“Lahu Di Awaaz”: Unpacking A Controversial New Punjabi Song That Slut-Shames Women
- Manisha Singh
- Oct 30, 2021
- 3 min read
A Punjabi song was released earlier this month called “Lahu Di Awaaz,” which sheds light on the harsh realities of today’s world. The social media era that we live in has changed our women, and feminism is no longer tied to self-respect, but is instead tied to the act of revealing one’s body online. Atleast, that’s what Simiran Kaur Dhadli thinks it’s about. And she amassed 4.5 million views on her song about it in just over two weeks.
“Lahu Di Awaaz,” meaning “The Voices of Blood,” has garnered immense support from fans who agree with Dhadli’s perspective, but on the other hand, a vast number of listeners say that the song slut-shames women, promotes rape culture, and is mysogonistic.
So which side is true?
Before we can answer that, let’s first figure out why people think that the song slut-shames women, and promotes rape culture.
During the song, Dhadli compares traditional women from rural Punjab, with today’s social media influencers, suggesting that today’s women have no self-respect or respect at all.
At the beginning of the song, she recalls a dream she had the night before, where the women in it were dressed modestly in traditional suits. She says that they were the types of women who “did not look their brothers’ in the eyes”, or “raise their voices to their fathers.”
At this point in the song, the music video depicts footage of women in Punjab traditionally dressed and with their families.
Dhadli then says that in her dream, those women are trying to tell her something, but then all of a sudden she wakes up from it all.
She is now back in this reality, which she calls “kalyug,” meaning the “age of the darkness.”
In this age, she claims that the women are “mentally ill,” and exploit their bodies online.
Dhadli then sings the majority of the rest of the song attacking those women for the decisions they’ve made, basically shaming them for having autonomy over their own bodies.
Dhadli even pleads to God asking “what has this world come to?”
At this point in the song the videos/images completely change in the music video to depict explicit content of women who are revealing their skin, and Dhadli labels them as being fake feminists.
At a certain point in the track, Dhadli even goes on to tell those women to kill themselves.
This has sparked huge outrage online, with many coming to the artist's rescue agreeing with her thoughts, while others are downright shocked that a woman herself can make a song like this.
It is one thing to disagree with something that someone does with their own body, but to write a song about it, label other women mentally ill and even go as far enough as to tell them to die, is pretty unacceptable.
Infact, a twitter user named Simran Sandhu called Dhadli a hypocrite for making the song when she wrote: “People upset about nudity on social media because it would be so unfair to gain popularity (likes/followers) using bodily autonomy while actively encouraging hate speech and rape culture disguised as a song (also to gain likes/followers)?”
It should go without saying that if a woman chooses to share intimate images of their body online, that is their decision, and their decision only. It should not be something that is up for debate, let alone be a subject of a song. You don’t have to agree or want the same thing for yourself in order to respect other people.
Furthermore, it’s likely the same people consuming that type of explicit content on social media without a problem, that are the same ones supporting Dhadli in the comment section of her Youtube video.
Why put the blame on women for embracing their bodies, but then shy away from asking men why they are consuming that content? I guess you could say that Dhadli is half right. Feminism today definitely is different from what it was before.
Women used to rally together hand in hand for a better tomorrow. They had each other's backs.
Today it seems as though that momentum has been lost. Women are attacking each other and those with platforms are using them to bring other women down.
Hopefully Dhadli will realize that putting down other women and protecting the patriarchy that negatively impacts so many women is not the way to go.
Women have worked for years to be able to have a say over their own bodies. The last thing needed is for fellow women to turn their backs on them.
TejInder Singh Khamkha said it perfectly when he wrote, “the issue is not the length of clothes a woman decides to wear, the problem is your gaze.”
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