Hair: here and now, there and then

With the passing time, it is almost an expectation that there will be progress, change and the dominant idea seems to be that within this current century, though our values and traditions may be at risk, but society has become more ‘open’ and liberal. What seems to oppose this idea is the kind of women that were promoted as ideals in the 1980’s in Pakistan, as opposed to recent times, through the medium of the Urdu drama. In this regard, I feel it is interesting and insightful in a way, to analyze the outlook of the main female protagonists in Dhoop Kinaray and Humsafar, as well as briefly look at their respective foils as well.

What I want to focus on specifically is the way these females wear their hair. Khirad wears a dupatta on her head, and has long hair. However we only find out what her hair is like when she gets married and no longer wears a dupatta on her head. Zoya from Dhoop Kinaray on the other hand, wears her hair quite short, and is almost tomboyish in the way she deals with them. It is significant to notice however that both of these females do not pay much attention to how their hair is, Khirad ties them up for the most part, especially in the latter half when she is playing the role of the single mother. Zoya perhaps pays even less attention than 

Khirad.

On the other hand, it is interesting to look at Sheena, and the scene from Dhoop Kinaray where before Dr. Ahmer comes back, she brushes her hair right in his office, and does not have any scruples in giving him the impression that she is ‘dressing up’ for him. Sara from Humsafar, also brushes and sets her hair when Asher comes to visit her all of a sudden at her house one day and she isn’t prepared.

The purpose of looking at this is to reveal what might be the underlying implications of this. First, perhaps is that instead of there being increased ‘liberalism’ with time, there seems to be a regression, in terms of how free women are to make choices, about things as simple as their hair, or of more import in for example whether they can and ought to move in the public sphere without covering their hair. The only time, arguably, where Khirad is able to express her femininity or beauty, is in the ‘famous scene’ where Asher opens her hair and says she looks better that way. On the other hand, Zoya says at one point that she wishes she had thick long hair that she could swirl into the wind, but her friend reminds her of how she has experimented a bit too much with her hair to be able to do so now. The important idea here, I feel is of choice, it is by her own choice that Zoya keeps her hair this way. Also we could imagine Zoya maybe becoming more feminine and growing out her hair at some point, but we cannot envisage Khirad even cutting her hair to the length that Zoya supports.

It is also interesting I think that females who ‘dress up’ to court the men, that is Sheena and Sara, are vilified to a smaller or larger extent in both these dramas. Yet when Zoya also brushes up her hair when Dr. Ahmer drops her off to her house and comes in for coffee, it is not viewed in the same light, perhaps because her intentions are not of conniving, like Sheena. Thus while in Dhoop Kinaray there is the nuanced acceptance that females across the board can express their femininity and beauty, as long as their intentions are innocent, things are a lot more black and white in Humsafar Sara being the girl in western clothes who opens her hair herself, and Khirad in traditional clothes whose hair should only be opened by her husband.

Returning to the original point then, it may even be that the ideals promoted in these dramas do not necessarily reflect existing realities, as much as positing the ideal reform that needs to exist. It may thus have been that within the largely ‘traditional’ societal set-up of the 1980’s, that modernization and progress had to be promoted, and now that there is a fear of its excesses, the ideal has become to revert to tradition, albeit in a reformed way.