Joyland, the Pakistani film portraying a romance between a married man and a transgender lady was cleared for cinema screenings in Pakistan Wednesday, reversing a ban imposed on filmgoers by the nation’s censors.
Loved by critics and audiences alike, Joyland was nominated for the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and is predicted to be Pakistan’s entry at next year’s Academy Awards. Template is set to open in cinemas throughout Pakistan this Friday.
Pakistan’s decrepit Islamist hardliners – harder than ever at the mere thought of the film’s content – lost all self-control at the racy subject material. Under strain from the grey beards, Pakistan’s info ministry last week declared the film…
“Repugnant to the norms of decency and morality.”
The censors duly complied and reviewed the movie. Joyland was cleared for cinema screenings late on Wednesday, when Muhammad Tahir Hassan, head of the Central Board of Film Censors, declared that…
“There is no hindrance from the board for its screening. The distributors can screen the movie from tomorrow morning if they want.”
The rights of the transgender community are ostensibly enshrined in Pakistani law. However, the prehistoric attitudes of so-called “hardliners” mean transgender citizens are forced to live on the fringes of society, usually pressured to resort to begging or sex work to survive. What flimsy legal protection they do enjoy is forever underneath assault by the unbridled imaginations of insecure outdated males who take every alternative to mishandle anyone and anything they fear.
Human rights activists expressed their pleasure on social media following the news. Amnesty International mentioned the overturn of the ban was…