Dubai: The great scientist Albert Einstein once famously remarked that “the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”.
In a country where people may tend to skip a bit of humour, especially in sports, Indian tennis champion Sania Mirza has stood tall and strong.
In a recent exchange, the former six-time Grand Slam champion opened up on her famous ‘Joru ka Ghulaam’ (a wife’s slave) tweet during her exchange with Indian women cricketers, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues in their latest episode of their show, ‘Double Talk’.
The tweet in debate was when Mirza had posted on the social platform ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final between Australia and India held on March 8 — a day after the Hyderabad girl had helped India qualify for the Fed Cup play-offs, here in Dubai.
Mirza’s tweet praised Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who missed a one-day international match against South Africa, to fly home only to watch his wife Alyssa Healy in action while the hosts crushed India by 85 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“Sure thing!! God forbid it would be a guy from the subcontinent, the guy would be called a ‘joru ka ghulaam’ in one second, good on you Mitchell couple goals for sure!!,” Mirza had tweeted.
Earlier this week, the tennis star who is married to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malek, had the opportunity to explain her tweet on the ‘Double Talk’ show held by two of India’s top women cricketers.
Mirza’s contention was simple: why should cricket fans blame cricketers’ wives if the player fails to perform?
The Indian tennis player further admitted that she identified best with Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s actress-wife Anushka Sharma as both have been in similar situations in the past.
“When he (Starc) went back to his wife to watch the World Cup final and everybody was hailing him. I truly felt ... I was trying to just picture Shoaib do that for me ... hell would have broken loose if that would have happened. They would have said ... he is such a ‘joru ka ghulaam’ ... ‘Oh ... my God he is going and watching a women’s cricket match’. I just felt it. I feel humour also sometimes brings out the truth in many things,” Mirza narrated on the Mandhana-Rodrigues show.
Mirza then spoke about a “deep cultural issue” that is rooted deep within the subcontinent society that thinks that women can only be a “distraction and not a strength”.
“It was funny because me and Anushka probably relate to this the most. Because I think that whenever our husbands perform, it’s because of them, whenever they don’t perform, it’s because of us. I don’t know how that works,” she noted.
“We are saying it as a joke, but I think there is a much deeper issue. The deeper issue is that a woman can always be a distraction, and not a strength. That’s a cultural issue we sort of have to Oh ‘if your girlfriend is there or your wife is there, he must be distracted because he is going out for dinner’. That doesn’t even make any sense, like what sense can that make?” she added.
