Ertugrul, Esra Bilgic and the frustrations of Pakistani men.

In the middle of a global pandemic, the state-run PTV began airing a Turkish historical fiction drama series, Ertugrul, which experienced such a meteoric rise in popularity in the country that it became part of the national discourse, causing several debates regarding the authenticity of our cultural histories.

Read that sentence again. Understand that it is true.

Imagine the events that must have aligned in a very precise fashion for it to have happened. And then realise this is not even what this piece is about because something even more fascinating - or absurd depending on how you view it - occurred.

The Pakistani male fantasy came to life. Playing the wife of the titular character on the show is Turkish actor Esra Bilgic whose portrayal of Halime Hatun has led to a dedicated male following in our country.

It did not take long for her fans to look her up on Instagram, and then be promptly disappointed by the fact that she, in fact, did not dress or behave like the wife of a Muslim warrior from the thirteenth century.

Also read: Pakistani fans are moral policing Ertugrul's Esra Bilgic on Instagram

Ever spurred on by their commitment to religiosity and piety, Muslim men from Pakistan who had looked up a Turkish actress on a photo and video sharing platform, felt it their spiritual duty to educate her, or advice her, or berate her - depending on their self-confidence - on the ethics of being a pious Muslim woman.

The catch here? It is very unlikely that she would have developed the massive male fan following that she had developed in such a short time in Pakistan if she did follow their code of conduct.

It is understandable if men would have felt slightly mystified, slightly horrified by this beautiful, Muslim woman who played by their rules on TV but "broke" them on social media yet continued to fascinate them more than she angered them. Something quite remarkable had taken place, after all.

With a Turkish actress, it gets complicated. They want this woman to be Muslim and they need this woman to remain desirable.

For years, Pakistani men had successfully maintained a dichotomy between the foreign, white woman and the Muslim, brown woman. The foreign, white woman is an object of desire and lust, at once a woman to be feared, because of her colour, and a woman to be conquered, because of her sex.

The brown woman on the other hand, is supposed to embody the brown man's ideology. She is the keeper of the private sphere, and should submit...