Zara Abid was a Pakistani model who perished on May 22nd 2020 in an air crash on Pakistan flight PK8303. While many religious leaders came to a consensus that everyone on that flight was a shaheed (a martyr or person who dies an honorable death in which they are thought to have been granted heaven upon death); sexism showed its true colors when many in the media and on social media claimed that Zara was an exception because of her career choice in modeling and acting... which they deemed immoral.
In episode 3, we plan to dissect this sort of sexism and re-take Zara’s narrative and honor her in the way she deserves. What many don’t know is that Zara wasn’t the immoral and Godless woman that some portrayed her out to be. She was a determined woman who had a close relationship with God. She was the eldest of 3 siblings and when her father passed away in 2018, she stepped foot in her father’s shoes and fought hard to make ends meet for her family. Indeed she found success and uplifted her entire family as she became the sole breadwinner. She rose to stardom in a very short amount of time. She moved her family into a better home and supported her mom, her two younger brothers and even her aunts and uncles and other extended family members.
In a dominantly male society, she re-defined her family dynamic as she became the pillar of her family clan, showing us that women can do what fathers do. What if this was a male model? Would he have received the same response? Sexism even in death is unconscionable. Zara was a powerhouse of a woman and we will always remember for the phenomenal woman she was.
May she Rest In Peace. Ameen.
1992-2020.
May all the Shaheeds from Flight PK8303 be granted the highest ranks in Jannah. Ameen.