What PM Imran Khan and Hamza Ali Abbasi got wrong about family values in Pakistan

Women are routinely abused and silenced within our so called "family system". So why is the PM calling it our strength? 

 Hamza Ali Abbasi's always been a big PM Imran Khan fan, so you can imagine the actor was over the moon when he got to sit down with the prime minister and pick his brain.

In the hour long interview, the duo's conversation was a little all over the place yet going around in circles as they spoke about the lasting effects of colonisation, the role of media in shaping the nation and accountability, among other things. But what grabbed our attention was the PTI chairman reiterating multiple times how Pakistan's strength is our family system. "When I was growing up, Pakistan was heavily influenced by colonisation and the west. Previously, this strong hold was in the form of slavery but today, it is in the form of mental slavery," he said. "While you despise those who control you, in a way you also get influenced by them, looking up to them and wanting to be like them."

"Previously, the divorce rate abroad was 1 in 14, and 30 years later, it increased to 70%," he added a little later.

Speaking about a rising divorce rate in South Asian communities, Khan said the more we look towards the west and adopt their "immoral mannerisms", the more we'll see a ripple effect of that in our own society, chipping away at our traditional familial values and norms, which are supposedly so great.

While we as a country love pride themselves on our culture and the respect we have for the sanctity of marriage, we are often quick to forget that the entire arrangement is largely based on the sacrifices of women, who because of the stigma surrounding divorce, chose to suffer in silence for decades on end.

Twitter user Sundus Saleemi hit the nail on the head with this thread:

Many others chimed in, reminding Khan about all those marginalised by our so-called family system:

Here's hoping that those in charge of policy making, such as Khan, stop living in denial about what our culture has come to entail and start calling a spade a spade. Blaming the west for everything wrong in our own backyard won't do us any favours.

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