‘Najma kahan hain?’ Pakistani Influencer Waqar Zaka's Comments On Women Sprinters Is Sexist

Najma Parveen viral video: A commentary by social media influencer Waqar Zaka on the Pakistani Olympic athlete Najma Parveen's performance during women’s 200m round 1 heats at the ongoing Olympic games recently broke the internet. However, in the video Zaka while pointing a finger at the sports authorities of the country ended up making several comments which are sexist and demeaning to women athletes.

On Monday, August 2, Pakistani host and social media influencer Waqar Zaka recorded Athlete Najma Parveen's performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Women’s 200m round 1 heats. In the video, he alleges that the reason behind the athlete's poor performance was the ignorance of the authorities. She could not be blamed for it. The video has now gone viral on the internet with netizens finding it "funny" but there are various comments in the piece which are problematic. Zaka the host and influencer from Pakistan has a following of 460k on Instagram and 1.17 million subscribers on YouTube.

In the video, looking at the other athletes competing (Jamaica, Greece and Germany)  Zaka questioned if they, "Are these even girls or not?" Commenting on the looks and built of other athletes, he said, "Who is our sister competing with? What is this 'item'?" The commentator then starts cheering for Parveen with, "Run Najma" and "Come on Najma."

Unable to spot her after a while, he asked ‘Najma kahan hain?’As he looked for her, he questioned where she was and if she was the last one. Referring to the athlete as his 'sister', Zaka jokingly asks if Najma was 'cooking'. "Whom have they sent?" he questioned curiously, not finding Parveen's performance up to the mark.

The commentary points out that Pakistan's Sport Authority might not have sent any coach with Parveen.

Later in a tweet, Zaka said that the players are not at fault. The main 'culprits' are the administration and the coaches. He added that they should be "exposed".

What the video? this is no rocket science or technology stuff that you can’t build , issue is not with players or talent , it’s the administration and coaches , we need to expose the culprits , no need to blame players ⁦⁦@ImranKhanPTI⁩ https://t.co/KvP5HjLKiU

— Waqar Zaka (@ZakaWaqar) August 2, 2021

Who is Najma Parveen?

Najma Parveen is a sprinter from Pakistan. She holds the national record of Women's 200m at 23.69 seconds. However, she finished last in the women's 200m event. Reportedly, her journey to the Olympics this year was almost halted when the AFP withdrew her entry without consent. But the Pakistan Olympic Federation managed her re-entry into the Olympics later.

Even though Zaka's concerns about the status of sports need to be addressed, his attitude and his comments for the sprinters are downright sexists and finding such a video hilarious only goes on to show how much we normalise sexist behaviour.

Watch the Najma Parveen viral video below:

Image source: Geo.tv

The views are the author's own.