Black Rose

_{Maan's Black Rose captured for @weisser-rabe Roses}

"I will go, check if there's a black rose blooming in the garden or not."

Original line in urdu:

میں دیکھ کے آتی ہوں کے باغ میں کوئی کالا گلاب کھلا ہے کہ نہیں

I remember this line vividly from some quarter century ago, a dialogue by the famous Pakistani actress Maria Wasti in an STN drama. I don't recall the drama or even what it was about; it was on television. I might have just sat in front of it before going out to play. The scene goes like this (I'm still amazed at how I remember these details - such is the power of media): The actress who is apparently dark-skinned said this line to a group of phony, fair-skinned girls who were perhaps snobbish. The actress liked a boy from the group, and she thought of herself as not worthy of his liking. When she saw that he was so playful and jolly around those girls, and they were suggesting that they should go enjoy the blossoms in the garden, she said this very line.

Is there beauty in being fair-skinned?

The answer to this question in the Asian culture specifically Pakistan and India is YES. Here, fair skin is often equated with beauty. This perception is reinforced through advertisements featuring white-skinned individuals across various products, from clothing and shoes to food and home appliances. Consequently, many Pakistani women aspire to achieve fair skin through various means. This desire has not only become a societal norm but has also spurred a lucrative market catering to it. Products once deemed harmful are now sought after by women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Despite the widespread availability of skin lightening treatments in beauty parlors and high-end spas, the potential drawbacks of such practices are seldom discussed. Or I would say never discussed.

We had a discussion in our class once where our teacher said something about white supremacy. I heard this term for the very first time then. She told us that such color-based biases echo historical ideologies, which idealized traits like tall stature, fair hair, and blue eyes as symbols of Aryan descent, promoting a myth of superiority.

Conversely, darker skin tones are often associated with the indigenous Dravidianrace.
_{Researched again from [And](Facebook · Farzan Skin Care
Farzan Skin Care کیا گورے رنگ میں ہی خوبصورتی ہے)}

There is a lot of history related to this colour conception around beauty standards. And there is also some very controversial and dark history which I will refrain from quoting because that's not my main agenda here.

To make the matters worse, in Pakistan and India, such beliefs are reinforced through media portrayals, where heroes and heroines are mostly depicted as fair while villains are often depicted as dark-skinned. The trends are changing now. But in past you would never see a dark skinned heroine or a very pretty or fair skinned villain. The concept of fair skin is still heavily advertised here.

However, personally speaking, I have never been oblivious to the complexes related to fair and dark skin within my own immediate and extended family. To tell you the truth, I am not very fair-skinned myself, at least according to the beauty standards of media and the industry.

For me, my mother is the most beautiful woman in the world. It pains me when she hits at her colour even casually. I know that deep down she has been a victim of this color complex. For instance, when her grandchildren don't listen to her, she'll say smilingly, "کالے بندے کی کوئی بات ہی نہیں سنتا" (translation: "why wouldn't someone listen to a black person"). She has a relatively darker complexion compared to her siblings and even among us.

It hurts me, yet, I have never been able to tell her she is beautiful just the way she is. Sometimes, she would say to me, 'Why worry? You have a fair complexion. This color suits you.' It's as if she herself avoids certain colors and things because she thinks they are not for her. In those moments, I don't know how to hug her and say that every damn color in the universe is made for her. She is the prettiest. She is my ROSE, the prettiest shade of it all.

_{an old picture of her. I love you mom and I love you so very much!!!}