Dawn Images

Members of Karachi’s modelling fraternity are outraged after makeup artist Bryan William was assaulted by model Robina Khan Shah’s husband during a shoot for Nabila’s Salon.

In a series of Instagram stories, Shah confirmed that her husband assaulted the makeup artist but claimed he “abused” her first. William has not commented on the situation and Images has reached out to him for a statement.

Shah claimed that William called her a “do takay ki model [two-bit model]” when she “requested” him to carry her phone when she was ready to begin shooting. “He blatantly said that he is not going to do that and that ‘do takay’ ki model like me should take care of her own stuff,” she wrote, alleging that he “swore” at her, which she returned in kind.

The model said her driver called her husband and informed him about the situation. “I am sure that no respectable husband would tolerate anyone abusing at his wife for no reason,” she said, adding that her husband “got flared up” because of the makeup artist’s “condescending behaviour” and slapped him.

She claimed that the situation had been “blown out of proportion” and the entirety of the blame had been placed on her and her husband. The model questioned what other people or their families would do had “such abuses” been hurled at them at their workplace.

She also questioned why most models were siding with the makeup artist instead of her.

Nabila’s Salon has also posted a statement seemingly disassociating itself from the model on its official Instagram. “The safety, respect, and dignity of our employees is of utmost importance. We only choose to associate with professionals who share similar values,” it read.

The brand involved in the shoot, Mina Hassan, also addressed the issue on Instagram, condemning the behaviour as deplorable and announcing action against those responsible.

Fraternity reacts

Several members of Karachi’s fashion fraternity spoke up in William’s defence. Though he has not commented on the matter, he has reshared several stories of support to his Instagram page.

One of the first people to talk about the incident was Mushk Kaleem, who called for the entire fashion fraternity to ban Shah.

Her post was reshared by model Erica Robin who said she witnessed the incident.

Actor Vardah Aziz also reshared Kaleem’s story and said no one should be able to get away with this kind of behaviour.

Models Sana Sardar, Alyana Shamsi and Fatima Hasan expressed their support for William and said violence is never the answer.

Makeup artist Shainal also posted about the incident, highlighting that makeup artists are not servants.