Even dark-skinned women can be beautiful brides: Pakistani TV show faces flak for 'racist' competition

In the segment named 'Mera Makeup Hai Kamal', the participants were tasked to give a makeover but only to dark-skinned women.

Photo: Twitter.com/manirhee

Pakistani talk show host Sanam Jung is yet again facing flak for mocking dark-skinned people. Jung who hosts the show Jago Pakistan Jago on Hum TV, dedicated one segment of the show to giving bridal makeover. The catch was that in the segment named 'Mera Makeup Hai Kamal', the participants were tasked with giving a makeover only to dark-skinned women. It was aimed at giving the message that not just the fair-skinned ones, even dark-skinned women can make beautiful brides. 

What was even more objectionable was the fact that the models who were chosen to be the subjects who were given makeovers were not dusky or dark-skinned. These women were fair-skinned but were artificially made to give the look of darker looking women. These models were made to use the 'Negro' shade of Kryolan TV paint stick foundation to get the dark complexion.

The show saw a series of obstacles and racial slurs by the host and mentors. Terms like ‘habshi’, ‘habshan’, ‘makrani’ and ‘negro’ were repeated a number of times throughout the episode.

The episode received a lot of criticism on social media. Many claimed that the show which was aimed at giving a positive message ended up supporting the bias against the dark skin by showed how successful they were in doing the makeover. 

After facing the ire, the team of the show removed the pictures and stills from the official page of Jago Pakistan Jago.