The Ukhano Controversy – How Should We React?

Before going into an entire narrative on whether or not Ukhano is right or wrong, we have to learn to dissect sexual harassment allegations. We have to be wary of character assassination, online bullying, and be very sensitive when it comes to such allegations as they are tricky for all parties involved, especially with the immediate support that they garner online.

For those of you who don’t know, late on Tuesday a thread emerged on Facebook accusing Umer Khan of sexual harassment. Ukhano is a local vlogger, who is known for his vlogs about Pakistan and he is recently doing a show on YouTube where he interviews some famous faces of Pakistan.

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Thank you @luxstylepk and @talkingpointpk for having me on board as the official vlogger for #lsa2019 ⭐️ The amount of love and admiration I received from everyone at the event was just heartwarming. Now I am driven to work even harder ? ??? and I hope to bring content creation as a category to LSA2020

A post shared by Umar Khan (@ukhano) on Jul 8, 2019 at 2:20am PDT

Many hinted towards how he allegedly used his fame to send inappropriate messages to women. Here are some of the comments that emerged on that thread:

However, one of the comments on the post gathered a lot of traction. According to the person, Umer tried to use his position to gain physical favours from her.

According to her, she and Umer had been friends for a long time and both decided to help each other out. Umer was in Karachi when he called her over to his hotel with a couple of clothes to shoot but then convinced her to shoot in her bathroom. When she decided to walk away, he allegedly forced himself on her and eventually asked her to leave, saying that she can only become a model if she is ready to be bold in the industry. (Read the person’s interview, here)

Apart from this incident, several women also shared screenshots of their conversations with him

This entire incident has opened up a very nuanced debate around harassment, inappropriate messaging, online justice and the way forward to the solution.

When such incidents surface, many people take sides right away which instead of supporting the entire debate, almost ends it. There is no denying that there are two sides to a story and one should always collect all evidence before forming an opinion. So here’s what went down:

The successive messages on Snapchat show that Ukhano is allegedly an aggressive approacher when it comes to women and often when declined the offer, ends up blocking them. This opens up the debate whether or not this can be categorized as sexual harassment because in some cases the conversation ended as soon as the alleged perpetrator made them feel uncomfortable. At the same time, it also leads into a larger conversation regarding men having to check their own privilege before making a pass at someone because each person has their own boundaries and it is important to understand them in order to ensure that the interaction is comfortable for all the parties involved.

Similarly we have the allegation from the woman in Karachi. The intensity of that allegation is quite serious as compared to the screenshots because if that incident took place, we really need to sit back and think about the leverage and privilege we allot to people in power or who have some sort of influential clout.

Ukhano came forward with his own statement, in which he denied all such allegations and said that he had worked with multiple women and had never made anyone feel uncomfortable.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0B6yEal6r0/

Many are coming out in support of the women by saying that we should not isolate the victims, and many others are coming out in support of Ukhano by saying that the judgement should be made in the court of law.

Developments such as these should not only urge the political machinery to take part in the debate that has been making rounds on social media but should also urge the judicial set up to work out innovations that can help improve legal proceedings in cases of harassment. Larger portions of the political setup are still insensitive when it comes to dealing with such matters along with mainstream media. Engaging in a debate can help resolve these issues and help sift the matter.

coverimage via brandsynario.com