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Pakistani dramas have long been a mirror to the society they come from, and Aik Mohabbat Aur is doing exactly that. The ongoing drama, in which Qudsia Ali plays Maham and Abbas Ashraf Awan plays Faris, explores the painful reality of marriages where women find themselves trapped with narcissistic partners. In a candid conversation with Fuchsia Magazine, the two actors stepped out of their fictional roles and spoke plainly about the dynamics they believe are damaging real relationships in Pakistan today. Abbas Ashraf was direct about where he believes the problem begins, and it is not with men themselves but with how they are raised. He said the narcissistic complex in men is a product of parenting, specifically the way sons are conditioned from childhood to feel superior to everyone around them. Parents, he argued, tell their sons they are the inheritors, the ones who matter, the ones who carry the family forward, while daughters are quietly assigned a lesser place. That imbalance, repeated across generations, plants the seeds of the entitlement and control that later destroys marriages. His prescription was as straightforward as his diagnosis. “Make both your sons and daughters feel equal if you want to stop your sons from becoming negative narcissists,” he said. It is a simple idea that carries enormous weight precisely because of how rarely it is practised. Qudsia Ali brought a different but equally sharp perspective to the same conversation, turning her focus toward the women who stay in difficult marriages long past the point of reason. Her explanation was rooted not in weakness but in a specific emotional wound. She said that many women are deprived of parental love from the very beginning of their lives. When they finally encounter even a fragment of affection from a partner, however temporary or conditional it may be, they hold on to it with everything they have because they have never known anything different. “Women are deprived of parental love and when they get even a glimpse of love, they lie down and take everything,” she said. “They take even a temporary love as they are extremely insecure.” The image is striking and uncomfortably accurate for anyone who has watched a woman accept treatment that from the outside looks impossible to justify. Qudsia did not offer this observation from a distance. She acknowledged that she herself had carried insecurities of her own, and that she had done the work to understand and overcome them. It was a moment of personal honesty that gave her words additional weight. Together, their observations form a connected picture of how the same system of unequal parenting produces both the men who expect everything and the women who accept anything. The drama they are appearing in explores exactly this territory on screen. But in this conversation, they chose to name it plainly off screen too, and that directness is what has made their remarks resonate beyond the usual boundaries of a promotional interview.

Arooj Aurangzeb is a name that carries real weight in Pakistan’s student activism circles. In 2019, she went viral after a video of her reciting a powerful poem during the student solidarity march spread rapidly across social media. She was protesting alongside thousands of other students who were demanding the restoration of student unions and proper political representation for young people within the country’s institutions. The videos from that movement were electric, emotional and widely shared, including hers. Seven years later, she is back in the public conversation, but this time it is not because of a protest. It is because of a contradiction she says she can no longer stay quiet about. When Indian students began protesting over the NEET paper leak at Jantar Mantar, demanding justice and systemic reform in the country’s examination system, Pakistani social media users responded with visible enthusiasm. Support poured in from across the border, with many Pakistanis praising the Indian Gen Z for their courage, awareness and refusal to be silent. Arooj Aurangzeb watched that wave of support and felt something shift inside her. She took to social media to point out what she saw as a glaring and painful inconsistency. While Pakistanis were celebrating the Indian protesters and calling their movement inspiring, many of those same people had ridiculed, trolled and dismissed her and her fellow students when they took to the streets in 2019 for exactly the same kind of systemic change. She did not hold back. She highlighted the irony directly, asking how the same people who mocked Pakistani students fighting for their rights could turn around and feel so moved by Indian Gen Z doing the same thing. Her post was not framed as anti-India. It was framed as a question about selective empathy and the way Pakistanis sometimes extend more admiration to voices from abroad than to those speaking up at home. The internet did not respond with silence. Reactions were divided and sharp. Some users sided with her immediately. “We never stand by our own heroes,” one person wrote, capturing the frustration that Arooj was articulating. Others pushed back, with one commenter arguing that the dynamics of Indian and Pakistani Gen Z are completely different and that direct comparisons were unfair. Another raised a pointed question of their own, asking why so many Pakistani revolutionaries eventually leave the country on foreign visas, a remark that suggested the critique went both ways. Arooj Aurangzeb’s voice in 2019 was a reminder that young Pakistanis were willing to stand up and demand something better. Her voice in 2026 is a reminder that those same young people are still watching, still paying attention, and still asking why the recognition they deserved then continues to be denied while admiration flows so freely elsewhere.

The wedding celebrations of Pakistani actress Ramsha Khan’s sister, Alysha Khan, have attracted significant attention on social media, with her Nikah ceremony becoming a major topic of discussion among internet users. Alysha’s wedding festivities have been circulating online in recent days. However, much of the attention has focused not only on the bride and the celebrations but also on the language used during the Nikah ceremony. The Nikah was conducted in English during a daytime ceremony. Clips from the event appeared on social media and quickly generated mixed reactions from viewers. Some social media users questioned the decision to conduct the Nikah in English and compared it with the traditional way of solemnising marriages in Pakistan. Several commenters argued that the ceremony appeared influenced by Western culture, while others criticised what they described as an attempt to adopt a foreign style. The bride’s pronunciation also became a subject of online discussion. In a widely circulated clip, viewers focused on her pronunciation of the phrase “I do,” with some users making jokes and critical comments about her accent. The reaction soon turned into a wider debate about cultural traditions and personal choices. Some users defended the family’s decision, arguing that the language used during a Nikah does not change the religious or legal nature of the marriage. Others continued to question why an English-language ceremony was chosen for a Pakistani wedding. Ramsha Khan herself has largely stayed away from the spotlight during her sister’s wedding festivities. Despite considerable interest from her followers, she has reportedly avoided sharing pictures and videos of herself from the celebrations. The actress has also kept her personal life private following her marriage to actor Khushhal Khan. She previously made her Instagram account private and has maintained a relatively low profile since leaving the acting scene. Ramsha Khan became a familiar face in Pakistani television after beginning her career in the entertainment industry. She appeared in several successful dramas and films, including Mah-e-Tamaam, Khud Parast, Kaisa Hai Naseeba, Shehnai, Ishqiya, Hum Tum, Sinf-e-Aahan and Duniyapur. Her relationship and subsequent marriage to her former drama co-star Khushhal Khan also attracted considerable public attention. Since then, the actress has largely kept her family matters away from the media. Meanwhile, Alysha Khan’s wedding has continued to generate discussion online. Some users also questioned why entertainment and social media pages were giving extensive coverage to the wedding despite the bride not being a prominent public figure.