The kind of issues that lead to outrage in a country says a lot about it. Yes, a beauty pageant is what is important enough to get the caretaker prime minister to take note of the matter. When outrage leads to calls for shutting down anything – whether film or drama or even a beauty pageant – that is a sign of an unhealthy and skewed debate. A beauty pageant – with all its inherent contradictions and problems – may not be appetizing to many, but is not the end of the world. The real question is: when will Pakistani women’s bodies be stopped being used as a battleground for opposing ideologies?
