Pakistan’s female comedians challenge the male-dominated world of comedy

Comedy in Pakistan has always been a male-dominated space. Men are allowed to crack jokes, show off, or be crude. Enter female comedians.

They get cast as mothers, daughters or mothers-in-law – rather than playing individuals, women are limited to caricatures. Amtul wants to change this, which is why she has joined the Khawatoons group. “Khawatoons” is a play on the Urdu word for women, “khawateen”, and “cartoons”. In the group, all the roles are played by women, who carefully test the boundaries of what can be said in Pakistan’s comedy clubs. The performers feel that challenging topics, including sexual violence, abortion and gender relations, have their place in comedy. A report by Vanessa Juercke.

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