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Why this Mahira Khan wedding clip is going viral, winning hearts on the Internet

The Pakistani actor tied the knot with long-time boyfriend Salim Karim

Everyone loves a celebrity wedding video. More importantly, everyone loves to 'comment' on a celebrity wedding video. There is a plethora of curious questions and commentary that surround a celebrity’s nuptials, even more so when the celebrity is a prominent woman. So, when Pakistani superstar Mahira Khan’s wedding video surfaced online, the internet went into a tizzy. For various reasons, not all of which can be taken apart here. But the one thing that stood out for me, and perhaps for many women like me who feel joy and elation when a woman rises and she is celebrated for her own sake and on her own terms, was how Mahira Khan’s wedding broke barriers for not just female celebrities, but other women too.

Most celebrity weddings are typical in their visuals: the demure pastel-coloured bride, the chunky statement jewellery, the traditional walk towards the happy groom and the soft pitter-patter of musicals in the background. From Anushka Sharma to Kiara Advani, from Deepika Padukone to Parineeti Chopra, from Priyanka Chopra to Mouni Roy - all of them seemed to follow a common template. They are larger than life in their set up and almost always followed traditional roles. Even Pakistani celebrity weddings have followed similar patterns. So, what made Mahira Khan’s wedding decidedly different from the hoi polloi?

Take the venue for example. Mahira Khan chose to get married at a well-known hill resort in Bhurban, in upper Punjab. It is a common family vacation destination, not Italy or French Riviera or Los Angeles. She chose to wear Faraz Manan, to whom she is a forever muse. It seemed like a highly intimate ceremony with only friends and family present. But that is not what is barrier breaking about her wedding.

Her teenage son, Azlaan, held her hand as she walked down with her brother Hissan Khan to meet her prince, tech startup owner 42-year-old Salim Karim. Mahira wore a faint blue dress with a sheer veil that showed her glowing skin and radiating smile. In a short wedding clip, we saw Mahira happily grasp her son’s hand and sit with him as the nikah (wedding ceremony) proceeded. Mahira Khan, 38, walked with her strapping young son to meet her new husband and towards a new life, and as the couple embraced with tears in their eyes, time, age, social taboos and all the regular tropes about finding love only when you are sixteen seemed to be of little significance.

With the beautiful little ceremony, Mahira Khan made a statement not just for herself but for many women who are afraid of being happy when they have crossed their so called ‘marriagable’ years. You don’t need to be 16 or 23 or any particular age to find happiness. You also don’t need to shy away from your past or feel any kind of taboos around who or what truly matters to you: Azlaan, her young son from her previous marriage to Ali Askari, stood right by her side in a beige suit, holding her hand tightly, signifying what a wonderful bond the two have.

The bottom line is that Mahira Khan has always played by her own rules and those are the kind of barrier-breaking female role models that society needs more of. We need women to be happy and joyous in their own skin and to be able to state loudly to the world, without worrying about what everyone thinks, that this is what they find happiness in and they are not afraid to show it.

In a world where women constantly face criticism for what they wear and for smiling too much or too little or being too independent or too dependent (we are the middle children of feminism, are we not?), women are never enough, for anything (America Ferrera’s monologue from Barbie comes to mind). But Mahira Khan’s wedding video showed that you can be enough. You can be happy. No matter what or where you are. What truly matters is what is in your heart and if it is pure, you will shine.

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