Actress Ushna Shah shares her desire to work in scripts that challenge shame around divorce in Pakistani dramas. The Parizaad star wrote “As the child of a divorcee who hustled three jobs to raise us, the stigma around divorced characters feels deeply personal.”
While divorces are abundantly shown in Pakistani dramas, scripts have picked up the trend of stigmatizing female characters who are divorcees. Society and relatives end up banishing and demeaning them and are frequently shown to be giving divorced women little to no rights.
In line with this Ushna wrote, “I am eager to be part of a story that addresses the stigma of divorce and combats the shame of being single after, celebrating the journey to independence and joy.” As in many cases, far from being a matter of grief and sadness, a divorce may mark the end of an abusive and demeaning situation leading to freedom and independence.
Currently, divorces are being tackled as a fickle and non-serious affair in dramas and the issue has not been dealt with the sensitivity it demands. Many a times, a divorce will be given in rage and sometimes because men are just fed up with the constant bickering . There can be many different reasons for the divorces, but one thing is for sure that it is currently being used as a tool to gain channels more TRP’s and secure greater audience engagement, and is not being tackled with the sensitivity and insight that the topic demands.
