KARACHI: Comedian Danish Ali’s latest video just went viral. It has garnered nearly 11 millions views on social media and everyone’s agreeing that the video, featuring Ali Rehman Khan and Hareem Farooq, is painfully funny. Painful because while the scenario portrayed in the video is a little exaggerated, it holds true for many people. It shows Ali selling rishtas to a woman looking to get married (played by Hareem).
Men and women are usually reduced to two primary functions in a patriarchal society: A man is judged by the amount of money he makes and a woman is judged on her desirability. Ali’s latest video talks about difficult it is for Pakistani men to find wholesome marriages if they do not meet society’s criteria of a ‘well established man’. While we’ve often talked about how hard it is for women to constantly be critiqued on their looks, we seldom talk about how tough it is for men to solely bare the brunt of providing for the family. Ali’s video does exactly that while making everyone laugh at the same time.
In 2017, Teeli did a similar video in which the roles were reversed. The commentary was on how women are ‘bought’ for marriage and the unrealistic standards they have to match up to.
