KARACHI: Pakistani model Marvi Shabbir uploaded on Tuesday a video of herself explaining her allegedly horrifying experience of working with designer Zainab Salman. In her video, she claimed that the brand treated her inhumanely by not providing her with food and failing to pay her for the work that she had done due to an argument that occurred during the shoot.
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The model also shared more details about the incident in the following posts to give a clearer picture of how the fashion industry views models as mannequins and disrespect them by behaving in inappropriate and unprofessional ways.
Her posts caused outrage, with many demanding justice for the way she was treated and some suggested that the alleged aggression that the designer showed Marvi was out of line.
The overwhelming response online prompted the designer to release a video detailing her outlook on the situation, claiming that Marvi’s accusations are false and an attempt to cyber-bully her. In her video she explained that the model was in fact the unprofessional one as she did not make it to the shoot on time and caused them to suffer great losses due to the delays that she initiated. The video also included screenshots of the conversation between the two which showed her being late but failed to prove that Zainab was innocent to the act that she was accused of. The Lahori designer proceeded to share more videos on Instagram whereby a short recorded conversation between Zainab and Marvi about the incident was submitted as proof on Zainab’s behalf.
Online users were split after Zainab’s posts with some suggesting that these posts cannot be used as examples of evidence and are ‘baseless’ whereas others expressed that they believe the model was trying her hand at gaining public attention with her public allegations.
In a recent interview with Images, Marvi said that the evidence shared by Zainab was “manipulated” and the recorded conversation that were shared in such a way to make Marvi sound “threatening”. As for the food that Zainab claimed was available throughout the shoot, Marvi said that it was “obviously prop for the pictures”.
The makeup artist on the set of this shoot, Nauman, held the position of an eyewitness to testify that Marvi’s claims are true when he posted the following on his Instagram story:
The makeup artist also spoke to Images stating that the brand was highly unprofessional and made Marvi and himself wait 45 minutes outside of the venue before the rest of the team could arrive. He further added that they did not display the decency to open the studio so that the two could sit and wait inside. However, to Zainab’s defense, the photographer on the set, Zahra Sarfaraz, negated all of Marvi’s claims by recalling the incident on her Instagram story claiming that all the people there had access to food.
Those who are alleged victims to Zainab Salman’s treatment say that they have nothing to gain and hope to gain nothing by sharing their experience with Marvi explaining that she hopes that the industry changes its perception of models and treats them with the respect that they deserve.
