In the latest episode of society having a complete disregard for personal boundaries, news of Mahira Khan’s alleged ‘pregnancy’ took the internet by storm on Monday. Usually reputable Indian outlets, including Times of India, Pinkvilla, and News18, all published reports sourcing a Reddit user’s baseless claims, and several Pakistani online pages followed suit.
The claims came with add-ons, suggesting that Khan would now be abandoning her upcoming Netflix project, Jo Bachey Sang Samait Lo and another yet-to-be-titled film. Many were quick to question the credibility of the source making these claims, while others were quick to share the reports without fact-checking — as usual.
Khan, however, rubbished the rumours in a conversation with The Express Tribune, confirming that she’s “not pregnant” and certainly hasn’t left the Netflix series. But while the internet moves on from capitalising on yet another baseless claim about a public figure’s private matter, there is much to be discussed about public figures’ right to privacy, the open and shut cases of slut-shaming women when they come out with maternity shoots and the curiosity surrounding their pregnancy and bodies when they don’t.
Back in 2018, a fake screenshot doctored to pose as a Dawn.com news article about PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz surfaced on social media, misleading the public and stakeholders by suggesting that she was expecting. Most recently, Sarwat Gilani and Armeena Khan were trolled for posting pictures flaunting their baby bumps while Minal Khan had to turn off comments for harmless pictures from her baby shower. Aiman Khan was trolled for her postpartum weight gain while Mariam Ansari had to share a video expressing her frustration over the “amount of hate” she’d been receiving for announcing her pregnancy with an adorable picture.
