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Sarwat Gilani welcomed the newest addition to her family recently and it should have been a moment of absolute joy. Instead, social media users butted in to baselessly criticise her maternity shoot.

The Joyland actor featured on the cover of The Sunday Times on December 10, showing off her baby bump in a stunning lilac gown by Muzains.

However, social media users jumped to extensively criticise the supposed ‘vulgarity’ of the pictures, prompting Gillani to turn off the comments on her Instagram post showcasing the shoot.

A tweet disparaging the actor went viral, with over 700,000 views, claiming that “our so-called celebrities are spreading shamelessness”. The user asked what the “need” for the pictures was.

Fans were quick to jump to Gilani’s defence under the tweet, with one netizen reading our minds as they sardonically questioned, “Fellas is being pregnant wrong now?”

Rapper and comedian Ali Gul Pir commented, “She seems happy, sad that it irks you”, while sociologist and academic Nida Kirmani replied to the critique stating, “I guess your birth was shameful”.

“Noo Tooba babies are not dropped off skies. It involves protrusion of a woman’s abdomen & a lot more. And showing that off is absolutely a woman’s choice and right,” another person responded.

Too much happiness can’t be tolerated, it seems.

One of our favourite tweets was: “Aunties to married women: ‘have children’, ‘give siblings to your young ones’, ‘control your husband’. Aunties when women get pregnant: ‘Cover yourself up a little, what is this vulgarity’.

There were many women slamming the criticism and talking about the absolute beauty of pregnancy and motherhood.

The unnecessary controversy surrounding the photoshoot made us question why people are so quick to disparage women, especially pregnant women. Gilani’s pictures were nothing but a celebration of life and the sheer miracles the human body can perform. We thought they highlighted the strength of a mother and what she endures to bring life into the world — and the actor looked gorgeous doing it.

One X user was correct when she said, “Y’all just really hate women and their natural processes”.

Pregnancy is just that — a natural process women are encouraged (and sometimes required) to go through. To needlessly put down someone’s joy just reflects the lack of happiness in haters’ own lives. Let’s stop asking women to hide themselves and their joy and let them live!