Hina Altaf's London video: what she said about being a girl in Pakistan, and the backlash

Actor Hina Altaf has started a fresh argument about women’s freedom in Pakistan with a short vlog filmed on her last day in London. Walking down a London street in glasses and winter earmuffs, she said she wanted to enjoy her “last breakfasts” and “last hours of freedom” before flying back to what she jokingly called “prison” in Karachi.

The line that travelled furthest came next: women in Pakistan, she said, “can’t live, breathe, and enjoy the freedom”, and “being a girl in Pakistan feels like a crime”. She signed off with a thank-you to the city: “London you were good, my stay was amazing here.”

What exactly was she getting at?

The tone was light and sarcastic, but the point was a familiar one: that women in Pakistan often cannot walk on public streets freely, without stares, comments or worse, in the way she had just been doing in London. The clip spread quickly after entertainment pages reposted it on Instagram this week.

It is not the first time Hina Altaf has spoken about safety. Earlier, she publicly described an encounter at work that left her feeling unsafe and called for accountability over predatory behaviour in the industry.

How people reacted

The comments split into two camps.

• “She’s right.” Many users said she was simply stating a bitter fact, and that public spaces in Pakistan are not safe for women, or for anyone.
• “Then stay there.” Others accused her of speaking against the country while abroad and told her to remain in the UK.

That split is predictable whenever a celebrity says this on camera, and it tends to drown out the actual question.

Our take

The sarcasm made it easy to dismiss, but anyone who has tried to walk to a market alone in Karachi or Lahore will recognise what she described. It is also fair to say that “prison” is a stretch from someone who travels freely and can afford a London holiday; most Pakistani women cannot leave the problem behind for a few weeks.

Both things can be true. A celebrity’s throwaway line is not a policy paper, but the reaction to it shows how raw the subject still is. Hina Altaf has not commented further on the backlash.