KARACHI:
Actor Zara Noor Abbas has taken to Instagram with a heartfelt message urging women to embrace aging and to stay clear of dangerous anti‑ageing practices. In a recently posted Instagram story, she said: “Let’s please stop promoting anti-ageing. Ageing is going to happen. That’s the only natural and beautiful truth. Accept it. Let this be a process of life you don’t control.”
Commenting further about body images issues she added, “Slimming drops, medication that makes you drop weight or turns your skin colour lighter – please stop promoting these. Drug abuse with medication is the worst sort of addiction.”
Zara’s message is especially relevant given the societal pressures women face in Pakistan. Women are constantly told that their value diminishes with age, fuelling a belief that they come with an expiration date. In the entertainment industry, this situation seems even dire.
In her post, the Badshah Begum star shared the antidote to counter pressure that comes with the ageing saying, “Vanity is very short‑lived. Work on your mind. Your brain. That will last.”
Zara’s statement adds to a growing chorus of voices challenging the double standards around women and ageing in the entertainment industry around the world. Earlier this year, Cate Blanchett became the latest to call out the bias, recalling, “The shelf life of actresses when I first came on the scene was about five years.”
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Meryl Streep reflected on being pushed into certain roles as she aged. “I was offered three witches in one year when I turned 40,” she revealed. “It was as if the industry decided I was old, no longer the ingenue or leading lady, but someone to be cast as strange or sinister.”
Back home, women in showbiz have been long holding their ground against ageism. In 2021, after Iffat Omar posted a picture from Angeline Malick’s birthday party, she was ruthlessly trolled for looking “too old”. Ayesha Omar sent love to Iffat in a comment on social media saying: “But most humans will get ‘budha’ in their lives. If Allah wills and they reach that age … It’s a natural human process. In fact it’s a blessing to be alive and healthy in the latter part of your life. Why do people use ‘age’ as an insult or in a derogatory way?”
Similarly, Nausheen Shah showed support for Iffat, “Instead of saying ‘MashaAllah’, people think getting old is an insult or some sort of crime. I mean how can you not get old? We should be thankful for being alive and ageing gracefully rather than being negative.” She also echoed Ayesha in questioning people if they also looked down upon their parents and grandparents for being old.
The comments of these actors lay bare the double standards of the industry where men in their fifties can get away with being cast opposite much younger women, while women are subjected to intense scrutiny.
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