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Fahad Mustafa appeared in an interview with Something Haute on Sunday to promote his upcoming horror thriller Zombeid, but all anyone could talk about was what he was wearing.

In a style of censure usually reserved for women and their choices, Mustafa received intense public backlash for wearing a pair of shorts and sitting with his legs crossed.

The actor was called “shameless”, “vulgar” and all sorts of other names people used most recently to talk about fellow actor Dananeer Mobeen and sheer tights she wore under a skirt.

Mishi Khan, the actor known more for her social media commentary than her acting, even chided him for showcasing his “beautiful hairy legs”. She said different places had different dress codes and it wasn’t appropriate for male celebrities to be wearing shorts during interviews. “You’re not at some beach party,” she remarked.

She also talked about how women face so much more flak for these things and asked why everyone who treated Mobeen’s clothes like the end of the world just last week was silent today.

She wasn’t alone in this criticism — the internet was awash with people who were offended by Mustafa’s clothes for one reason or the other. From the hypocrisy of men being allowed to wear shorts when women were criticised for it relentlessly to his clothes being inappropriate for an interview, a lot was said.

However, it seems Mustafa knew this was going to happen and simply did not care enough about the haters. In the interview, he made a point about double standards in Pakistani society, where some things are kosher in foreign films but Pakistani filmmakers face backlash for doing them.

He said Nora Fatehi and her dances were hugely popular in Pakistan, but if Mehwish Hayat — his Zombeid co-star who was sitting next to him — danced in Na Maloom Afraad, it was suddenly not okay.

This is when he got to his shorts and asked what the big deal was if he did wear them. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve been wearing them since I was a child, they’re just shorts. What’s the matter?”

He said he had worn shorts in school all the way till sixth grade and continues to wear them for activities like badminton and cricket. The actor said you could go out on an evening stroll and see 10 people also wearing shorts, so it was unclear to him what the issue was.

When host Aamna Isani asked if he wore the shorts to promote his own clothing line, he retorted quickly. “I don’t give a s**t, that’s why I wear them. Why is everyone telling me what to wear and what not to wear?”

He then promptly used the opportunity to promote his clothing business.

The sad reality is that Mustafa is right. Society has a habit of linking clothes to morals and then policing them, for men and especially for women. While Mustafa is wondering why everyone is telling him what to wear, we’re wondering how this is one of the first male actors in the country who’s been policed for their clothes, especially given that female actors are policed nonstop.

Perhaps the solution is just to let everyone wear and do what they want…