‘Aini, you are very lucky to have such a good husband’. This was the dialogue of the school teacher of Aini, the main character of the drama serial ‘My Re’ aired on ARY. Aini is only 14 years old and is forced to marry her 16-year-old cousin Fakher.
The play is written by Sana Fahad while Maysam Naqvi has directed it. When the promo of the drama was released, it seemed to be a lively drama against child marriage.
However, social media users are now forced to wonder if this drama is made against or in favor of early marriage. Because in spite of their young age in the play, both the characters are shown to be living a married life sensibly.
Family Politics shows the husband and wife in a sane relationship, understanding and supporting each other. 16 year old Fakhir being a good man and husband is allowing his wife to study and taking responsibility of his wife.
So while the play was supposed to portray child marriage as an ‘atrocity’, if the audience starts to see wrong as right, who is at fault? We the audience, the playwright or the creator?
A user named Sufi on X (formerly Twitter) questioned the My Re team and wrote, ‘Explain what you are trying to promote with this show. Viewers believe that this is meant to glorify early marriage. People like me need to know if this is true. If so, clarify, so that I can start a boycott movement myself.’
While another user also expressed surprise and wrote that ‘Will someone tell the real purpose of this play? Because the story shows that the marriage of children is ideal.’
A user named Dija reacted strongly to the story of the drama, posting that ‘the author has shown child marriage in a very wrong way.’
Another user compared it to the 2008 Indian drama ‘Balika Vidhu’ which also featured child marriage.
“A decade ago, the makers of the Indian drama had a sensitivity that is not there today. In this drama, Anandi and Jagya were separated for five years when they were growing up because of the same fear, but ” Not in my re’.
Independent Urdu tried to get their opinion on the play on this sensitive topic from the famous actors of Pakistan.
In this regard, Nadia Jameel, who is working for children’s rights, said that ‘child marriage is being shown in a negative way in My Re-drama serial.’
He explained, ‘In the recent episode where Aini was shown pregnant, the doctor’s reaction to early marriage was very lively. What happens next in the story remains to be seen and I am keeping an eye on it. I agree that the writer should show his story responsibly.’
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Similarly, actress Sania Saeed says that our writers have also grown up in this environment. So they find it very romantic to get married at a young age and then love and harmony develop between husband and wife.’
Talking to Independent Urdu, he said that ‘arranged marriage is not bad, but marrying someone without their will and showing that later love and friendship between husband and wife. is wrong and many such plays have been made.’
Sania Saeed while talking about the censorship of the state TV channel PTV said that ‘We criticize their policies but they had a whole committee for dramas, which saw whether the point of view of the drama. Should it be broadcast? But now the channels have no moral filter.’
Independent Urdu also tried to contact the producers of the drama but did not receive any response from them.
