Sexist sandwich shop served humble pie

WITH a tagline suggesting “If she won’t make you a sandwich we will” and menu items named after unsavoury celebrities, one cafe in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, thought it had the perfect ingredients for clientele with an appetite for sexist humour.

Instead, Table No 5 restaurant was made to eat its words on Thursday after a roasting on social media and a visit by city officials — a small victory for feminism in this conservative Muslim country, where women’s rights activists are becoming increasingly vocal.

The brouhaha began when the cafe, which opened last month, began uploading images to its Facebook account that were deemed “misogynist” by critics.

The tagline was followed by a menu of sandwiches named after the likes of US singer Chris Brown, who was convicted of beating his former girlfriend Rihanna, and convicted rapist Mike Tyson.

Other celebrities featured on the menu included Bill Cosby, who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual abuse.

One picture “defined” the word sandwich as “an edible form of happiness, usually served by women to men as a holy offering”, and described it as being synonymous with “Men rights”.

But the jokes left a bad taste in people’s mouths. “Poor you, this reeks of insurmountable insecurity. I hope you boys find some love in your life and manage to grow up a little bit,” said commenter Rabayl M Mirza on the Facebook page.

Some male users hit back. “Feminazis!” declared user Sajjad Ali.

The furore has also roiled city officials, who are investigating whether the campaign was offensive.

A visit to the venue in the city’s outlying F-11 neighbourhood revealed a chic establishment styled along the lines of a Parisian cafe with a price range that caters to city’s well-off middle and upper classes.

The cafe issued an apology in its latest Facebook post, adding: “So you’ve undoubtedly won this round and we’ve decided to change the names of all our sandwiches on an emergency basis!” —