Zhalay Sarhadi also calls out ‘misogynists’ targeting women online, saying their words can reinforce harmful attitudes
Actor Amna Ilyas has criticised self-proclaimed online “critics” for using their platforms to police women’s choices, warning that such commentary can reinforce misogynistic attitudes and even validate violence against women offline.
Taking to Instagram, Ilyas said a recent dance performance of hers had predictably drawn both praise and criticism, something she said she had no issue with. What prompted her response, however, was coming across a “self-acclaimed critic” who called her “cheap”.
Rather than dismissing the comment outright, Ilyas said she looked through his content to understand the basis of his criticism and found what she described as a recurring pattern. “All his videos talked about women that he didn’t like or had some problems with; he is moral-policing them,” she said.
She argued that such content promotes “the ideology that a woman should live according to a man’s vision”, turning criticism of individual women into something more damaging. “You have a mic, you have a platform, and you chose to instigate violence against women using this platform,” she said.
Ilyas said she personally has the privilege of being able to disregard such criticism. “It doesn’t affect me because at the end of the day I live life the way I want, I don’t care,” she said.
But, she argued, the consequences can be far more serious for women who do not have the same freedom or support.
“A woman who is already facing violence and is living life through extreme difficulty, your words will in turn validate the mindset of a man that’s doing that with the woman, that whatever he’s doing with that woman is right, because you have made it seem okay,” she said.
For Ilyas, the problem therefore extends beyond an actor being insulted online. She said the reach of such commentary can reinforce attitudes that women already facing abuse and social restrictions are struggling against.
She ended by taking aim at those she believes profit from provoking outrage online. “Congratulations, that for some views, some money, you have given men a licence to not let a woman lead a life with her own wishes,” she said.
Zhalay Sarhadi challenges the ‘critic’ label
Actor Zhalay Sarhadi later backed Ilyas’s argument in her own video, rejecting the idea that people who repeatedly target women online should be described simply as critics.
“The people out there that are sitting there calling themselves ‘critics,’ they are not critics, they are misogynists especially against women,” she said.
Sarhadi questioned why gaining virality should come at the expense of taking what she described as “such a detrimental stance against women”.
She also pointed to the constant online scrutiny of women’s “clothing” and “choices”, describing the commentary as “so damaging”. Like Ilyas, she said the effects are not limited to the women being directly targeted.
“The non-privileged women that are already going through so much because of the society and their home situation, trying to overcome these obstacles” can end up discouraged from “wanting to move forward” when they see even privileged women being targeted in this way, she said.
Sarhadi argued that online commentators who claim to be policing women’s behaviour are ultimately reinforcing the very attitudes that need to change. “Your words are egging these men on, when instead they need teaching the world is trying to make them see, to accept women as humans,” she said.
She was equally direct about what she believes such behaviour says about the people behind it.
“When you come [online] trying to spread your misogynistic ideology, [and] you view women wrongly, it shows that you are the one with issues, you don’t like women, and that is disgusting,” she said.
Sarhadi ended her video by expressing solidarity with Ilyas and women facing violence and abuse. “I am sorry to Amna that this happened to you, sorry to all the women that are going through femicide and abuse at the hands of such men,” she said.
