One of Pakistan’s leading fashion designers is campaigning against drag performances. Maria Butt, who is publicly known as Maria B is one of the country’s most celebrated designers and has outlets all of the country, she took to Instagram to complain about a recent drag performance in Lahore.
The designer said she had become aware of the performance because children who had attended it had reached out to her after being present at the event.
“Biological males performed this obscenity on stage.” she proclaimed in the video, before going to on to suggest that their performance had also used “satanic” symbols including text written upside down and the performers painted with a “third eye”.
The designer then went on to complain about the film Joyland that included an LGBTIQA+ storyline. The 2022 film from director Saim Sadiq won the Queer Palm and the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Butt said the promotion of homosexuality in Pakistan was being supported by the government who were taking their orders from Israel.
Homosexuality is illegal in Pakistan and LGBTIQA+ people face significant social stigma and discrimination. However in 2018 the government passed the Transgender Persons (Protections of Rights) Act which established broad protections for transgender people.
