Ramadan/Ramazan 2012

I started my Ramadan in Jordan, and I traveled to the UK, and then I came back to Pakistan. Eid just started yesterday. Though I did not see so many new clothes or decoration, but again, maybe these things happen at night only.

It is a mixed feeling. I cannot really decide what to write because I do not want to sound ignorant and inconsiderate, however I would like to be as honest as I can.

Religion, yes it plays a big role in this part of the world.

I should congratulate those who were consistent in fasting and especially those who actually enjoyed doing it, for their God.

But a lot of times, it becomes a tool to judge between the good and the bad.

Religion is personal, but culture is built upon rituals and shared among the community.

I was travelling from the UK back to Pakistan, and it already passed the sohoor time, however I could tell you that more than 90% of the adults were eating. It put me in a relief that my plane meal was not affected by Ramadan, however it saddened me again with the double standard, when it comes to the cultural perspective.

If it is a religious issue, yes one can debate that travelers do not need to fast.  Okay, but the passengers just ate dinner a few hours ago (time difference is 4 hours between the UK and Pakistan), and their only exercise was sitting on an airplane. If those who work in the field could fast, then why this exception? If drinking water should be allowed because of the dehydration on the plane (what about the 50 Celcius in Lahore?) then fine, drink you water, but why are you extending that to having a full meal? And i am sure the 10% who rejected to be served breakfast were thinking about this.

So it is the culture. Because Pakistan took partition from India as an Islamic country.  Because it is a holy land.

I know there are good people here who do not use religion (there are sunni, shia, ahmadi, christian, hindu, sikh in Pakistan) to divide the country, and these people respect one another. But the majority would choose Islam without thinking and criticizing in a fair way.

My friend is protesting not to celebrate Eid because his people has put an 11-year old mentally challenged girl to jail. She was accused with blasphemy as people saw her burning a few pages of Qur’an.  The police intended the let this case go but the crowd would not relent.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/424084/11-year-old-mentally-challenged-christian-girl-jailed-for-blasphemy/

So the question is, are these people persecuting an 11 year-old who has Down’s syndrome because of their love to Allah? Or is it because they culturally associate themselves as ‘muslims’ (and therefore the greater the power the greater the responsibility?).  This is insane.

Yet most people don’t care. Because it is Eid.

Eid Mubarak to you all.

FATA- The Security Situation and Challenges “A for Rent strategic space?”

4 pm today, when I was just about to leave college (after a LONG day for classes and society stuff) I saw a friend dressing up looking really really nice.  You know, you don’t usually see students in suits on our campus, unless there is some special function.

So he told me he was USAid scholar and is a student representative of FATA for today’s event.

“What event is this?”

And then he said something that I didn’t quite understand but I heard the key words “Public Policy”, since I had another friend with me who also heard a key word “bureaucracy” I decided to check it out.

Interestingly as most students don’t know, we do have a master program in Public Policy at FC College.  They’ve invited scholars and bureaucrats in today’s forum on FATA.  I felt very fortunate to be a part of the event for some time.

“You should take a picture of them.” My friend suggested but I declined.  But let me tell you, it is one of those events that you don’t want to do anything silly to embarrass yourself.

CAMP (Community Appraisal & Motivation Programme) is an NGO that started in 2002 which focus on the humanitarian work, health care, rehabilitation, and education in FATA.  It is probably the only organization that has done a serious research on FATA.   They also have a project called “Communities for Change” (funded by the British High Commission and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany) re-started in May this year.  What they do is to empower the people of FATA to claim and defend their social, political and economic rights.

They’ve done very interesting research, which can be found on their website:

http://www.camp.org.pk/

“Understanding FATA- attitudes towards Governance, Religion & Society in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas”

“Understanding Jirga: Legality and Legitimacy in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas”

So just last month in October, 120 people were killed in 31 incidents that happened in FATA. (Daily on average)

Dr.Ijaz Khan opened the forum by giving an overview (to someone who knew so little like me) of the ground reality of FATA:

1. There are 7 agencies and 6 frontier regions (established by British through adopting local traditions to its INTEREST)

2. Taliban/Al-Qaeda are the challenges there

3. Insecurities on various levels (army)

4. No Sardar (Tribal Chief) among Pakhtoons

5. Jirga (Tribal system of governance) is just a mean to COMMUNICATE, not DEMAND, for Pakhtoons.  It comprises of traditional elders which represent people and not the STATE.

6. Bribe is considered as a legally charged ‘tax’.

The second speaker, Mr.Ijaz Haider held a slightly different view on what changed FATA.

He said it happened way before 9/11 took place. The supporters found FATA a good place as:

1. Proximity

2. Administration Vacuum (ungoverned territory)

3. Can be easily hidden by state

Unlike Dr.Khan, Mr.Haider is a Punjabi who just intensively visited FATA in the past 3-4 years. But what he believes is you must dislocate the fighters from its context, and be extremely careful that the threat can be expanded beyond FATA to any area where people perceive religion over state.  If there are people who feel the state is not islamic enough and ignore the state, there’s a monopoly of violence that we need to seriously address.

I really liked the forum today, and here’s a Pakistan you don’t know. So check out the website for the amazing work CAMP has been doing!

My Perception towards Muslims (You may as well read it)

I heard yesterday that an American was abducted from his house in Model Town by 8 gunmen.  So I’d like to write a slightly serious piece on this society, and hopefully you people wouldn’t treat my post like …worthless shi*.

