ARTICLE
Udaari reveals Pakistan ' s best kept secrets
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Watch Udaari ; it is unlike any other drama ,” I had said , trying to convince a friend to watch the drama . “ No way ! Children being abused . Don ’ t want to even think about it ,” was the immediate response . Brushing issues under the carpet is what we do best . A study titled ‘ The state of Pakistan ’ s children 2015 ’ by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child ( SPARC ) states 10 cases of child sexual abuse took place every day in 2015 , bringing the total to 3,768 cases last year . These are registered cases . Any educated and realistic guess will tell us that to get the real number it would have to be multiplied manifold . Of these , a lot of abuse cases are incestuous . Communal living may have many advantages as a support system but also exposes unassuming children , and even grown-ups , to the dangers of sexual abuse and rape . What Udaari has done is remarkable . It was not because Ahsan Khan played out a diffi cult character with unexpecte d brilliance , a n d that Samia Mumt a z played S a - jju so convincingly that everyo n e w h o s a w the drama wanted to bring her and Zebo home and protect them . It was a brilliant play , well scripted and directed , and technically could have been more nuanced and the characters more layered , but this is not a review of Udaari . This is a look in the mirror . And Udaari became that mirror . As a journalist who has worked on gender rights and sexual and reproductive health issues , I have met victims of rape of all kinds , including victims of marital rape and sex workers who were raped . Rape is never a laughing matter . Whenever someone cracks a joke about rape , I think of the times when these jokes may not have bothered me because I had not met the butts of those jokes and heard their stories in person . I had not seen the scars , both physical and non-physical , that acts of cowardice and weakness such as domestic violence , sexual abuse and rape leave behind . Watching Udaari made me think of some unfortunate souls , victims and others survivors . When those children in Kasur , who were sexually abused by the gang who made a living out of selling videos of the acts and blackmailed them , saw Udaari with their families , what must it be like for them ? What was the reaction of viewers who saw Udaari in groups or in isolation in Pakistan ’ s many homes where traders of the fl esh reside ? The woman in Tharparkar who was gang-raped some two years ago , and got justice after I wrote her story that prompted a suo moto action by the chief justice – what was she thinking when she saw Udaari ? The play hit home with the audiences . But it must have been an unforgettable watch for those who have directly or indirectly been exposed to such despicable acts . In 1980 an Indian fi lm , Insaf ka Tarazu , starring Zeenat Aman was initially met with negative responses for being too bold . Rape was something that was not meant to be depicted so openly . It opened certain shut doors . Udaari has managed a much bolder theme more than two decades later in Pakistan , deftly and without relying on the objectifi cation of women as sex objects . It has succeeded in making sure that the takehome message remains that one who has been raped need not be a victim but also be a survivor , instead of the focus being on Zebo ’ s youth or beauty . This is no mean feat . But perhaps the biggest contribution of any article , news clipping or talk show , or any drama like Udaari is daring to make taboo and hushed up topics like child sexual abuse open to discussion on a dinner table , at work place and on social media . Let us stop pretending that these evils don ’ t exist in our society , and that too closer to us than we think . Recognising an issue is the fi rst step to solving it .
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