Meesha Shafi calls out Lux Style Awards for not nominating a single female musician this year

This year, the Lux Style Awards have excluded women from its list of music nominations and singers are not letting it slide. Meesha Shafi called them out for “blatant discrimination” and was followed by musicians Risham Faiz Bhutta and Sania from Justin Bibis who re-shared her statement and backed it up.

On Tuesday, the ‘Muaziz Saarif’ singer took to Instagram to talk about the unfair nomination list. “Not a single woman nominated in the LSA music nominations. Erasure at this scale (there is an exceptionally high number of nominations this time) of the entire female population occupying the Pakistani music industry is unjustifiable and highly problematic,” she wrote, tagging a list of fellow female musicians.

She pointed out the double standards associated with the brand and held them responsible for this mass wipeout of female musicians. “The LSA brand and jury has set an example of women being blindsided and denied the recognition they deserve. A brand like Lux, who sells their soaps on the back of women in their ads, ought to be more mindful of women equity on their platforms, especially when there is no dearth of women singing/songwriting and releasing high quality music in any given year. LSA is accountable and should be answerable for this blatant discrimination.”

Sania re-posted Shafi’s story in a show of agreement.

Bhutta also shared a post in which she said she’s “not shocked but it’s a prime example of women being blindsided and denied the recognition they deserve. Looking at the list made me feel like women didn’t exist this year, they did.”

Bhutta sought answers, on behalf of all female musicians “who have worked hard on their music/art, deserved EQUAL recognition and should be answerable for this blatant ignorance”.