A recent video shared by a female Turkish biker reveals the deeply entrenched religious supremacism and discrimination against women prevalent among average Pakistanis. In the clip shared by female Turkish biker Asil Özbay, one Pakistani fruit-seller can be seen inquiring about her religion before selling her fruits and moralising her for not wearing an appropriate gear as prescribed by Islam.
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The fruit seller asks Asil to prove that she is a Muslim by reciting the Muslim Kalima. This reveals the widespread religious supremacism and bigotry against non-Muslims among Pakistanis as a Pakistani fruit seller sought faith of one of his buyers before selling her fruits. The fruit seller also proceeded in denouncing Asil for wearing a uniform that did not conform to the Islamic norms.
After Asil pronounced the Muslim Kalima, the fruit seller goes on to claim that according to Mohammed, women are not supposed to wear attire as donned by the biker. He said, “Mohammed says one shouldn’t wear this uniform. You are a woman. Muslims do not wear such kind of uniform because everybody watches your body. It is not preferred for a woman to wear such uniforms.”
This video serves as a reality-check about Pakistanis whose leaders have recently fallen over themselves to claim lofty principles of secularism while criticising India’s move to invalidate Article 370 as communal and against the Muslim majority in Jammu and Kashmir. The ideology espoused by the concerned Pakistani fruit seller unveils the hatred that an ordinary Pakistani harbour for non-Muslims simply because one’s faith is the not same as his.
The snippet also shows that women in Pakistani worldview are second-class citizens who have no right to wear an attire they are comfortable with and instead depend on the validation from men around them and comply with archaic medieval practices.