I SAW Sorry Baby, a really good film about a sexual assault that wasn’t the typical trauma story. Since it may soon release on HBO Max, which is available in Pakistan, I recommend you watch it; I promise I haven’t given too much away. The incident occurs between a graduate student and her thesis adviser and is not shown which makes it far more powerful than the often gratuitous violent assaults depicted on screen. The film is about Agnes, played by Eva Victor who directs the film too, and the struggles she faces in three years following the assault. She is a professor at the same college where the incident occurred and the film depicts, what Deadline called, “Agnes’ imperfect journey through the other side of trauma”.

The student-professor relationship is often portrayed as one brimming with some romantic or sexual tension. That is hugely problematic because more often than not, the relationship stays within professional boundaries but cinema and TV love to show otherwise. I think it has to do with audiences enjoying stories about secrecy or something forbidden or the power imbalance that comes with illicit relationships.

There’s a forbidden relationship in the popular TV show Pretty Little Liars between a high school girl and her English teacher. The way it is portrayed, audiences can’t help but feel like they should be rooting for them even though they know it’s wrong. In the real world, it’s statutory rape in many countries, including the US where the show was created and targeted a demographic of girls as young as 11. Imagine them thinking that this relationship was ‘cute’ rather than being told this is wrong. It sends the message that intentions — they didn’t mean to fall in love — are more important than being taken advantage of.

I am loath to generalise but the correct word for a teacher pursuing a student at school and undergraduate level is ‘predator’. Universities have different guidelines about professor-student relationships at the graduate level but you can’t deny the power imbalance there too. Sometimes it is complex but sometimes it is simple, ie, inappropriate. It’s why I urge you to watch Sorry Baby to see how that relationship is portrayed and then how the story is told from the point of view of the survivor and not the predator.

The correct word for a teacher pursuing a student is ‘predator’.

It is against this backdrop that I wanted to write about Main Manto Nahin Hoon, a drama by the infamously problematic writer Khalilur Rehman Qamar who is known for his regressive and misogynist portrayals of (and comments about) women. Full disclosure: my father and I watched three episodes of this play when it aired but didn’t get into it so we abandoned it but I have followed criticism on social media of the portrayal of a relationship between the professor Manto (Humayun Saeed) and his student Mehmal (Sajal Ali). In one scene, students boycott their class and demand their professor perform a court marriage with Mehmal. This happens in front of the dean whose response is to say “wow”. And not launch an inquiry into this grossly inappropriate relationship. Social media users were right to call this scene absurd. In another nonsensical video clip of a scene I saw on X, students clap when the professor seems to accept the student’s advances/ proposal. Mehmal keeps calling him ‘sir’. In the good news, social media users have been calling this out. I wish the same could be said for ‘reviewers’.

A fortnight or so ago, actor Atiqa Odho discussed this play in a talk show saying that some universities were not going to allow TV crews to film on campuses because they were upset at the way the drama glamourised the teacher-student relationship. I und­erstand there is a mar­ket for proble­matic storylines but in a country like ours, we have to draw a line, especi­ally because misogynistic comments are defended, and men get away with abuse, rape, murder, etc. This is not the messaging we want our children to receive.

Imagine parents not wanting to send their daughters to universities because they don’t see them as safe places. We cannot afford girls dropping out. A paper in the Journal of Development and Social Sciences found that women dropped out of a university in Karachi due to early marriage, insensitivity towards harassment and family pressure. While the rate of female enrolment has seen a slow increase, according to the market research company Gitnux, the gross enrolment ratio for tertiary education specifically for females is eight per cent. This is dismal.

Our dramas were known for sharp, incisive commentary on social issues, for shifting attitudes on outdated values. Now they’re celebrating regression, misogyny and issues that have no standing in plural, progressive societies. Women shouldn’t have to suffer so that media companies can make money.

The writer is a journalism instructor.

X: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2025