Cricket: A taboo for women?!
- Sehla Munir
- Dec 8, 2022
- 2 min read
Cricket in our society is always seen as a sport for ‘men’. Only ‘men’ can play it be it on a national or an international level. Only male cricket team is recognized and applauded nationally in our society. For women, sports like badminton and table tennis are preferred because ‘cricket requires a lot of strength’ that apparently female can’t have.
Recent advertisements like the one below has challenged this stereotype and have managed to set a precedent for all the future advertisements to present a meaningful message through their product. The add highlights how female cricket players are not accepted for their involvement in the sport by their own families too and how there is a certain stigma attach to it. It also focuses on how the female players must continuously ask for validation from others and support from their parents. The add focuses on how the father of the players always had this fear that his daughter would damage his reputation because of her involvement in the sport.
Another admiring thing about this advertisement is that Sara, the main lead doesn’t give up on her dream whatever happens and keeps on training to be the part of the national cricket team. This is very rarely seen in our society, and it is admirable that a Pakistani company is trying to show strong and focused women in their advertisements too other than showing a woman typically cooking or being a housewife.
This is just the beginning of revolution of advertisements as now people also want to see meaningful messages in these 2-to-4-minute clips as well but these advertisements also leave a lot of questions in the viewers minds as well. Will a woman always be allowed to follow her passion until and unless she is being recognized by it? Would Sara’s father still after some time would have allowed her to pursue this career if she hadn’t been recognized and praised by the society? These questions show us the double standard ingrained in our society where a woman always has to “achieve” or “prove” something to gain respect in this society whereas the men have the respect since the day were born.
Your blog reminds me of a post someone made mocking Urooj Mumtaz who is a former cricketer turned commentator. Urooj was performing a post-match analysis on one of the matches of the Pakistani (men) cricketing team. The post, in a very sarcastic and insulting way, claimed that since Urooj never did well during her professional career she is not credible enough to analyze the game of the far more skilled male cricketers. The comment section was filled with people who shared a similar sentiment. It is disheartening to see such posts since one’s ability to analyze the game has nothing to do with their ability to play it. Harsha Bogle is a very well-respected analyst who has never played the…
I remember reading once that Shahid Afridi refuses to let his own daughters play cricket. When I brought up the matter with others, I remember being told that he was in the right and speaking from a place of experience. The incident disturbed me greatly, as I felt as though when someone a man with so much influence and revere publicly excludes women from a sector, there is nothing stopping households from doing the same. Shahid Afridi is a household name, and he's loved all throughout Pakistan. When such a respected figure makes such a statement, most audiences would not stop and question the legitimacy of his statement.
I love the solidarity between women represented in this advertisement. Sara is…
The idea that cricket is for men that you shed light upon is something I have come across myself at a young age. While all male cousins used to play cricket, I was shunned for it as I should play with dolls being a girl. Embedding young children with such gender roles certainly stems from the fact that men are to be stronger and more competitive than women.
Watching this advertisement instilled inexplicable emotions within myself. The idea of “respect” that especially fathers in our society associate with their daughters is a common concept. Women who work in the public eye such as models or actors are usually approached as outcasts. This Q-mobile advertisement, as you mentioned, reflects the dedication…
Indeed, the women's cricket team is not given the same representation and appreciation it deserves. But this is also because of the ingrained idea in our culture that women are supposed to stay indoors (char-dewari concept) and wear a specific type of clothing such as the shalwar kameez or even burqa (which cricket and football players cant wear). I remember one recent incident where the Pakistani women's football team won a match against the Maldives. The women's team returned home to a journalist asking the panel: "Why are the women players wearing shorts rather than leggings during the matches?" This is the level of so-called educated journalists who are less interested in the game and more interested in women's clothing.…
This advertisement is a rare portray shown in Pakistani media. I, meanwhile relating to it, have also gone through such things. Me playing different sports has always allowed my distant family members to called me a “tomboy”, and calling out on me coming home late. My father also told me to leave sports to follow a certain curfew they have set for me, but I’ve felt like in order to follow my dreams too, I had to fight it. I’ve won numerous medals and eventually I had made my family make peace with the fact that I am going to play no matter what. But however I’ve felt in numerous occasions that girls winning isn’t appreciated to the level of…