Social media has by now become a major tool for news reporting. One would imagine this to be a case of putting the cart before the horse. News should be discussed on social media, the happenings and content of social media should not be news.
Yet this week’s two most significant stories (socially significant, not practically), both took place, developed and concluded completely on social media. Both print and television news were simply following like everyone else as the events unfolded on the internet and gleefully reporting every post, tweet, rebuttal post and leaked screenshot.
This week, the attention of Pakistan, and indeed a wider Indo-Saracen audience, was captivated by two people.
Both with completely divergent callings, but very public personalities. Both divorced, both performers and both dogged by accusations of immorality and indecency in the same week. If any two people had their stars in a twist this week, they were Mahira Khan and Nauman Ali Khan.
Naturally the response to both stories was separate. They did not have anything in common after all. But the simultaneously timing of the two makes for an ideal opportunity for a study of how people (and the media) reacted to the two happenings.
Both Mahira and Nauman had their fair share of attacks. And they were nothing unexpected or original. Mahira was primarily targeted for a general un-islamic-ness. Nauman was called out for his hypocrisy and allegedly taking advantage of his female students, perhaps the most serious and tangible assertion in the entire mess of a week.
As for the defences, Mahira was protected fiercely. So was Nauman Ali Khan. Nauman Ali Khan’s fans, followers and anyone with a beard in sight urged the world to either wait for the details or declared the accusations malicious slander against the preacher, going so far as to say if he had done anything of the sort they were all prepared to forgive him.
Meanwhile, Mahira supporters, feminists and liberals with no vested interest in her particularly, but a bone to pick with any religious conservatism, were at the top of their game. Statements of “who cares what she does?” and “its her life” were the line taken. Some more prudently said “but she may have 50 hidden good deeds you do not have. Only Allah can judge.”
What a lot of people did not get was that no matter how they frame it, what Mahira did was objectively un-islamic, and what Nauman did was both objectively un-islamic and in turn hypocritical. If anyone disagrees or is inflamed by this statement, they should develop the decisiveness to say that it’s either a problem with the islamic concept, or admit that it is what it is, rather than multi-track drifting.
When Mahira’s pictures first surfaced, you just knew it was never going to end well. One can even imagine the ‘oh crap’ moment she must have gone through when she first realised what had happened. One can also imagine Nauman Ali Khan’s ‘oh crap’ moment, and his seems infinitely bigger. Mahira is, at the end of the day, in the film industry. This is not the first time she has been criticised for what she was wearing or doing or her choices in life.
Nauman Ali Khan on the other hand, is a religious scholar. His chastity and higher moral standing are the greatest weapons in his arsenal. To a younger, english speaking elite attracted by his thinly veiled hard line exposition of Islam, he is the equivalent of what someone like Maulana Tariq Jameel is for most of Pakistan’s Deobandi diaspora. All he has ever received is praise and defence. In his case, the act is one of hypocrisy and betrayal.
After all, Mahira Khan never made any secrets about who she is and how she wants to lead her life. She is an entertainer while Nauman Ali Khan is a preacher. A preacher who, against the age old wisdom, apparently does not practice what he preaches.
Social media as a tool is strong enough on its own. It does not need much support to be able to diminish a person’s following or completely discredit them. Mahira Khan probably has a thicker skin than Nauman does on this matter. For him, the very thing that made him is what turned against him. Because anyone with anything interesting to say can go viral, and social media is a battlefield where the soldiers for both armies are the same.
The hourly attention on the day’s news cycle on national television probably did not do much to improve the situation for either Mahira or Nauman, but especially the latter.