The 46-year-old Pakistani morning show host, Nida Yasir, faced extreme social media backlash after inviting deceased Marwah’s parents on her show.
She’s known for asking problematic questions on her show but this time she crossed all limits of insolence by profiting off a family’s personal tragedy.
Nida has come under fire for making the parents of a 5-year-old rape victim narrate the details of the horrendous incident. For those who are unaware, five-year-old rape victim Marwah was found dead in a garage heap on September 6, 2020. She was kidnapped on the morning of September 4, was raped and brutally assaulted.
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In the one and a half-hour long show, titled ‘A Cute Little Girl Marwah’s Saddest Story’, the host takes the interview of the victim’s family and made them revise their agony all over again. The host of the show asked insensitive questions like; “Was her face recognizable?”, “Was she wearing the same trouser?” and “How did you know she was raped?” She asked several more baseless insensitive questions, she made the father of the victim experience all that once again by asking those questions.
For TRP?
The episode is made more terrible by adding the emotional tune playing in the background the entire time.
After clips from this interview surfaced on social media, Nida Yasir began to receive massive hate for being so ignorant towards the family members of the departed soul. Many speculated that the interview was just another scheme to increase their ratings. Furthermore, Nida is being criticized for continuing the show despite Marwah’s mother and grandmother breaking down as they recalled events of the nation-wide tragedy. She probed them at length about the brutal rape and torched body of their beloved daughter, Marwah.
Netizen’s reaction on this
“Ban Nida Yasir Show” hashtag trended on twitter after the show’s clips went viral. People all over the social media platforms were enraged. The netizens requested PEMRA to ban ‘Nida Yasir Show’ as many people thought this episode was completely inhumane, unethical and insensitive.
ARY Digital's Morning Show host Nida Yasir invited the parents of a 5 year old r*pe and m*urder victim on her show and asked them extremely insensitive questions, making the mother cry and the father barely able to speak.
Here's what you can do :
— rahmah🌸 (@strawchewer_) September 16, 2020
This is not the first for Nida Yasir to completely being inconsiderate on her show. But there is always a limit and seems like this time Nida Yasir had crossed that, and for that she should be held accountable.
Nida Yasir’s reaction to backlash
She defended herself by saying:
“Police wasn’t taking their notice before protest but they captured the rapist once Marwah’s parents appeared on the show. Before coming to the show Marwah’s Father was a daily wager and it was very difficult for them to even eat, but after coming, the show helped them financially. And It was necessary to spread awareness among people, so that there won’t be another Marwah. Why you people take everything so negatively, these kinds of shows don’t get ratings. These are just for informative purposes for people. What happened to you people? Watch the show first and then criticize.”
But the backlash didn’t stop there. So, on September 17, 2020, Nida Yasir posted an apology video on her instagram.
Should people let this slide with this apology video? Or is it becoming a new trend these days to get cheap publicity and apologizing afterwards. In this era of privatized media, there is a need for being in check by the national authorities on how situations or different sensitive topics are being discussed.