Mahershala Ali just won his second Oscar for best supporting actor. The bigger news is that he did so wearing a Jinnah cap, except that it wasn’t a Jinnah cap.
While we would have loved for the American actor to have accepted his Oscar in a Jinnah cap, but its time for a truth bomb here. That wasn’t exactly what happened (it’s like the ‘all Asians look the same’ debate all over again!).
The hat that Ali wore is called the ‘Sharina‘ by Gigi Burris. The hat is something between a bowling cap and a Karakul (sounds ethnic I know).
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You’re probably thinking well if its a little like Karakul, does that count? Of course, it doesn’t! It does match the headgear of another Pakistani leader though.
Why is BuzzFeed calling Mahershala Ali's hat a Jinnah Cap, when it's so obviously a @TahirulQadri cap? Case closed. https://t.co/PuFafSTCcN @mirza9 pic.twitter.com/Y7QT5vUMxY
— Fahad Desmukh (@desmukh) February 25, 2019
Some people pointed out that this was a beanie (its not). Still a hat crime, but not as big as calling it a Jinnah cap.
That’s what a beanie looks like fam. Well in their defense, a sharina is a modified beanie. Modified but still not a beanie.
This dude is right – it's a 'sharina' cap. Sorry @BuzzFeed that you had to issue a correction that it was a Jinnah cap, but it clearly isn't. It's a sharina cap https://t.co/8nJjjGPaqv https://t.co/rp0KDkO0NP
— Shaheryar Mirza (@mirza9) February 25, 2019
That is what a Jinnah cap looks like. We think Mahershala Ali got his eyebrows raised here ‘like how you got that confused?’
What is a Jinnah Cap
Karakul is a specific type of hat made in Asia and Africa from the wool of a Karakul sheep
The Karakul‘s Kashmiri variation later came to be known as the Jinnah cap after the founder of Pakistan.
Afghans also wear a Karakul with a pointier top. The Afghan president Hamid Karzai was often seen sporting one (how do all Asians look the same to you when even our hats are different!).
How Did You Mess This Up?
Mahershala Ali is an African American actor who won his first Oscar for best supporting actor in Moonlight. He became the first Muslim American to win an Oscar.
By winning an Oscar for best supporting actor in Green Book he became the second African American to win multiple Oscars after Denzel Washington. He also became the first African American to win two Oscars for best Supporting Actor.
Now given how he’s African American and how they have Karakul hats in Africa that’s understandable. But a Jinnah cap? That’s a stretch alright.
via Buzzfeed