I am really glad you brought this up. Thank you so much.
We do agree that these are the facts but before we dwell upon them we have to define the quantum and the extent of these issues and if we do not do that then we would waste our energy on isolated incidents which are not the representative of the whole society. If we would like to conduct a scientific research on women's issues/incidents in Pakistan in your opinion how large the sample should be? Remember that we have to generalize 176 million people of Pakistan and more than 86 million Pakistani women based on this sample! Most of the propagators e.g. the writer of the underlying article on women, quote 2 or 3 or 5 incidents and make naive people believe that this is what the whole country is about. The sample they use is not even statistically sufficient to generalize on 100 people and we are here talking about something close to 200 million. Use strategy to understand these complicated issues.. they are not just the wit for local entertainment. The serious things should have serious considerations.
Discrimination against women exists in Pakistan. Nevertheless I would really like to know the name of any country on this planet where there is no discrimination and discrimination against women. To understand that we have to study how the socialites are structured. Every country and every society is a male dominated. I do agree that many countries have laws protecting rights of their citizens but how effective these laws are when they come into practice. Traditionally power and control has remained in the hands of a small cliché of men in every society and every culture from pre-history till this day. How many modern democracies have women in leading positions? Does this mean women can't lead.. No.. but they are not being given the opportunities by men to reach into those positions . USA never had a woman president. UK had only one female prime minister. India the largest democracy had only one female prime minister. In most of the continental Europe and the UK the female students have higher ratio in universities than male students and their performance and brilliance is generally better than their male counterparts. But they still lag behind almost in every field. What you think is the issue? The whole point is that this is an issue of every country and Pakistan alone cannot be singled out. We take our incompleteness with the rest.
To your second point, incidents as quoted in the article did happen but they are isolated ones. I repeat they are the isolated ones. One could pick similar few incidents in a large country and say that 'this is what happens there'.. of course it does happen but without looking at the extent don't you think it would be a total waste?. Pakistani law, as the laws of any country provides protection to minorities, women and men alike. But if you are looking for a crime-free society.. that's not achievable in Pakistan nor in any other country in this world unless we choose to live in imaginations.
I do agree that we should do everything to ensure that these issues do not exist but unfortunately government had not done a great job on that ever since we got independence. Islam honours and protects women the way no other religion or system does. Another fact is that most of the people in Pakistan strongly believe in Islamic values. The isolated incidents that we talked about generally happened in very backward rural areas of Pakistan where people are uneducated and less civilized compared with Urban and even with other rural areas. I would rather call these incidents 'weired' as weired as getting married a girl with a holy book in Sindh or with a dog somewhere in India. Media hype is not a positive thing as they do not look deep into the issues and people who know little are befooled by media propaganda and false analysis. Media has not just exaggerated but also misquoted, quoted out of context, propagated, overstated, lied and misled the misguided in the most unprincipled and reckless fashion. Generally the propaganda seems to be the most life-like and convincing to many outsiders. I think portrayal of a type by any media has to be essentially and basically realistic by the very nature of the case.
Why many 'elites' and intellectual have not taken a big stab on these issues because they knew and they know the truth. And truth is what you know now perhaps. Why media does this to Pakistan.. I answered it above. Let's take the example of Qatar. If you read local English language newspapers you would note that they hardly report a positive news about Pakistan. I wonder a big country like Pakistan has no other news than the ones reported by these newspapers. Let's go beyond what we read.. See things with your own eyes, feel them with your own heart and think with your own mind.. And use good judgment.. everything is obvious.
As to the issues of Pakistan, I would say that those issues are largely non-existent. My above statement was not about political and economic situation in Pakistan. It was about issues related to women, minorities, misinterpretation of Islam, Talibans and their advances within Pakistan. I would not highlight economic situation as the world is going through the recession and no one is spared though some economies are hit harder than others. Political situation has improved lately in Pakistan. It is a democratic government which still has the support of opposition on all matters which relate to larger issues.
Of course some women but not just women but men too are deprived of many things including education. Any intelligent person can understand the class system and poverty and evils associated with them. When we say 'equal opportunities', it is not exactly what the words say. No one has equal opportunities in this world. There are less privileged people and people with unique and different circumstances. They should be integrated into the system but there are many barriers to it. And they are again not Pakistan specific! You would perhaps be surprised to know that number of female students is higher in schools and collages when compared with male students. There is one thing which deserves to be mentioned as I have personally witnessed it. That is even girls in remote villages are studying for bachelors and master degrees and even degrees like MPhil. I would not take this as a sample to generalize but it is a sign of great progress and advances of women in the society.
Women are treated with great dignity and are much more in peace if compared with many other countries. This relates to our Islamic, social and cultural values. I would like to compare it not with Saudi or Afghanistan but with USA, UK, Germany and India or any other developed country in the world. Women in Pakistani society have choices of their own but are protected and respected—our values call for it. Compared with individualistic societies where women are left all alone under the so called umbrella of 'independence', our society provides all the freedom to women while men still remain their guardians. Mother is thought to be 'holy' for her sons, sister remains the honour of her brothers, wife is the most lovable women who is provided with love and security by her husband, a daughter is blessing to her father and he remains her sponsor and guardian as long as he lives. Not everyone in Pakistan is a practicing Muslim but majority observes these values.
