Blessed to be a man
Posted by himaladmin
Nov 28 2011
By Urvashi Sarkar
Review of the Pakistani movie Bol
http://himalmag.com/blogs/blog/2011/11/28/blessed-to-be-a-man/'Having been so blessed in life, I often think of the things that I should be grateful for. The list always seems to be never ending, but invariably it ends at one thing: that I was born as a Man. Nothing in the world scares me more than the thought of being born a woman or a eunuch in a country like Pakistan, where obscurantism has deep roots. Leave the 5% urban educated elite aside, women seem to be the playground (or battleground) where we practise a medieval form of religion.'
- Shoaib Mansoor, director of the movie Bol, on its official website
The movie Bol (meaning 'to speak') boldly articulates the grim reality of minorities in Pakistan, particularly of women and sexual minorities whose lives are characterised by acute repression. Often, as the movie depicts, religion is made the tool of this repression, and is exercised by men who interpret faith as they find convenient.
In the movie, the protagonist Hakeem Sahab is a traditional physician who has fallen on hard times, partly because new, modern age doctors have taken away his patients, but mostly because his desire for a son produces a string of girl children.
