Analyzing “Baaghi” from a Feminist Lens

 

A few days ago, I being the teenager was scrolling in the abyss of reels when I stumbled upon a video called “Pakistan’s first feminist k*lled by Her Brother.” Gradually, I checked the comment section for answers and found men and women celebrating a murder. This led me to deep dive into a personality called “Qandeel Baloch” at 2 am. I successfully pulled an all-nighter and watched a show based on her life called “Baaghi” and read about her on the internet.

Fauzia Azeem popularly known as Qandeel Baloch on the internet was a notorious personality on the internet. Her videos were all about vlogs and a bit of controversy. Her content was considered too bold for a country like Pakistan. She often spoke her mind and dared to do things an average woman would frown up. Weirdly, she was entitled as the Kardashian of Pakistan. With the newfound social media success and a BBC interview, things were looking bright for Baloch. However, that was all going to change.

After much deliberation, she visited her parents in their hometown. However, the next day, she was found lifeless. Her father blamed her brothers and the motive was “money.” However, there’s much to unravel here. Later on, her parents pardoned her brother for literally committing a murder let alone murdering his own sister…patriarchy.

Circling back to the show Baaghi. Baaghi means a person that is brave and never lets down their guard. A clever choice for a title. In the show, the lead character is called Fauzia Batul. Fauzia hails from a poor family in a small village. Her father is a barber. Fauzia is shown as a gullible, fun-loving girl that is not afraid of standing up for herself, she would often get in trouble for that. She is also shown as a woman desired by many in her locality but her mind is stuck to her passion of working in the entertainment industry. A place where pop culture is considered a big sin. Fauzia Batool would sneak in magazines and photoshoots of popular faces and romanticize her life as a model. She would often claim to people that one day she’ll be in the print and famous. That did happen, but not quite the way she wanted it.

Fauzia was not educated beyond school but her urge to make money and improve her family’s economic condition pushed her ahead. As she was romanticizing her life as a model, her parents decide to do her ruksati (marriage) to a local creep, much to her horror, in a week. She decides to run away and eventually, her demands were met. She knew she had no option but to marry soon. She marries a guy, a guy that seemed level-headed as compared to other guys in her vicinity, a guy that showed her a thousand dreams of helping her become a model and achieving her dreams. He was down bad and crazy about her. Fauzia was never the one to fall for such traps, but his promises took her heart away. All she wanted was an independent life, successful and beautiful marriage with a chill husband. All she got was a toxic cheater, manipulator, and womanizer. She decides to run away leaving her son behind and starts her life as a model.

Her journey was filled with ups and downs with many pieces of thorns. But she managed to pull through. One issue that she faced a lot was the casting couch. She would later create awareness about it and then swiftly turned to social media due to her infamous Pakistan Idol situation. On social media, she was performing well. Her videos were skyrocketing and brands and media agencies suddenly wanted to work with her. She pushed her way through and worked hard to earn money and build a lifestyle for herself.

However, as we say, blood is thicker than whatever..nevermind. She returned back to her family mainly because they needed her, they were in a serious economic crisis and Qandeel was there right by their side even though they abandoned her.  

Despite facing such hardships from people she knew and strangers, Qandeel did not give up, she followed her passion for being well-known, and soon the brand deals started pouring in. However, an unfortunate incident of her father’s hospitalization led her to act in a music video that will forever change the trajectory of her life.

In the show, it has been thoroughly showcased how men profit off sexualizing women and engaging in unfair and haram practices. But as a woman earning money respectfully or being a social media person, Qandeel faced a lot of misogyny. Her own brothers despised her even though they engaged in drugs and gambling which is again haram in Islam.

In her interview, Qandeel spoke about honor killing. Little did she know that her life will meet the same fate. It takes much effort, confidence, and boldness to reach the level where Qandeel was. The show brought the rampant misogyny and hypocrisy of men to light. Her own husband was abusive to her and had an extramarital affair while she was pregnant but defamed her in front of the media.

Qandeel was murdered in 2016, it has been long since she has passed away. Her action did bring a revolution in Pakistan and showed a mirror to Pakistan’s men. The question of, “how dare she” was very much heard. Like Qandeel, many women are killed for honor and it is quite sickening how her parents pardoned her brother for literally killing his own sister. Qandeel will forever be in our memories as a bright and dreamy star. 

 This raises a lot of questions in mind, have religion and patriarchy blinded people so much that they can kill others? let alone their own blood? this is the only case of honor killing, how many more such cases are unreported? women throughout their life are conditioned to be under the clutches of either their fathers or husband that sexually, mentally, physically, and emotionally abuse them, and women that do free themselves from these atrocity, meet such horrendous end in life, what are we? why is our fate destined to be like this? are us women doomed forever?