First wife against second wife: Why are the husbands in dramas never held accountable?

Recently, the only storylines that TV writers can seem to write are about pitting women against each other in an effort to gain a man’s attention. Men with two wives who hate each other has become the norm in Pakistani dramas. What’s astonishing here is that every drama manages to make these less-than-impressive men seem like a prize worth fighting for. While in reality, a man who feels it is his right to be pleased by two women is definitely untrustworthy.

Every drama with a ‘two-wives’ storyline has the same basic pretext to it. One of the wives is confident and outspoken, whereas the other wife is a goody two shoes. The stories follow the same concept where the man is in love with one girl but is ‘forced’ to marry another girl (the pious one) by one of his parents. Each story then unfolds into turning the guy’s first love into a possessive and jealous being. Throughout this entire time, the husbands conveniently move from one wife to another, as their heart pleases. If one wife disrespects them, they go to the other. This way the wives stay conscious as to not hurt their husband’s fragile ego in any way.

Here are just some of the shows that have cashed on this concept to a point that it didn’t make sense anymore.

1. Thora Sa Haq

Keeping every ridiculous plot aside, the only saving grace for Zamin’s character is that he is a man. And men in a desi society are glorified and put on a pedestal when they should be kicked out of the house. The story revolves around Zamin’s life who was forced to marry Seher (Ayeza Khan) to fulfill her dying father’s wish despite of being promised to marry Hareem (Mashal Khan). To further ruin Zamin’s character, we see that he ignores his marriage to Seher and marries Hareem anyway. Soon after Hareem becomes jealous of Seher when Zamin develops feelings towards her.

The drama shows that Hareem’s jealousy pushes Zamin towards Seher while portraying Zamin as the victim in this entire ordeal. How do people not see the selfishness with which Zamin has ruined the lives of not one, but two women? Since he was already married to Seher, the logical decision would have been for him to not marry Hareem for his own personal desire. Hareem deserved so much more than being turned into a doormat for Zamin and Seher!

2. Hassad 

What we have been arguing about since Hassad ended is that Zareen (Areej Fatima) should not have been the villain in the show! If anything, it should’ve been Farhan or Zareen’s mother, both of whom made her feel deprived of any kind of love. From day one, Zareen was envious of Naintara (Minal Khan) because she was getting the love and attention from her husband, Arman (Shehroze Sabzwari), that Zareen always expected from hers (Farhan played by Noor ul Hassan).

Things take a turn for the worse and Farhan marries a widowed Naintara, while still being married to Zareen. As soon as Naintara becomes Farhan’s wife, he starts adoring her the way that Zareen had been dying for! So, Naintara gets to be a mother and a beloved wife (by both her late and current husband) while Zareen is childless and loveless and becomes mentally unstable at the end (literally). In what kind of twisted universe is Farhan not being blamed for depriving Zareen of her deserved rights? He had initially told her that he wasn’t capable of expressing love the way she needed but did exactly that when Naintara came around. Men can’t just pick and choose which wives they care for!

3. Bewafa

 

Bewafa is a show that is so oblivious to its flaws that even its description is misogynistic! It says: “Bewafa depicts how a relationship can fall apart because of a wife’s extremely possessive and distrusting nature which drives the husband to do exactly what the wife fears the most.”

So basically, what we’re hearing is that Armaan (Ali Rehman Khan) is so weak that a fight with his wife, Kinza (Navin Waqar) pushed him into the arms of another woman, Shireen. (Ushna Shah).

Read: Bewafa: Will the men in television ever accept blame?

Throughout this drama, we see Armaan slap and manhandle Kinza. He even kicks her out of the house. Then, when he loses his job and Shireen starts despising him, he yearns for Kinza’s love again. Just like every other show, the husband moves between the two wives as he pleases. In the end, again, it’s Shireen who suffers while Kinza is back again with her abusive husband. WHY?

These shows lack basic logic to the point that somehow they manage to glorify a compromising wife and a disloyal and narcissistic husband. My question is, who gives these men the power to run companies or have jobs? If the women are so cunning and manipulative, shouldn’t they be the ones who ran everything, rather than men who seem to have no control over their emotions and decisions?