LAHORE – Last year, popular Pakistani singer-songwriter Momina Mustehsan appeared in a soft drink TV commercial where she is shown to surprise a few young men with her football freestyle skills. Pakistani squash player Noreena Shams responded to the ad with a post on Facebook complaining that real women athletes were ignored by the advertising industry, while pop stars were being given a platform to show off sporting skills they did not actually possess. Shams said that she would have liked to have seen a Pakistani women footballer like Asmara Kiani in the advertisement, instead of the famous singer. She signed off as: “A struggling international racket athlete (with less beauty and more passion).” Mustehsan, who is one of Pakistan’s biggest music stars, says a lesson was learnt from that post. “The thing is I agreed 100% with her,” she said. “Brands also have a social responsibility. If they say they want to break stereotypes then let’s acknowledge real women athletes who have the skills I don’t.” A few months later, when the singer was asked to act as a spokesperson for a series of friendly matches featuring international footballers to promote the sport in Pakistan, she had a chance to make amends. She told the organisers she would do the gig only if the captain of Pakistan’s women’s football team, Hajra Khan, was also brought on board. “If I can do something about it and won’t because I want to hog the limelight then I really have no right to talk about women’s empowerment,” she said. “If we keep thinking of each other as our competition then none of us are going to succeed. We need to build each other up not tear each other down.” Mustehsan achieved overnight fame after making a dream debut on the programme Coke Studio, the most highly-rated music show in the country. She sang a duet with Pakistan’s most acclaimed singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The song, Afreen Afreen, essentially a paean to female beauty, catapulted the young singer into the public eye.
