"We don’t need to defend such jokes or normalise them."
A Pakistani YouTuber has come under fire for a video where he appeared to choke his wife.
Shahveer Jafry, who has over 3.2 million subscribers, posted the controversial video on TikTok.
The video shows him holding a pillow and approaching the sofa where his wife is sleeping. He then places the pillow over her and pushes it down with his knee.
It is then revealed that Shahveer actually placed the pillow over her feet as she lifts her head up from underneath the blanket.
When he notices that she has woken up, he places the pillow behind her head and kisses her on the forehead.
Shahveer then walks away but not before he slaps his forehead.
The video clip did not go down well on social media, with many criticising the YouTuber for making fun of domestic violence, especially in a country where approximately 40% of women have experienced physical or emotional violence in their lifetime.
Although Shahveer deleted the video, netizens shared the video on Twitter while also blasting the YouTuber.
A user named Nishat shared the video and expressed her anger at the fact that over 41,000 people had liked Shahveer’s video.
41.3k likes on a video where tiktoker, Shahveer Jafry, chokes his wife as a joke in a country where domestic violence is rampant, where women ACTUALLY get killed by their husbands! My blood is boiling pic.twitter.com/goDLfwc4DE
— Nishat (@nishat218) April 17, 2023
Activist Kanwal Ahmed commented: “In a country where thousands of women are killed every year from domestic violence – famous YouTubers find it ‘funny’ to make a reel around choking your wife.
“These jokes are not funny. We don’t need to defend such jokes or normalise them.
“Also I’m pretty sure that the reel by Shahveer Jafry is very triggering for actual victims of GBV.”
A user said: “I won’t support Shahveer, there is no justification.
“But as far as I have seen him all these years, he seems to be a nice guy.
“This however is disturbing and he must rethink where his content is going. I think he thought it funny when in actuality it’s not.”
Another stated: “This is just awful.”
A third wrote:
“God, just thinking how joking about such stuff triggers trauma in people who went through it.”
“Not everything is a joke. I hope he learns his lesson.”
One user pointed out that because his wife consented to the video, she is also to blame. The user wrote:
“I don’t care if Shahveer’s wife consented to everything.
“It basically means both of them have 0 brain cells. Such stunts are extremely insensitive considering the type of country we live in and especially for someone who has so much influence.”
Shahveer’s friend Akbar Kazi understood the video’s backlash and claimed that the YouTuber was “pressured” to “tap into societal tropes and virality because masses understand this kind of subversion of reality”.
Discussing the social responsibility of popular content creators, he said:
“Sure, there’s demand for these kinds of jokes but if you keep supplying, there can’t be change.
“Shahveer is an intelligent person. I hope he feels that he’s much better than this.”
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