Actress Saheefa Criticises Drama ‘Mayi Ri’ Over Child Marriage

News Desk

Islamabad: Actress Saheefa Jabbar Khattak, criticising the controversial drama serial ‘Mayi Ri’, said that the story of Bollywood films is now being shown in Pakistani dramas and I don’t know who to blame.

Criticising the drama, Model Saheefa wrote that “I have not seen the entire drama and I don’t want to see it either, but the video clips that are circulating on my social media are very controversial.”

Cousin marriage is considered normal in this drama since the boy and girl are wearing school uniforms and both are under 18 years of age, Jabbar stated.

The video clips start and end with the same conversation, in which the boy and the girl say, “We are small; our education, our life, our childhood. “Why are you taking away our childhood?”. The teenage girl wants to study, the boy wants to travel the world like other boys and here we are promoting their marriage, Khattak added.

Based on social issues like early marriage, the drama revolves around a young school-going girl Annie whose family gets her married due to some family issues. The drama shows the struggles and difficulties she faces due to marriage at such a young age and how child marriage destroys children’s lives.

In ‘Mayi Ri’, Aina Asif plays the young wife Aini while Samar Abbas plays the role of her husband Fakhr, and both of them are 15 years old. Although the drama has already shown their marriage, the two have also been shown romantically as a young couple.

However, in the 40th episode of the drama, Aina Asif was shown pregnant; and now in the 43rd episode, the birth of a daughter has been shown to her.

Saheefa further said that we are showing people useless and vulgar content. We are ignoring the aftereffects of this play. Getting a girl pregnant at a young age and cousin marriage are considered wrong in the West.

TV Actress opined that I have heard many people say that a 15-year-old boy or girl is not a child. I am willing to accept that but I am not at all willing to accept that a 15-year-old boy or girl becomes the parent of a child.

Saheefa Jabbar wrote that in childhood, we used to see in Bollywood movies that there was a cute flirtation between a boy and a girl, and then both of them started loving each other, But then the family did not agree to marry. And now this story of Bollywood films is being shown in Pakistani dramas.

Drama Director Meesam Naqvi, while giving an explanation of the criticism, said that the romance of children is not being shown in the play. Drama is not the story of a separate world; it is the story of your society, he added.

Naqvi further added that there may be some flaws in this drama but whatever good there is in ‘Mayi Ri’ belongs to my actors, writer, production house and channel; and what is evil, I openly admit to myself.

Director further said that both Aini and Fakhir are oppressed in the play; both of them have been affected by early marriage. If both of them are supporting each other in the drama, then we are not glorifying early marriage.

Meesam added that you shouldn’t make a decision before watching the play in its entirety.