At some point in my life I would often say ‘the internet never stops amazing me‘ but now I often say ‘the internet never stops disappointing me’. Things seem to go viral for no reason at all. Like this video of Mahira Khan smoking a cigarette. Really, that’s all she is doing. The title of the video reads ‘Mahira ne dohrai vahi galti, cigarette peeti aayi nazar’ (Mahira repeats the same mistake, was seen smoking a cigarette). While male actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, among others can smoke their way to glory, a woman smoking is a mistake she shouldn’t be repeating?
Let me be clear that I don’t support smoking as an acitivity. Smoking is injurious to health… regardless of what gender you belong to! Here is what troubles me more about this video.
The video was obviously taken by someone Mahira trusts
It’s not easy having every activity of your life tracked by millions of people. As a celebrity, it must be a task to actually find people you can trust. I can only imagine Mahira’s state of mind when she wakes up to a video of her going viral just because she had a cigarette in hand. The mentality of whoever decided to capture this video with the aim of defaming her really sickens me.
The video begins with ‘Shocking! Mahira hui bold, phir cigarette phunkti dikhi‘
It is absolutely shocking to see a woman doing something so shocking like… smoking a cigarette! Where are these quirky headline writers when men are smoking or drinking or throwing tantrums or raping women?
Mahira is being shamed not for smoking a cigarette, but for being a woman
A woman smoking a cigaretter is bold but a man smoking a ciagrette is just everyday stuff, right? It’s not the cigarette in between the fingers that’s causing such a ruckus, it’s who those fingers belong to. And in this fight, the vagina seems to always be losing to the penis.
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Featured Image: Mahira Khan on Instagram
