These Women Are Defending Sharmeen Obaid's Right To Voice Herself Amidst The Harassment Controversy

By Sajeer Shaikh | 29 Oct, 2017

By now, everyone’s heard of the Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy controversy that’s swept the nation in a fiery debate.

 

Sharmeen tweeted about how she deemed a friend request sent to her sister to be an act of harassment

 

The post was quoted by numerous personalities – mostly to be ridiculed. However, as it spread, news of the doctor in question being fired started making rounds as well

Source: Ali Moeen Nawazish

Consequently, the Internet lost its shit and started brutally trolling Sharmeen and her sister. Some of the nastiest comments started circulating the Internet. Sharmeen, her family, and her supporters became a target for Pakistanis everywhere.

 

Some people ridiculed the entire case. 

Some people didn’t know when to stop

Famous personalities weighed in against Sharmeen as well

Sharmeen issue, my take

A post shared by Syed Shafaat Ali (@shafaatsyed) on

And to no one’s surprise, Hamza Ali Abbasi had views he wanted to share

People started reaching out to the hospital in question and protested in favor of the doctor

And others legitimately started planning to harass Sharmeen

These are still some of the more filtered, decent tweets and posts that were found while looking for opinions and voices against Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. Some posts bordered on being vile in terms of the language used. Pakistanis who had reservations against Sharmeen saw this as their opportunity to make their dislike more public. However, amidst all this, some Pakistani women actually stood up for Sharmeen and explained the concept of harassment to many who didn’t seem to understand it.

 

Pakistani actress, Ushna Shah, happened to be one of those women. She tweeted out her thoughts at first within the short range of a hundred and forty characters

 

However, soon she realized that she needed to elaborate much more and fully explain her stance

When a woman goes to a male doctor, especially in Pakistan- she is blindly trusting and hoping against hope that when he…

Posted by Ushna Shah on Freitag, 27. Oktober 2017

 

The team at Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) also chose to voice their opinions and thoughts.

 

Activist and Lawyer, Shmyla Khan, who heads the Cyber Harassment Helpline at DRF tweeted out this short, yet impactful message.

 

However, Nighat Dad, who runs DRF, explained her stance much more extensively in a series of tweets

 

She explained how the information about Sharmeen’s sister was obtained unethically

 

And took time out to explain what harassment truly means

 

She also clarified certain bits and pieces of news…

 

…and shed some light on how hypocritical Pakistanis were apparently being

 

She lay emphasis on the idea of consent

 

And took time out to clear misconceptions her followers brought up

 

The Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy controversy is truly a convoluted one that has sparked a range of extreme emotions in Pakistanis. Sharmeen has stayed silent on the matter, but we hope to hear from her soon to see where things are headed for her, her family and the doctor in question.

 

Oh and those wondering that the doctor was sacked or suspended purely because of Sharmeen’s complaints, the hospital where he worked has this to say:

 

 

What do you have to say about this? Share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below.

 


Cover image via: dawn.com

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