On December 29, he fell asleep comedian and social debater Shabana Rehman in silence with whoever is closest to him. He was only 46 years old.
Since then, people from all over the country have honored and remembered Rehmanboth near and dear, and words of remembrance have come from the Storting’s artists, comedians and politicians.
Writer and director Adel Khan Farooq, for his part, shared his thoughts and views on the social debate on the website Utrop.no Tuesday.
There he writes, among other things, how Rehman was vilified in the Pakistani and Norwegian-Pakistani milieu in the 1990s, which he himself witnessed. And for this very reason, he believes it is important to highlight what Rehman has actually done.
– Ga bad reputation for all Pakistanis
A woman lifting men, painting herself naked in Norwegian colors and showing her butt are some of the examples the author mentions in her post. However, this is said to have been only a small fraction of what was said about Rehman.
Farooq recalls that social debate was a recurring theme in Pakistani rallies and is said to have been called a Pakistani woman without honor or shame.
“A woman who has given all Pakistanis a bad name. Someone who did all this because her only goal was to please the Norwegians, she told herself. We were raised to hate Shabana”writes Farooq.
Furthermore, she says the comedian has become the “tree of sin” they were warned to approach. Despite the rumors, the author himself at the time thought it was spectacular how the comedian was doing:
“I think a lot of us felt that way, but she was too controversial for us to say ‘let her do what she wants.’ We were just too cowardly.”.
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In adulthood, however, Farooq sees beyond everything he was told as a child, he points out to Nettavisen.
– It’s easy to think that Shabana was good at criticizing, but not at praising. What I realized as an adult was that she was critical of anything objectionable, regardless of religion, gender, and ethnicity, he says.
Did things that were “abnormal”
The writer and director believes that Rehman gained a negative reputation among several people in the Norwegian-Pakistani community because he didn’t walk the corridors silently.
– It was probably an unspoken truth that you shouldn’t be like Shabana, it didn’t help the family. She did things that were abnormal from Pakistani eyes, she explains.
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Farooq compares it to Norwegian families who feel ashamed that their daughters participate in reality shows like ‘Paradise Hotel’ and ‘Ex on the Beach’.
– I think it’s quite embarrassing for many white parents, but who dare not say it out loud. It’s kind of the same in minority communities, but then you “fine-Sami” more.
At the same time, he points out that he believes the 46-year-old is the reason why more Norwegian-Pakistanis have integrated into society faster.
– The fact that it was so extreme, I think, made more people from minority backgrounds dare to put their heads forward. It has helped open the space for other ways of being a minority, she believes.
– It was then that I understood it
It wasn’t until Adel Khan Farooq was invited to the comedian’s birthday party that she got confirmation of her positive thoughts about Rehman, meeting him dressed in traditional Pakistani attire.
“The first thing I thought was that the clothing was supposed to be a kind of ‘statement,’ and here the phrases from my childhood were whispering in my ear: ‘He’s just pretending, brother.’ But I shrugged it off It was her day, after all.She could dress however she wanted.writes the author in the entry Utrop.
But when they spoke, everything changed.
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– I got the impression of a lively, funny and very down-to-earth woman. There was no desire to be controversial. She was a normal woman with human needs like everyone else, she tells Nettavisen.
Both Norwegians and Pakistanis were supposed to be present at the birthday party, and it was only when he watched how representatives of various walks of life communicated with each other that he had an epiphany.
“That’s when I realized it. Shabana was neither on one side nor the other. Shabana was only Shabana”he writes.
I think it should win an award
Shabana Rehman has received numerous awards for her work as both a comedian and social debater.
Among other things, together with Aslam Ahsan, he received the Fritt Ord award in 2002 for their work in building bridges between cultures, and in 2022 he received Norwegian PEN’s Ossietzky Award for his work for freedom of expression.
However, he has not received any awards from a Norwegian-Pakistani organization, which Farooq believes is about time.
It shines the spotlight in particular on the August 14 Committee, which two years ago presented awards on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pakistani immigration.
– It’s important that you can recognize her work by giving her an award, and not think that she has received so many Norwegian awards that many Norwegian-Pakistani think “she does what Norwegians expect of her”. Even if you disagree, you can acknowledge the work she has done, the author tells Nettavisen.
However, after the article was published, the August 14 committee shared the news that Shabana Rehman would receive the Pakistani Norwegian of the Year award, which is awarded on Pakistan’s National Day on August 14. This is what the head of the committee, Aamar Javed Sheikh, tells us The newspaper. The sheikh can also say that he told Rehman that he would receive the award before he died, which made her happy.
