Profanity has poisoned society: Jawad Ahmad

Express Tribune

20-05-2025

During an interview on Zabardast with Wasi Shah, singer-turned-politician Jawad Ahmad addressed his long-standing qualms about the normalised use of profanity in society. Recalling a simple time, he began "In the home where I was raised, it was an unimaginable thing to curse - on both the maternal and paternal sides."
Jawad mentioned that both his parents were educators, adding context to his courteous background. "I'd never heard a single man or woman curse in both their families."
The Yehi Tou Hai Apna Pan singer went on to define what qualifies as a curse word, which he believes is something you say out of hatred to someone despite it not being true. "You know that the person you're targeting is not what you describe them as, but you call them names regardless. For example, when you equate someone to an animal."
According to Jawad, the list includes vulgar language about someone's body and misogynistic slurs towards mothers and sisters. "This is nonsensical chatter. It doesn't target someone's physical attributes, but it does concern personality. In the same way, attacking someone's caste, clan, appearance, or profession with sheer hatred is what you'd call 'swearing'."
Since he didn't grow up hearing such language at home, it alarmed Jawad how common profanity truly was, especially in the educational institutes he'd attended. "Around me, girls and boys - especially boys - would often swear at each other. Back then, they'd use foul words in Urdu and Punjabi. Then when it became fashionable, they started swearing in English too."
He added, "I'd be so baffled at the words they'd use for mothers and sisters that I'd just wonder, 'Man, these women are sitting at home. How does this discussion concern them?'"
Jawad further observed that this level of disrespect has contaminated society to the extent that it now also plagues the digital sphere. "If you go on social media, you'll see that there's no room left for reasoning or different ideas anymore. Now all that's left is to see how awfully you can insult someone. And that's what truly scares me about where Pakistani society is headed."
In sharp contrast, the artist later looked back on how his discography managed to please a tough crowd because he veered away from profanity.
"Older women don't usually like a lot of people. But they do ease up to someone who seems family-oriented," he said. That's the kind of image I had, very family-friendly. Neither did I have vulgar songs nor was I ill-mannered. So they used to like me, actually. Older women used to give me lots of love."