Saif Samejo’s Take On Me Too

Saif Samejo is a legend in the making. He’s one person whose sole purpose is to create music. This year has been very lucky for him. His initiative Lahooti Melo completed 3 years and Cake, that he composed music for, went to the Oscars as Pakistan’s official submission for the foreign language film. He gave an interview to Dawn images, recently, and talked about his experience about the Me Too movement.

Saif shared a painful experience saying that earlier this year his Lahooti Melo team gathered where one of the volunteers at the first ever event opened up about her Me Too experience. She had suffered at the hands of one of the guests invited to the event in 2016. She was a budding artist and after knowing that, the predator, who happens to be a known media person, tracked her down on social media. He said that he won her trust and made her feel comfortable. It was then he forced him on her one day which shook her to the core. She tried to commit suicide but survived.

He said “I saw women with the courage to share their stories, who were being very brave, and the backlash [they would get]. Also, men like this media person who [sensing that their time might be up] would preemptively generate a narrative [around themselves], so that if they are accused, they can get away with it.” He is also planning to dedicate this year’s Lahooti Melo to the Me Too movement.

 

Sohayl Ahmed