I agree. We should identify and correct the problems.. but to do that you will have to identify the real problems then only we can work out a solutions. We do recognize the existing problems. You would never find someone saying that Pakistan has the best economy or the best political system or the best education system.. We don't.. However You cannot resign to the notion that the nuclear arsenal is going to fall into the hands of few extremists. It's merely a joke... and I think no one should take a joke seriously!
There is a systematic approach towards teaching Islam to kids in school. Islamic study is one of the many compulsory subjects in schools and collages. Students learn the basic concepts not the 'fiqa' and all large groups of Muslims strictly have the common belief on the basics. The room for misinterpretation is a very little. The differences you see among Muslims are on minor issues related to general practices which do not do any harm anyway. People who generally think that many issues of great concerns are caused by Islam are the ones who have a complete lack of understanding of Islam and Muslims. Under these circumstances we cannot with any justification put the responsibility even partly on religion.
The entire tragedy of Pakistan has one parent cause, all other causes being only contributory. And that is crooked and dishonest type leadership. It is very simple to understand that the approach is top-to-bottom. Education reform should be brought, but to bring a change or to improve we need competent decision makers. It is very simple to say educate people. I say that too. but how to make a system and bring a large reform.. I would say educate everybody to the highest level.. but.. how should we do that unless we have resources and institutions in place. Things do not happen by themselves. The change is taking place but the pace is slow. Here I would think that every Pakistani should elect leaders who have the passion and honesty to serve the nation not to bump their own bank accounts. Good leadership can do miracles.. Dr Mahatir of Malaysia is one of the good examples of the modern time.
I hope you know facts little more than you did before reading this post!
How image can be improved? I would say just by uncovering the facts. I mean the facts not my or anyone's perceptions. For example...one of the facts is that women are much better placed in Pakistani society than many other societies in the world. This is what I meant by uncovering the facts. Tell people the truth not the tales.
I'm a sane realist and see reality in all its stark ugliness and beauty. I personally realize to put the matter on a very simple level indeed, that we systematize and establish institutions and 'all is light'.
I am not sure if this was sufficiently convincing but it is so nice of you that you raised so many good, relevant and current issues.
I am really glad you brought this up. Thank you so much.
We do agree that these are the facts but before we dwell upon them we have to define the quantum and the extent of these issues and if we do not do that then we would waste our energy on isolated incidents which are not the representative of the whole society. If we would like to conduct a scientific research on women's issues/incidents in Pakistan in your opinion how large the sample should be? Remember that we have to generalize 176 million people of Pakistan and more than 86 million Pakistani women based on this sample! Most of the propagators e.g. the writer of the underlying article on women, quote 2 or 3 or 5 incidents and make naive people believe that this is what the whole country is about. The sample they use is not even statistically sufficient to generalize on 100 people and we are here talking about something close to 200 million. Use strategy to understand these complicated issues.. they are not just the wit for local entertainment. The serious things should have serious considerations.
Discrimination against women exists in Pakistan. Nevertheless I would really like to know the name of any country on this planet where there is no discrimination and discrimination against women. To understand that we have to study how the socialites are structured. Every country and every society is a male dominated. I do agree that many countries have laws protecting rights of their citizens but how effective these laws are when they come into practice. Traditionally power and control has remained in the hands of a small cliché of men in every society and every culture from pre-history till this day. How many modern democracies have women in leading positions? Does this mean women can't lead.. No.. but they are not being given the opportunities by men to reach into those positions . USA never had a woman president. UK had only one female prime minister. India the largest democracy had only one female prime minister. In most of the continental Europe and the UK the female students have higher ratio in universities than male students and their performance and brilliance is generally better than their male counterparts. But they still lag behind almost in every field. What you think is the issue? The whole point is that this is an issue of every country and Pakistan alone cannot be singled out. We take our incompleteness with the rest.
To your second point, incidents as quoted in the article did happen but they are isolated ones. I repeat they are the isolated ones. One could pick similar few incidents in a large country and say that 'this is what happens there'.. of course it does happen but without looking at the extent don't you think it would be a total waste?. Pakistani law, as the laws of any country provides protection to minorities, women and men alike. But if you are looking for a crime-free society.. that's not achievable in Pakistan nor in any other country in this world unless we choose to live in imaginations.
