The Workspace

It’s interesting to note that Humsafar, although advertised as a “family drama”, largely defines its female characters on the basis of their behavior in respective workspaces.

First, there’s Khirad and her mother. They seem to be the perfect women, having managed to earn a living without leaving ghar ki chaar diwaari, as if the idea of khud’dari had not been reinforced enough as it is. Had the father been alive they probably would have spent their entire time catering to his needs instead, dutiful family women that they are. But they’re not just working women trying to make ends meet, they’re nice people. Nothing says caring like telling children not to stop anywhere on the way home, even if everyone knows the kids are going to do what they want to do anyway and this dialogue is pretty redundant. And nothing displays dedication and hard work like a woman working despite having a headache for several days.

Second, there’s Sara who seems to be working in her uncle’s company [nepotism FTW] without doing any actual work, not that any other character who works in said company seems to get any work done either. Not only does she spend all her time (i.e. work scenes) in Asher’s office, they almost never have a conversation regarding work. You’d expect her to weigh a lot more considering all her conversations tend to revolve around lunch/dinner/coffee plans.

Then there’s Farida. Baseerat claims “uski NGO bohot kaam kar rahi hai salaabzadgaan ke liye” but even the writer doesn’t believe that. She’s only shown at work in one scene and most of her remaining screen time is spent relaxing at home or at her sister’s. There’s absolutely no evidence of any sort of hard work. Farida is the evil privileged woman who helps the needy as a favour rather than out of generosity.

While Khirad’s workspace is an invasion of the public sphere in the private sphere it is the exact opposite for Sara [and Farida is barely working so nobody cares about that].