The incredibly talented and diverse actor Aamina Sheikh, who proved her mettle yet again in her last film Cake, happens to be a mother of a girl child. Operating in a society that is quick to judge people, she realizes how important it is to provide a sane and safe environment to children growing up. Understanding the need to make this world a better place for women, she joined hands with PAGE - Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education – earlier this year as their global ambassador to promote girls’ education.
Most recently, the actor has associated herself with a movement, called ‘Meri Awaz’ that aims to equip girls to combat societal noise of body shaming, self-doubt, moti patli by making them healthy and mentally strong, as shared by Aamina on her Twitter handle.
“It is not easy to shut societal noise but being a mother, this is my primary concern now and I don’t want my daughter to be affected with such noises,” she shared via a video message on social media.
She also pointed out some common remarks that girls usually get to hear from their surroundings. These include: ‘You can’t do this,’ ‘you can’t do that,’ ‘oh girls shouldn’t be this fat, skinny girls look good,’ ‘have you seen your complexion?’ etc.
“I, in fact all of us, grew up listening to such things but we have to stop this noise from reaching our kids,” she asserted. “It is detrimental for our children as it creates self-doubt, self-consciousness, indecisiveness and all kind of bad body image. So, it is up to us parents, mothers to protect our daughters and our children.”
Towards the end of the video, she urged mothers to join her on ‘Mothers of Pakistan’ on Facebook and work together for the betterment of daughters.
‘Meri Awaz’ is an initiative by Dalda that, in collaboration with Aamina Sheikh, aims to take a firm stand against stereotyping, which is quite prevalent in our society and is detrimental to children and even women.
