Take the play I'm talking about; the entire serial reeked of incredible levels of misogynistic regression. Saba Hameed plays a vicious, controlling, interfering freak. Her son is married to the to-good-to-be-true, Maria Wasti, who muzzles her professional aspirations so she can devote her full attention to the big baby in her life — her husband.

Saba, who can't bear her daughter-in-law, manipulates her poor naïve son into marrying Umaima Alvi — cast as another stereotype of the 'immoral actress and model.' Instead of taking a stand and walking out, Maria not only accepts her husband's infidelity; she silently accepts all the pain and humiliation meted out to her by her mother-in-law and 'sakun' in best 1950s fashion, racking up reward points for the hereafter.

Umaima, in the meanwhile, refuses to have any children as that would harm her acting career. What could have been a much-needed blow for women's reproductive rights was interpreted as a selfish decision that was unwomanly and non-maternal — the biggest sin a woman can commit in our society. The serial played out to a farcical end but by then I had lost all interest.

The most jarring thing about this play was not the abysmal script and direction; it was the fact that many of these female actors, including Saba, Maria and Umaima, are all very different from the awful stereotypes that they portrayed on screen. All of them are successful, free-thinking, courageous women who have lived life according to their own dictates. Why then would they accept such demeaning and regressive roles is a matter of wonder.

Unfortunately the play in question is not the only the serial that is guilty of perpetuating the negative typecasting of women. Another play with Samiya Mumtaz in the lead is as bad, or worse, an example of this trend. In the beginning, the show was actually promising in terms of the positive depiction of women; Samiya was shown to be an educated female who, despite her uncle's objections, continues with her higher education and even dares to fall in love with his son and marries him. However, from that point on, the play goes steadily downhill.

A malicious and manipulative mother-in-law, a naïve son and a muzloom bahoo, turn a modern-day serial into a 19th century melodrama and the viewer is left wondering what happened to the bold and daring female they saw earlier. Samiya's passive surrender to her fate and her meek submission to all the injustices heaped on her is mortifyingly depressing. Again, at the risk of repeating myself, Samiya is leading a successful personal and professional life and one wonders what prompted her to accept a role that seems to go against her personal convictions. All the other women in this serial too, are shown either cowering under their men's decisions or dominating everyone to the point of destruction.

This is not to say that women are never either the controlling or the suffering types, (we only have to look at the women in our lives to see how true this is) but to show them as either black or white, with no shades of grey is something that calls for strong protest. By depicting the suffering ones as noble and showing working women's ambition as self-destructive means that we continue to pander to the age-old patriarchal traditions that need to be done away with, at least on television to begin with.

That, even in this millennia, such scripts are being written means that writers and directors need to go back to the drawing board and change their traditional ideas about women. Moreover, female actors have a responsibility to choose roles which take the cause of women forward rather than push it back. They must be role models for fellow actors in choosing roles with strong conviction.

It is no longer enough to blame the degeneration of our dramas on Indian soaps — Pakistani plays have a long history of depicting strong female characters written by the likes of Noor-ul-Hudda Shah, Haseena Moeen and brought alive by Uzma Gilani, Khalida Riyasat, Roohi Bano and a host of others. Even today, there are people like Sania Saeed, Nadia Jamil and Marina Khan who uphold the standard of the legendary Pakistani drama. Let them set an example to the rest.