Humsafar (Pakistan T.V. Time)

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! I would like to talk about Humsafar tonight. I just finished watching this on U.S.A. Netflix. It is a drama that was produced in 2011. It ran from September 2011- March 2012. 
Humsafar means Companion in Urdu. 
This is a T.V. series that was produced by a female producer who owns her own Channel and the first female producer in all of Asia, to own her own channel and to have her own production company. (This is quite and accomplishment!)
I kept watching Humsafar because I kept hoping there was a happy ending. And there was. But I had a love/ hate relationship with the T.V. series throughout it all. I was frustrated in how the heroine was constantly belittled throughout the entire show, I was annoyed that her husband was a jerk hole throughout the entire show, and he didn't stand up to his mother until the very end. I was irritated that poor innocent Khadir had to endure suffering, humiliation, grief, was reproved in public,and all because her husband didn't even bother to stick up for her. That is the biggest grief I have with this. If her husband loved her so much, why wasn't he soft and kind with her from the beginning? Where was his loyalty? Why didn't he trust her from the beginning? 
I also had a problem with the lead mother, Khadir's mother in law. Khadir is married to her first cousin because on her mother's death bed, her mother and uncle decided to marry Khadir to Ashar, her mother's nephew.
Khadir and Ashar married, and Ashar had a best friend named Sarah who was extremely jealous, and wanted to marry Ashar and have him for herself. 
What I could not gather was why they painted Sarah out to be so bad? Was it her western clothing? Her obsession over Ashar? Her lack of propriety  in social and workplace settings, and often at home, when she was unable to grasp that her childhood friend was in a marriage? Why did the producers even "go there"? And why did Sarah's mother coddle her so much, making her unable to deal with the fact that Ashar had told her several times he did not love her "in that way, only as friends"...
One tends to wonder about so many things... 
The other thing that bothered me was how rude Ashar's mother was towards Khadir. She was awful the entire T.V. show. This woman was not only cruel, but, just a total bitch. Is this how Pakistani producers of a huge Television series wants to portray the Pakistani elite? As attention whores, with no sense of dignity, who hate the social lower classes, and are out to get into their son's marriages, and destroy their grand-daughters life's? I don't get that. Then at the end, the mother of Ashar ends up going mental. Why didn't they address that she was completely wacko from the beginning, and also, did the producers think about how grievous mental illnesses are? How did she have schizophrenia just after Ashar told her she lied and was the worst. mom. ever. Ashar was emotionally detached to his wife before she was accused of being with another man, and he didn't try to stop Khadir's fate... Not once did he come to her aide, yet, he was ever so concerned with Sarah and her lack of being able to move past him, why didn't he, upon marrying Khadir, stop all contact with Sarah, tell her to F off, and fire her if he had to to get his point across. Then spend more time with his wife, get to know her, and love the fact she is independent, strong, intelligent,and went with this? But, instead, they had to go with cutting Khadir to the core, stripping her of dignity, and use the fact she comes from a village and lower class than Ashar. (Which is strange because Ashar's father and Khadir's mother are brother and sister... So he had to have come from the same village and upbringing...) Which the last note tends me to think that If a man in Pakistan makes a name for himself, a woman doesn't matter? It this how men treat their women in Pakistan? I highly don't think so. Of course, I am talking about a soap opera. But, this is something in Downton Abbey in the early 1900's in England, social classes and wealth and how the poor is looked upon. Right? Well, sadly, this T.V. series comes from 2011, in Pakistan. So, can we assume that in 100 years from now they will be up to where we are as far as women are concerned? Is this really a T.V. series that addresses social issues, mental health, suicide, and how women are treated in Pakistan's society? I hope not. I think we tend to objectify the poor, the weak in ALL Societies, not just Pakistan's T.V. series, however, they do it in U.S.A. as well. It's always the "woman" that is mentally ill, the woman who does something wrong, the woman who is the bad person. And the man is considered the savior of woman, the redeemer, man is the one who can make everything alright in the end. Or can he? Does he really? 
This is a question we all, in every society must address. Whether we are man or woman, poor or rich... How do we treat each other? How do we judge those around us? Are we right in our judging? Do we feel shame when we are wrong in our assumptions with people that we don't know? 
I wouldn't watch the series again if asked. Not because I didn't think that the acting was not well, because the actors were fabulous. I would not watch it because I had the hardest time watching the people with the social upper hand condemn the lower classes. It was gritty and frustrating. Was this what the producers wanted?   
I am updating this... 
I have done a little researching and Humsafar is the T.V. version of a novel of the same name, written by Farhat Ishitag, a female author who writes novels and plays. In all actuality, I would love to read the book, as she wrote it from the perspective of Ashar, then of Khadir, written in flashback setting, as though the two are remembering what took place in the past, and their daughter Hareem, bringing them back together. Now, I don't know about you, I would have loved to see more like that.  
The written style of flashbacks don't resonate well with Eastern and Asian audiences however, and so probably it is my frustration in Ashar's immaturity and being a petty guy (maybe?) that has me so critical of Ashar. No doubt, Humsafar is a series that will continue to steal the heart of many women world wide.