Behind every man, there is a woman.

  

 Behind every successful man, there is a woman. In Humsafar, we can alter this to say, “Behind every man whether successful or not, there is a woman”. Why so? Because, the females are the ones pulling the strings. The only time we see a man stand up for something he believes in is when Baseerat threatens Fareeda with divorce and yet, he never really wins that battle either since, Fareeda refuses to take that attack on her ego and fights back.

Khizar too, becomes a pawn in Fareeda’s desire to take revenge from the “do take ke aurat” who challenged her authority in her own house. Though, he does apologize to Khirad, he has no regrets about what he has done because, his actions will get him closer to Sara. He did what he did for a woman and on the orders of another woman. Given his declaration of “All is fair in love and war”, can his despicable act be forgiven as act of love? I do not think so. Misguided as he was in his love, he was ruining someone’s marriage with his actions which clearly shows his selfishness. Khirad had never been anything but nice to him; she gave him her own blood! And he sold himself for money and fell prey to Fareeda’s scheme. However, did he not realize that with Khirad out of the picture, Ashar would be Saras’ for the taking? He clearly did not think this through…

However, the most ANNOYING character of all has to be Ashar. Had he just told Khirad that he was not comfortable with her friendship with Khizar instead of being passive and distant, she would have limited her contact with Khizar. And yet, he did not tell her what was wrong and let his jealousy get the better of him. While his mother accused his wife of adultery, all he does is look all brooding with his steely gaze. He made no attempt to defend her or question her, he just sat there believing the lies his mother fed him. Despite his previous declarations of how innocent she was, despite Baseerat’s insistence that Ashar had to protect the untainted Khirad, Ashar led believed the lies concocted by his devious mother.

On the surface, the men do have authority however, the females know how to twist things around and get what they want hence, the upper class male seems to have superficial authority with the real authority resting with the females. Fareeda could not treat Khirad as she wanted until she had Ashar’s approval and through, her devious scheming, she got it. Hence, all the upper class females are seen as the go-getters who do not care if the ends justify the means as long as they get what they want while, the men seem to be at the mercy of the females’ plans whether they are conscious of it or not.