Following a near-lynching incident of a Pakistani girl wearing an Arabic print dress, and her facing threats of ‘sar tan se juda’, the Kuwait-based company that designed the dress lambasted Pakistanis for sending them “disturbing” messages and dragging them into the episode.
Instagram handle semplicitakw shared a story in which it reminded Pakistanis that the brand uses Arabic texts in different fonts ‘everywhere’, hinting about the dress that triggered an Islamist mob. Notably, the mob had assaulted the woman while chanting slogans of ‘sar tan se juda’ because they believed she committed ‘Gusthaki’ by wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy.
In their post, the Kuwaitian company wrote, “Dear pakistani people, We have nothing to do with the recent incident that happened to the innocent girl. We are based in Kuwait company (sic) And we do NOT ship worldwide. Please stop following and messaging since its (sic) really disturbing.”
Pointing toward the use of Arabic on the dress based on which Islamist mob considered it an act of Gusthaki, the company added, “We use arabic words and letters in different fonts everywhere since its our language!”
Meanwhile, according to the Instagram handle, the dress had been in the public for almost over 48 weeks, that is nearly a year. Notably, Kuwait is also an Islamic country where the company had unveiled and sold its dresses but the outrage erupted in Pakistan. Pakistanis got outraged over the presumption of Arabic texts being some ‘Quranic verses’ which according to Islamists would be wrong to print on dress casually and attracts ‘Gusthaki’ or blasphemy which is punishable by death in Pakistan.
Several netizens also slammed Pakistanis over the incident and putting a woman’s life in danger for the random use of Arabic and considering anything written in Arabic as Quranic verses or its adulteration.
Pakistani journalist in exile Taha Siddiqui wrote, “Even the designer is fed up!,” along with a poster on which the text read, “The designer of Arabic print dress that became controversial doesn’t want Pakistani followers.”
A Pakistani digital outlet, Dialogue Pakistan shared a purported chat with the designer company in which it clarified the meaning of the Arabic texts written on that dress that sparked outrage.
According to their claim, the Kuwaiti brand said “haya” means life, and “halwa” translates to beautiful.
Islamist mob threatened the woman’s life chanting Sar Tan se Juda slogans before being rescued by Police
As per reports, the incident took place in Lahore, Pakistan. The Islamic fanatics mob, led by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan members, thought that the colourful Arabic text on the white dress was Quranic verses, and therefore she committed blasphemy, which is punishable by death in Pakistan.
The woman was spotted wearing the dress by the fanatics while she was dining at a restaurant in Ichhra Market in Lahore. A large group of people assembled soon after, who surrounded her, and hurled abuses and threats. Some of the crowd surrounded the woman, leaving her frozen in fear, while some bystanders attempted to protect her from lynching by the bloodthirsty mob. As per the videos of the incident that went viral, the mob can be heard chanting the hateful slogan ‘Sar Tan se juda’ which bay for the head of the alleged blasphemer.
Meanwhile, as the situation escalated, police arrived at the scene and escorted the woman out from the spot. In the viral videos, a female police officer can be seen escorting the woman, who was covered in a burqa by the cops. Several Pakistanis lauded the act of the Policewoman arguing that she should be awarded for her brave act of saving the woman from the Islamist mob.
In the wake of the protest by the Islamist mob, the woman was forced to apologise.
Nonetheless, initially, media reports had claimed that the dress was from Saudi Arabian label Shalik Riyadh, which was launched during Ramazan in 2022. “The best Ramadan 2022 collection has arrived,” Shalik Riyadh had captioned while posting an image of the dress on Instagram. However, as per an Instagram post by semplicitakw, the said dress was reportedly designed by a Kuwaitian company.