I do agree that we should do everything to ensure that these issues do not exist but unfortunately government had not done a great job on that ever since we got independence. Islam honours and protects women the way no other religion or system does. Another fact is that most of the people in Pakistan strongly believe in Islamic values. The isolated incidents that we talked about generally happened in very backward rural areas of Pakistan where people are uneducated and less civilized compared with Urban and even with other rural areas. I would rather call these incidents 'weired' as weired as getting married a girl with a holy book in Sindh or with a dog somewhere in India. Media hype is not a positive thing as they do not look deep into the issues and people who know little are befooled by media propaganda and false analysis. Media has not just exaggerated but also misquoted, quoted out of context, propagated, overstated, lied and misled the misguided in the most unprincipled and reckless fashion. Generally the propaganda seems to be the most life-like and convincing to many outsiders. I think portrayal of a type by any media has to be essentially and basically realistic by the very nature of the case.
Why many 'elites' and intellectual have not taken a big stab on these issues because they knew and they know the truth. And truth is what you know now perhaps. Why media does this to Pakistan.. I answered it above. Let's take the example of Qatar. If you read local English language newspapers you would note that they hardly report a positive news about Pakistan. I wonder a big country like Pakistan has no other news than the ones reported by these newspapers. Let's go beyond what we read.. See things with your own eyes, feel them with your own heart and think with your own mind.. And use good judgment.. everything is obvious.
As to the issues of Pakistan, I would say that those issues are largely non-existent. My above statement was not about political and economic situation in Pakistan. It was about issues related to women, minorities, misinterpretation of Islam, Talibans and their advances within Pakistan. I would not highlight economic situation as the world is going through the recession and no one is spared though some economies are hit harder than others. Political situation has improved lately in Pakistan. It is a democratic government which still has the support of opposition on all matters which relate to larger issues.
Of course some women but not just women but men too are deprived of many things including education. Any intelligent person can understand the class system and poverty and evils associated with them. When we say 'equal opportunities', it is not exactly what the words say. No one has equal opportunities in this world. There are less privileged people and people with unique and different circumstances. They should be integrated into the system but there are many barriers to it. And they are again not Pakistan specific! You would perhaps be surprised to know that number of female students is higher in schools and collages when compared with male students. There is one thing which deserves to be mentioned as I have personally witnessed it. That is even girls in remote villages are studying for bachelors and master degrees and even degrees like MPhil. I would not take this as a sample to generalize but it is a sign of great progress and advances of women in the society.
Women are treated with great dignity and are much more in peace if compared with many other countries. This relates to our Islamic, social and cultural values. I would like to compare it not with Saudi or Afghanistan but with USA, UK, Germany and India or any other developed country in the world. Women in Pakistani society have choices of their own but are protected and respected—our values call for it. Compared with individualistic societies where women are left all alone under the so called umbrella of 'independence', our society provides all the freedom to women while men still remain their guardians. Mother is thought to be 'holy' for her sons, sister remains the honour of her brothers, wife is the most lovable women who is provided with love and security by her husband, a daughter is blessing to her father and he remains her sponsor and guardian as long as he lives. Not everyone in Pakistan is a practicing Muslim but majority observes these values.
I agree. We should identify and correct the problems.. but to do that you will have to identify the real problems then only we can work out a solutions. We do recognize the existing problems. You would never find someone saying that Pakistan has the best economy or the best political system or the best education system.. We don't.. However You cannot resign to the notion that the nuclear arsenal is going to fall into the hands of few extremists. It's merely a joke... and I think no one should take a joke seriously!
There is a systematic approach towards teaching Islam to kids in school. Islamic study is one of the many compulsory subjects in schools and collages. Students learn the basic concepts not the 'fiqa' and all large groups of Muslims strictly have the common belief on the basics. The room for misinterpretation is a very little. The differences you see among Muslims are on minor issues related to general practices which do not do any harm anyway. People who generally think that many issues of great concerns are caused by Islam are the ones who have a complete lack of understanding of Islam and Muslims. Under these circumstances we cannot with any justification put the responsibility even partly on religion.
The entire tragedy of Pakistan has one parent cause, all other causes being only contributory. And that is crooked and dishonest type leadership. It is very simple to understand that the approach is top-to-bottom. Education reform should be brought, but to bring a change or to improve we need competent decision makers. It is very simple to say educate people. I say that too. but how to make a system and bring a large reform.. I would say educate everybody to the highest level.. but.. how should we do that unless we have resources and institutions in place. Things do not happen by themselves. The change is taking place but the pace is slow. Here I would think that every Pakistani should elect leaders who have the passion and honesty to serve the nation not to bump their own bank accounts. Good leadership can do miracles.. Dr Mahatir of Malaysia is one of the good examples of the modern time.
I hope you know facts little more than you did before reading this post!
How image can be improved? I would say just by uncovering the facts. I mean the facts not my or anyone's perceptions. For example...one of the facts is that women are much better placed in Pakistani society than many other societies in the world. This is what I meant by uncovering the facts. Tell people the truth not the tales.
I'm a sane realist and see reality in all its stark ugliness and beauty. I personally realize to put the matter on a very simple level indeed, that we systematize and establish institutions and 'all is light'.
I am not sure if this was sufficiently convincing but it is so nice of you that you raised so many good, relevant and current issues.