The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday named the former member of Pakistan’s civil bureaucracy, columnist and anchorperson Orya Maqbool Jan, as one of the three nominees for the post of Punjab caretaker chief minister.
There appears to be some confusion in the party as far as this nomination is concerned, but the fact that the name was suggested by the party is mindboggling, given the anchorperson’s troubling views about literally everything under the sun. Famous (or infamous) for his extreme orthodox views especially about women, he has perhaps generated more controversies in this society than our society can handle.
Here are a few examples when the notorious ‘scholar’ shared his misogynist views about women and did not flinch one bit about it.
Women should not take part in processions
Jan firmly believes that women should not take part in political processions “because Pakistani politics are not Islamic politics and women cannot remain safe there and hence are responsible for whatever harassment they have to face in these very un-Islamic processions”.
The anchorperson also thinks that women should just stay at home and raise kids, and if they’re not married, it’s not an issue. Our expert says they should just sit at home and ‘wait to get married’ since that is the ideal state to be in for a woman. In either case, a woman’s place is at home and if she gets out, she is the one responsible for what befalls her.
His problem with female anatomy
We still remember how the tear-jerker ad by Q-Mobile about a girl who accomplished her dreams, against all odds, irked Jan, who is the self-proclaimed custodian of morality. According to him, the ad was ‘vulgar and provocative’ especially the poor girl’s run-up action. The ‘scholar’ went on to explain how scriptwriters and cameramen deliberately bring out the ‘vulgarity’ in a scene and how women who leave home against their father’s wishes never get successful ever.
Jan takes his TV very seriously, that’s for sure.
His views on women protection bill
Orya Maqbool Jan, who says he indulged in marriage counselling for six years, had a point of view on the women protection bill as well, the way he has a point of view on everything. He said that all the developed countries have domestic violence bills in place but since one out of every four women is harassed even in the presence of these bills, there is absolutely no use of a bill like that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where women are already much protected. He was of the view that this bill will ultimately destroy family life in the country as all the personal details between a husband and wife will come out in the open and no sanctity of marriage will be left. How he comes up with these bright ideas is anybody’s guess.
On Zainab’s murder case
Jan’s stance on Zainab’s murder case was that since women go around in provocative clothes, people just have enough reason to rape them since they have no control over their feelings. He said that since men are now ‘tired of everything they’re just going around raping and killing innocent children’.
So Jan took ‘it was her fault’ to whole new level; a level that probably only he could reach.
On Asma Jehangir’s death
He also had a few things to say on the late human rights advocate Asma Jehangir’s death. On his talk show he very meekly said, that ‘she was a very different kind of a woman, and now that she has died and departed to meet the same creator that she had rifts with, he has nothing to say’. He further said, ‘now the creator will do whatever He wants to do with her.’ Yikes!
On Meesha Shafi-Ali Zafar scandal
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) recently took notice of Orya Maqbool Jan’s show on Neo TV in which he passed “derogatory remarks against singer-actress Meesha Shafi”, regarding the recent Meesha Shafi- Ali Zafar harassment case.
The misogyny does not end there. Orya Maqbool Jan openly supports the capturing of enemy’s civilian women as sex slaves. Here is an excerpt from one such interview:
Host: So when Pakistani forces captured the Run-of-Kuchh region in India, was it completely legal and moral for our soldiers to rape the civilian women of that area?
Orya: Yes indeed, it is permissible.
Host: But don’t you think this is against human rights and war ethics?
Orya: Well, those women are going to be raped anyway. So why not openly declare them londian and bring them home?
We rest our case.
