We have all heard the phrase “achi larki” at some point in our life.

Achi larki ghar se nahi nikalti, achi larki zyada baat nahi karti, achi larki sab ki baat maanti hai… And the list just goes on

The phrase represents how caged women in Pakistan are. Everything is dictated to them. How they can talk, the way they should, whom they should talk to, what they should do in their lives, and it trickles down to the minutest things that we do in our daily lives.

Here’s a list of the weirdest things women have heard based on society’s assumption of an achi larki

Achi larki zyada hasta nahi hai

Achi larki sirf parhai aur ghar ke kaam pe dihaan deti hai

Achi larki ghar se bilawajah bahir nahi jaati

Achi larki sab ka kehna maanti hai

Facebook user, Marriam Musa, took to the platform to challenge all these weird ideas and notions that women have to put up with due to this image of an achi larki

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1586798381398014&set=p.1586798381398014&type=3&theater

She aptly points out that women, who try to break this barrier, are repeatedly stopped and everyone takes the liberty to point out how they are going the wrong way.

Many women here have given up on who they would like to be as a person and what they would like to be in their lives merely because of this pressure of being an ideal woman. The question is, if you are making someone conform so much, that person cannot develop their own personality. They are constantly under pressure to act in a particular manner and penalized if they try to break free.

We asked Marriam what prompted her to talk about this issue at large

“I’m managing a team of over 300 women at work and speak to thousands of students all over punjab. And so many conversations revolve around what they would really want to do in life but feel like if they do it, they’ll be judged by people around them.”

Again, let us all remember that women are human beings too

They are very much capable of making their decisions. They can also decide what is right and what is not. Dictating everything to them means challenging their agency and reducing them to a point where they feel suffocated wherever they are in life.

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cover image via: Marriam Musa / Facebook