust in a third world?
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It's me Mar 18, 2021 06:38pm
She is NOT the most beloved bhabhi. She is welcome to Pakistan and is accepted with open arms as long as she doesn't promote immodesty based on bringing up in the world's most multicultural city in the world. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Rather than finding ways to influence our youth in a negative manner by supporting their mistakes she can sit back, relax and chill. She can continue doing her so called 'good work' without commenting on sensitive issues that don't fall within her purview. Waseem can live with her ways and views. Waseem was a drug user just like several other team members during that time. Waseem never got our approval before marrying her. We welcome her to our homeland but she needs to leave her immoral values behind. She is a smart lady and can familiarize herself with the social, religious and normal values of our society rather than influencing nascent minds with unwanted and unwarranted views.
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Ehaan Mar 18, 2021 06:42pm
She is an amazing person, wasim akram is very lucky.
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Thinking Mar 18, 2021 06:48pm
Why should she try to make Pakistanis proud. If she needs to better herself, it should not for someone's sake, for her own sake. She definitely is looking for validation from the crowd, still insecure
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Mani Mar 18, 2021 06:51pm
Pakistanis need a reality check. They need soul searching to figure why supposedly simple errors upset them much more than actual crimes.
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joe Mar 18, 2021 06:58pm
please apply for visa.
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Feroze Khan Mar 18, 2021 07:05pm
You are 100% correct. Where is the culture, the religion and the religion when abusing 4 and 5 year old children? All those crying murder over this non-event need to look at themselves in the mirror before playing the judge and the Jury. If this young lady was our daughter ...... we would support her 101%, as we support her now.
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Browngirl Mar 18, 2021 07:16pm
That's OK and we understand that. But it would be nice if you could also tame down your condescending tone in your posts; just a little. We Pakistanis might not be first-world compatible, but we still got our dignity.
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Pakman Mar 18, 2021 07:36pm
Completely agree with Shaniera! Pakistanis need to respect one another and give space for expression that is pure and natural. It’s okay to watch such expressions of love in a movie but not in real life. How weird is that.
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Safdar Mar 18, 2021 07:42pm
All the power to her. What she says makes sense and the best way forward for us as a nation..
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Jalal Mar 18, 2021 07:56pm
Move out of this country because there maybe 2% people following English media that may cut you some slack with the other 98% that only believes in cutting people that disagree. Pathetic state of affairs if public display of affection is demonized and the nation ranks the highest in pornography searches per capita . The moral values in public and private are completely opposite and the way their private immorality is justified is by excessive show of public morality .
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Chrís Dăn Mar 18, 2021 08:08pm
A beautiful lady with beautiful thoughts. I wish we may have few more Pakistani women like her. My salutes to her.
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Chrís Dăn Mar 18, 2021 08:10pm
@Jamal so child abuse,honour killing,rishwat, are in Islamic values?
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Chota Mar 18, 2021 08:12pm
Our obsession with foreign people is not over.made a celebrity out of her.can any body tell me have we given same space to any other person in Pakistan?we all share views but why exception of importance?
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Tahir malik Mar 18, 2021 08:15pm
Fight for wrong mrs akram and you would fit right in.
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Chrís Dăn Mar 18, 2021 08:25pm
@Jamal who are you to say her that "she should"? Why you are dictating another human being and forcing another human being to adopt your point of view?
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N_Saq Mar 18, 2021 08:28pm
What Shaniera needs to understand is that no matter what haters will be haters and losers will be losers. All the gripe and fuss about the love act at Lahore university has nothing to do with culture or Islam instead it is all about all those losers who cannot get a girl on their own and when they see someone else is able to do it, they hate it and in that hate they ask for the lovers head. They want the same but they do not know how to do it, so they hide behind the curtain of culture and religion. They are the hypocrites. However, I warn Shaniera to be careful dealing with such creatures in Pak because when all their arguments fail they raise the slogan of blasphemy to silence their critics. So my friend BEWARE!!!
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Ibrahim S Mar 18, 2021 08:30pm
@Jamal please share your version of Islamic values and which celebrities are following them.
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RHS Mar 18, 2021 08:35pm
She is right. It is time that Pakistanis start doing some real thinking.
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Zeeshan Ahmed Mar 18, 2021 09:50pm
@Owais ....you are wrong to assume that.
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Hussain Riz Mar 18, 2021 10:34pm
@Owais .. .Open your mind man. You are so clueless.
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Pancake Mar 18, 2021 10:49pm
That proposal was too happy for Pakistani people to bare! Shame on haters
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Parvez Mar 18, 2021 11:50pm
Its high time we in Pakistan look at ourselves in the mirror.....and see the face of hypocrisy.
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Awaz.... Mar 19, 2021 12:05am
That's the reward you get speaking the truth in Pakistan's righteous culture.
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jaredlee007 Mar 19, 2021 12:22am
She needs to learn that 'bought up' is not as same as 'brought up'. She needs to understand how immigrants in Australia are often reminded that they do not belong there. If she is so concerned about Pakistan, then she should quietly do something meaningful about the country instead of using social media to gain popularity through her husband who was caught in match fixing.
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Zulfiqar Mar 19, 2021 03:56am
Mrs Akram is right about love. However the young couple need to be schooled on appropriate behaviour in Pakistan. Although in the context of what has happened it may seem to someone who grew up in western culture that love is being blamed which is not the case at all.
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Syeda abidi Mar 19, 2021 04:58am
We do not want to promote this kind of trend in our institution . If the university had not taken this matter seriously you know what every single day you will see people proposing ,and hugging each other , and This could motivate our school going children too . Already tiktok culture had spoiled our youth .
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Irfan ul Huq Mar 19, 2021 06:55am
@Owais You are comparing oranges with apples
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Irfan ul Huq Mar 19, 2021 07:02am
@It So please using the same moto advice the millions of Pakistanis who essentially are economic refugees living in the Western world to live in Rome as Romans do and not try to live as a Pakistani in other countries.
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Irfan ul Huq Mar 19, 2021 07:08am
@Browngirl Where is your dignity when 12 men rape a woman and walk free when 4 people are killed by a minister's son and gets free by paying the money or when major rapes a lady doctor who had to flee the country and the major gets no punishment
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Was Mar 19, 2021 08:05am
@Owais you are way off from truth here, West is way ahead when it comes to tolerance, openness, and diversity.
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Hjk Mar 19, 2021 08:07am
You go girl!! Proud of you
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G H A L I B J E E E Mar 19, 2021 10:06am
She is Right we are the Hypocrites, We all know what happens here behind closed doors. No nation can grow without identifying their mistakes. With reference to the Lahore University Students, We may agree or Not with their actions but their Actions are theirs and we do-not have any rights to question them.
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Amit Mar 19, 2021 01:25pm
@Jamal
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Mutahhar Mar 20, 2021 12:14am
Comparing two wrongs to prove one right, what a logic (slow clap for u)
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Mutahhar Mar 20, 2021 09:23pm
It is her who is playing culture card by saying that the criticism is due to culture. It was not due to culture. It was due to our religious norms. There us a difference, mind it.
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