Hyderabad and Karachi: Humsafar Women at Home and Work (Farheen's Post)

Hyderabad and Karachi are set apart by a time of two hours but to a contemporary viewer the women in both places are poles apart. The women in Hyderabad portray the traditional females of Pakistani society limited to their domestic space within the boundaries of their homes. Their activities and energies are directed towards the center of the home: food, household chores and a struggle to bring up one’s children. In the first episode much emphasis is placed on Khirad preparing tea for her mother as refreshment, her dialogue with her mother mentioning all the chores she performed in order to reduce her mother’s burden and Maimoona’s dialogue with Batool Khala sharing her concern on seeing Khirad performing the household tasks. In this exchange, we see openness and loyalty. Karachi women at home, on the other hand, can be seen as the platonic twenty-first century domestic circle: a place to retire after work and spend limited time together and more individually (watching TV, reading magazines and spending time in separate rooms rather than talking). Zareena and Fareeda lack complete honesty when they speak to each other and although Zareena is Sarah’s real aunt she does very little out of affection for her niece instead appearing as the victim when she can't secure Ashr from Baseerat's decision as one example. On the other hand, although without blood ties, Batool Khala takes Khirad in when she is abandoned.

When evaluating Khirad as ‘unsuitable’ for Ashr, Sarah and Fareeda rationalize in economic terms evaluating Ashr’s superiority in education, society and wealth. On the other hand, Maimoona as well as Batool khala focus on inherent values such as Ashr’s superiority in good manners.

The drama also displays the public and the private sphere. In the circle of Hyderabad, the community of women live and work within the domestic confines: Khirad and her mother tutor children probably after returning from university and work respectively. Employment, such as in Sarah and Fareeda’s case, is located outside of their domestic sphere in an office and also requires travel beyond Karachi such as Fareeds’s trip to America and Sarah’s to Islamabad. The contrast could be a social commentary on how work in urbanized lifestyles requires mobility something which is restricted in a non-urban setting.