US based model’s cellphone ad leaves Pakistan red faced

Nargis Fakhri by Bollywood Hungama CC BY 3.0

Pakistani activists have again created uproar over a picture of US model, Nargis Fakhri. The model was featured in the cellphone ad of Mobilink in an advertisement in Jang, the most extensively distributed Urdu newspaper of the country. The old-fashioned Islamic Republic of Pakistan could not resist from sparking a debate over Islam, journalistic ethics and rights of women over the weekend beginning May 14, 2016.

Fakhri is participating in ‘America’s next Top Model’ and she posed on her stomach for the mobile phone promoted by Mobilink. Muslims have a view that Islamic values were breached and the progressives held a point that women have been objectified in the ad.

The investigating editor of Jang, Ansar Abbasi said that he would protest to the management. Jibran Nasir, a human rights activist tweeted that the newspaper on one side publishes articles about women empowerment. On the other hand, it publishes such disgusting advertisements for revenue. The activist thus, questions the ethics of the newspaper.

Bina Shah, a feminist author, has put forward an idea for the company to showcase male models in its next ad as a gesture of apology. She says that when a male model will be shown raising his posterior enticingly, lying in a submissive position, only then the company can be forgiven.

The editor of Jab group, Talat Aslam took a jibe saying that whether the ad was offensive or not, its mission was accomplished. On the other end of the world, Nargis could not figure out the controversy.