Shehryar Afridi ridiculed for ‘holier than thou’ speech against Americans

Kashmir committee chairperson will raise issue of human rights abuse in Indian-occupied Kashmir at various gatherings on sidelines of UNGA

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Staff Report
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Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir Chairperson Shehryar Khan Afridi left netizens disgusted after he compared women in Pakistan and the west and lectured Pakistanis to ‘return to their roots’ with haste.

Journalit Tanzil Gillani posted a video of Afridi strolling through New York’s Time Square and said that ethnic groups such as Baloch, Sindhi, Punjabi etc. all respected women. Afridi seemingly gestured towards a woman nearby and opined that the same did not hold true for people in the US who were supposedly the harbingers of human rights.

Gilani said it was shocking that a man with views like Afridi represented Pakistan at the United Nations (UN) on his trip.

Educationist and activist Ammar Ali Jan said that Afridi belonged to Pakistan where the literacy rate for females was less than 50 percent, whereas maternal mortality rates were amongst the highest in the world. Jan added that there was a surge in gendered violence in Pakistan, but Afridi was concerned about ‘women in the West’ instead.

A law student, Anaya Khan, said the actual message of freedom for women was lost on Afridi when he pointed towards a ‘daughter of the US’ disapprovingly. Anaya said that women in the US roamed around freely at night because they felt safe doing so. To that end, she added that Afridi ought to learn from women in the US instead of shaming them.

Correspondent Secundar Kermani said that one could only ‘facepalm’ at Afridi’s video clip in which he walked around in a ‘tight t-shirt’ to lecture Americans on their own culture.

Afridi’s t-shirt was a recurring point of criticism as several suggested it was hypocritical that he wore an American apparel brand to lambast the US, while strolling in an iconic tourist spot in the US itself. Lawyer Jalila Haider called upon Federal Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari and asked her why Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI’s) members were so ‘brainless’.

Others also echoed Haider’s remarks on Afridi’s attire.

Several Twitter users insisted that Afridi should be called back to Pakistan. A user even suggested starting a trend on the platform to pressurize Afridi’s return so that he would never embarrass the country again.

Afridi reached the US on Wednesday to take up the Kashmir cause in front of an international audience on various platforms. According to media reports, Afridi would be meeting with US Congress members, think tanks and human rights organizations to apprise them about Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.

The minister was seen in Manhattan as representatives from member countries flocked into US to attend the UN General Assembly, which would be held in New York this week.

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