BONN:
Periods, intercourse, physique shaming, harassment, misogyny, courting: These will not be matters of debate which are overtly mentioned in Pakistani households or amongst pals. But packaged as comedy, the taboo themes elicit raucous laughter and cheers in packed auditoriums. Families, {couples} and younger folks all are available droves to observe feminine comedians carry out.
While it’s changing into extra frequent, stand-up comedy, significantly for girls performers, remains to be a novelty. Historically, comedy was a really male-dominated discipline within the nation, and the uncommon feminine performers had been restricted to tv. Those doing stand-up comedy have till lately not been capable of finding acceptance in Pakistan, as there are a number of detrimental connotations and social stigma relating to ladies being on stage, alone and unaccompanied.
While singers resembling Noor Jehan have lengthy been a staple of Pakistani popular culture, feminine comedians don’t occupy the identical house. In Pakistani tradition, ladies have usually been seen as topics of jokes, not those telling them. However, with the appearance of extra stand-up and improv comedians within the final decade, ladies, too, have now carved out a distinct segment for themselves in comedy.
‘Safety in numbers’: comedy troupes and social media
Several of those comedians say that they discovered the boldness and expertise to do comedy publicly due to the protection they felt in all-women comedy troupes.
Amtul Baweja, 31, digital content material creator and comic, has been performing since 2011 when she was a college scholar, however she did not really feel snug doing comedy till she joined South Asia’s first all-female improv-comedy group, The Khawatoons, in 2016.
“My confidence boosted performing with women. Before comedy felt very male-dominated, and automatically men would take the funnier roles or the audience would find the man funnier and make the woman feel like she was trying too hard,” Baweja advised dw, “But with the troupe, we had to play all the roles, even the male roles, and got so many laughs.”
The Khawatoons was began by one among Pakistan’s best-known comedians, Faiza Saleem. She began the troupe so ladies might have a protected house to specific themselves freely and give you the option “to talk about difficult things through comedy,” Saleem advised the publication.
Baweja and Saleem not solely share being in the identical troupe collectively, however each have launched very profitable careers as comedians, leveraging the ability and attain of social media as nicely — the previous has 47,000 followers on Instagram and the latter, 178,000. Both social media and being in feminine troupes permits these ladies freedom and security, they are saying.
Robina Ahmed, 64, is a retired authorities official who began doing stand-up comedy 4 years in the past. She, too, discovered creative refuge in one other Pakistani feminist stand-up troupe, Auratnaak, after performing principally in comedy teams with “young guys,” the place she didn’t really feel as free to discover the problems she wished to.
Challenging patriarchy via humor
Ahmed broke additional limitations lately by performing a whole solo set to a sold-out corridor the day after her retirement. “Comedy for me is a sugar-coated pill that is bitter but easier to swallow. I mainly deal with issues related to women in my acts. Patriarchy, misogyny, taboos, emotional abuse, gender identity, and sexual preferences are some of the topics I usually raise in my sets,” Ahmed advised DW.
Ahmed does all this and extra in Punjabi, the native language of the Punjabi folks within the Punjab area of Pakistan, which provides uniqueness and authenticity to her units. In her solo present, Ahmed pushes many patriarchal boundaries to a various viewers, detailing how social constructs imposed a scarcity of bodily autonomy in her life from youth to maturity.
“I speak about things I have experienced in life. I never ever talk about hypothetical things or situations. I think this makes my expression more genuine and convincing,” stated Ahmed. As Baweja says: “We are reclaiming space. Even if one isn’t even talking about women’s issues, just being brave enough to stand up and speak is feminist. You are contributing to representation and equality.”
Amna Baig, 30, is a police officer within the nation’s capital, Islamabad, and has been doing stand-up for the previous three years. Baig occupies two male-dominated fields, police and comedy, and makes use of comedy to elucidate the stereotypes and sexism inherent within the police power and society as a complete.
However, her foremost purpose is to destigmatise and demystify her occupation as a policewoman. “By humanising the police through my sets, I try and change the people’s perceptions about them. So that when they need some help, they don’t think twice before approaching the police and that more women feel comfortable to join the police as workers, too,” stated Baig.
The way forward for feminist comedy in Pakistan
While these ladies are a testomony to the expertise brimming within the nation and a rising curiosity in feminine comedians’ work, many limitations stay for girls cementing their careers in comedy on a full-time foundation.
“Over the past 10 years I’ve seen a lot of female comedians online, on social media, improv and stand-up, but we still have a long way to go. Many women don’t pursue it as a profession, as there is not enough scope for it, but I hope in the future, this will change,” stated Saleem.
She added that, in contrast to their Indian counterparts which have hit worldwide success and recognition, owing largely to OTT platforms resembling Netflix commissioning reveals, it’s unlikely ladies comedians in Pakistan could have related alternatives, as they’re restricted by “social and religious factors.”
Ahmed is optimistic. “I see the comedy scene dominated by women in the near future. They are intelligent and witty, they pick up the right issues and they know how to show a mirror to society.”