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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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