Goonj: echoes of a woman who won’t bow to misogyny at work

What happens when an independent, hardworking woman working in the corporate sector faces misogyny in her career? Drama Goonj, presented by Hum Network, highlights a much-needed societal issue, weaved in a tale of power, pain, and the will to rise above all. 

The lead character, Zarnab (Komal Meer) is doing her best to achieve her dreams, only to hear malicious comments that she is ‘using’ her boss as a corporate ladder to get promotions. As a part of society where the struggles of working women are barely registered, and if she achieves anything, she is considered as gaining it based on her gender, beauty, voice, or other superficial traits. Her dedication to her work is often dismissed as insignificant. 

Goonj attempts to show the cruel face of the world we live in. Firstly, it’s quite odd how we have to use the word ‘working’ with women to signify that she does a job, paying little to no heed to thousands of women whom we see working day in and day out, albeit with minimum wage or none at all. We would never say ‘working man’ because the idea is that a man owing to his gender would always be working. Then those women who do work are  often discouraged from setting boundaries and pressured to conform to the ideas set by others. 

What has happened so far?

The drama uses the flashback technique to show the developments and begins with Zarnab apparently planning to take a grave step in her life which would have never imagined. The viewer does not know but it seems she is recording herself.

Will Khalilur Rehman Qamar stop rebranding misogyny as screenwriting?

As the story unfolds, it is show that Zarnab who works in a marketing and advertising agency, faces challenges at her workplace, including office politics from a male colleague, Nabeel (Gohar Rasheed). Despite all odds, she keeps moving forward and finally reaches a leadership position at her agency. As recognition for her hard work, Zarnab is chosen to be the face of a project, a decision that doesn’t sit well with Nabeel who wanted the same for him. His ego is crushed so he does everything possible to put boulders in her progress.  She ends up hearing comments like, “She got all this through favouritism,” and words as crass as that, “Her sugar daddy boss, who’s soon to move to another location — won’t be around anymore.” 

In another instance, during a shoot, Nabeel stoops to objectifying Zarnab on her physique that she not wears ‘fitted’ clothes to impress people but he also suggested that she would be ‘suitable’ for a shoot for having the body type of a fashion model.

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On another front, she faces challenges at home too. Her brother-in-law (Ali Safina), who is also Nazish’s (Zarnab’s sister) (Michelle Mumtaz) boss, confronts her during dinner about her career in media, reflecting the stereotypical views many hold about women in this field. When she defends her work, her response isn’t well received by Nazish. This leads to another conversation, once again highlighting society’s typical mindset.

The story about her brother-in-law does not end here. Despite Zarnab pointing out the red flags, her sister ignores them and becomes exposed to his toxic family. His mother does not accept her wholeheartedly, and Ali Safina, like many men after marriage, changes. He begins showing controlling behaviour like possessiveness and questions her relationships with male colleagues.

Back at work, Zarnab has to stay late to complete a project with Nabeel, who, true to his nature, creates a scene and spreads fake, fabricated rumours about the stay, attempting to defame her.

As the story develops, an intern, Sara (Aneesha Altaf) Joins the office. Nabeel, who preys on younger women, sees her as another target and starts blurring professional boundaries, like asking her out alone for dinner or lunch, misleading her against Zarnab by cooking up stories, and acting as if “lunches” are a normal thing between colleagues.

Sara, who is vulnerable due to limited exposure, and unaware of his true intentions, takes things lightly and faces the worst consequences when she receives a phone call during a shoot and she lies about leaving due to family urgency, refusing Zarnab’s help. Later she went missing and locating her, Zarnab finds her in an under-construction building, half the truth, she might have faced physical harassment with Nabeel involved. All blame goes to Zarnab that she should not have to let her leave alone from the sets. Another negative point against her. She tries to investigate the matter but fails to achieve her goal and Sara gets out of the scene as it will develop with coming episodes.

Ahmed had always been around as a colleague and a friend, someone who never judged Zarnab. Their bond grew slowly with time. When Sara went missing and everyone started blaming Zarnab, Ahmed stood by her side. He went with her to find Sara and reminded her again and again that she was not at fault. In those tough moments, his support showed Zarnab that not all men are the same. Their friendship, built on respect, quietly moved towards something deeper, as Ahmed’s feelings for her began to show.

The situation worsens when a new female boss, Zartash (Hira Tareen), takes the lead and proves that sometimes companies only see their benefit, not the well-being of an employee. 

As the time passes, Nabeel continues with his behaviour and Zarnab formally emails HR representative Afshan against Nabeel, but it all goes in vain when Zartash says that there is no proof of Nabeel being wrong. That shows power takes away empathy and sometimes hides the truth. Not only this, Zarnab is asked to step back from her promotion she earned from her hard work and is supposed to report to Nabeel, which comes as another setback.

Zartash despite observing Nabeel’s behaviour and knowing who is right and who is wrong, decides not to take any action against Nabeel. On the other hand, when Afshan puts the situation in front of their new boss, she only has one stance that Zarnab was not supposed to react to every situation and she can deal with the situation more smartly. In response to her email, Zarnab is asked to write an apology letter for reacting to Nabeel’s harassment. But valuing her self-respect she chooses to resign than to surrender.

But the question remains the same: Will the voice that stands against injustice echo loud enough to awaken the world? Keep watching Goonj every Friday 8:00 pm.