A Pakistani model has sparked controversy with her ‘bare-head’ pictures taken at the premises of the Kartarpur Gurdwara Darbar Sahib located in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The owner of an online clothing store named Mannat in Pakistan had posted multiple pictures of the model’s photoshoot on the social media account as an advertisement for the clothing brand. The Pakistani woman in the pictures was seen posing in front of the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib wearing a red salwar suit where her head was uncovered.
It is notable here that both men and women are required to cover their heads while visiting a Gurudwara.
The Sikh Community have criticized the advertisement and said that the pictures of Pakistani model posing ‘bare head’ with back towards the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib have hurt the sentiments of the religious community.
President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Manjinder Singh Sirsa demanded strict action against those who misbehaved in religious places of the minorities in Pakistan. He stated that the model posing without covering her head inside the Gurudwara premises is akin to ‘beadbi’ or sacrilege.
श्री गुरु नानक देव जी के इस धार्मिक स्थान श्री करतारपुर साहिब पर ऐसा ओछा व्यवहार “बेअदबी” है
— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) November 29, 2021
पाकिस्तान में अल्पसंख्यकों के धार्मिक स्थानों पर ओछा व्यवहार करने वालों के ख़िलाफ़ सख़्त कार्रवाई करे @ImranKhanPTI @GovtofPakistan
हमें ये बेअदबी बिल्कुल बर्दाश्त नहीं!@ANI @republic https://t.co/6pjmnoKHXt pic.twitter.com/fMUKRFAOxs
He said, “Such a petty behaviour on Shri Kartarpur Sahib, the religious place of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, is “disrespectful”. Take strict action against those who misbehave in religious places of minorities in Pakistan @ImranKhanPTI @GovtofPakistan We can’t tolerate this rudeness at all! @ANI @republic”
Paramjit Singh Sarna, former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee had termed the incident as ‘highly objectionable’ act and said that it had severely hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community. he said, “Instructions should be placed in Urdu and English for head-covering and about not showing the back to the holy site,”. It is also hinted by sources that the department Project Management Unit (PMU) in Pakistan which controls the affairs of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib has been charging money for photoshoots at the religious place.
Model and her team apologize
A member of the team that posted the pictures of the Pakistani model has issued a video message after the controversy and tendered an apology after the backlash.
Video message from owner of mannat clothing regarding #KartarpurSahib Shoot pic.twitter.com/9KX1asBkYd
— Karam Ellahi Gondal (@karamgondal) November 29, 2021
He said, ‘We had no direct connection with the post because we did not instruct anyone to do such photoshoot, this was a blogger collaboration because of which we had made the mistake..we will keep this in mind and try our best not to repeat this in future.”
The Model has apologized for the pictures posted on her account and stated that those pictures were not part of any photo shoot. She said, “Recently I posted a picture on Instagram that was not even a part of a shoot or anything. I just went to Kartarpur to learn about the history and know about the Sikh community. It wasn’t done to hurt anyone’s sentiments or anything for that matter. However, if I have hurt anyone or they think that I don’t respect their culture. I am Sorry.”
Notably, the online Mannat clothing store has also apologized for the incident and said, “The pictures posted on our accounts are NOT part of any shoot done by Mannat Clothing. These pictures were provided to us by a third-party (blogger) in which they were wearing our dress. Please note that Mannat has absolutely NO role in deciding how and where the pictures were taken. However, we accept our mistake that we should not have posted this content and we apologise to every single person who was offended by this.”
The clothing brand added that they have deleted the said pictures from their social media accounts.