There’s one very important lesson that I’ve learned and would like to share with everyone despite which ethnicity, culture, political party or religion you are from —- People are doing the best they can on the things they think are right. 

Yes, I am judgmental. I don’t like how women face limitations in clothing, travelling, working and even in terms of their marriages.    And I also hate how women are over-protected in Pakistan and many end up sitting at home gossiping or contribute so little to the society. I hate all the stares. I hate the hypocrisy and lies you come across in this country. I hate the hostility towards certain countries.

But, as a foreigner, (speaking from the Pakistani in me), I think, I am just too proud.

 

There are many negative associations in our heads towards certain words we hear. And we are quick to deny everything about it just because for us, that doesn’t seem to be the right thing.

Now, I am not saying I will have to AGREE on everything but that I just need to UNDERSTAND what is creating the differences, and give it some time to develop some consensus.   True, I don’t feel women are respected when I see it from the personal experience. I call those independent confident Pakistani women exceptions.  When I hear some women trying to stand on their feet I first congratulate them and then I start to think “hey, you are just more fortunate. What about the other Pakistani women?”   When I hear about muslim fasting I think “Good for you but do you know why you are fasting?”

I’m too quick to defend what I think the right thing is, and I guard my belief like anything. It is great, but, you know, it is a big fat lie that we use religion, culture, politics as standards to define whether this is a person worth me to like, to spend time with, or to love.

What happened to this world, seriously?  Is it possible that I only want to send aid to Kenya and not Nigeria because the difference in religion?

This evening, we sat together at the dining table to open iftari.  Out of 5 of us there was only 1 muslim. I also fasted today but it was just out of curiosity to know if I could stop eating for 15 hours. I slept from 5:30am to 1:30pm, and then 5pm to 6:30pm. If you ask me, seriously I don’t think many Pakistani realize that these 30-day fasting is their commitment to seek intimacy with God.  I think many of them are just like me who accidently didn’t eat and didn’t think why they had to do things in this way.

Now, I can have many criticism about fasting. You know how this has become an excuse to suspend all the projects, or a way to judge the ‘unholy half’. You can also think how bad it is for even teenagers who are still growing.  You can also hate those who take advantage of Ramazan such as the restaurants owners and their customers. (Well, I think they should all focus on different promotions in other 11 months).  You can hate people who eat like pigs and waste all the money and food resources.

But, seriously, what is the point to judge?  I am not a better person just because I think I’m right and you are wrong.  Something has make us blind and bring so much hatred between the different religions.

And I would say that something is called Pride.

It was pride that made Hitler killed the Jews. It was pride that Rwanda had its genocide. It was pride that America initiated war against terrorism.

Why are we even bother to police one another?

What I see is, well, it has something to do with having a deeper contact with a Chinese boy from Beijing lately.  He had no idea why he uses Simplified Chinese and I use Traditional Chinese. He has no idea what Chairman Mao has done.  He has no idea about why there is one-child policy. He has no idea why Youtube and Facebook is banned in China.  He probably doesn’t even know 64 Tianman Square event.  (or whether Taiwan is an independent state or not)   You know, because the goodness of every human beings makes us to trust the information we receive.

And it is not that he rejects other opinions as you and I imagine.  I mean, there are probably few Chinese who are interested in figuring out what has happened in the past.  But there are other things in life too.  And I am quite sure everyone is doing the best they can in their understanding.  You don’t expect a 9-year old kid to ask you for your college textbook.(unless the kid was me).  But do you think has anyone questioned the kid why he/she never had the idea of learning something good for her?

It is just like the Tiger Mother, I have never doubted for a second if the competitive environment in Taiwan was good for children. I just agreed with whatever that seems reasonable in the system, and I worked so diligently to meet my responsibility as a good student for that super-annoying national exam which would just decide which schools you could apply to.

You think I never thought about the easy curriculum in the west?  Whenever I talk about the cram school (school after school) or the talent schools, I think I talk about them in pride as it shows the hard-working attitude in my country.

Again, you can ask me why I am a supporter of KMT (national party of Taiwan) and not the Democratic party, well,  I will say that because my grandparents immigrated from China with the KMT.  It is easier for me to go with the same line even though I do not really care about the politics in Taiwan.

So just some kids can play 10 instruments in Taiwan, people from the communist China can be nice,  people from the democratic party aren’t necessarily over idealistic or crazy, it doesn’t make anyone a less human being to be respected just because he/she has a different religion.

You can also apply that to social class, body type, nationality and even sexual orientation.

So, muslim, yah, the definition is that people who follow Islam.  But just let me emphasize again, they are people who follow Islam. It also goes the same way. There isn’t a person called ‘The West‘ that you can just blame and kill.  They are also people.

 

And I think I learned all these through my friends who show me respect and haven’t tried converting me into Islam. They are more humble than I am. In this case, I feel worthless.

Madness before Ramadan

Question- “What is ramadan?”

Just like our Chinese fellow would tell you the definition of “Monk” —- they are those who want to separate from China (sorry, dear Taiwanese fellows I really didn’t notice you were all monks), he would tell you what ramadan is —- people wake up at 4am and they don’t eat anything till the evening.

Come on, he has been here just for 3 weeks so it is understandable that he doesn’t know the meaning of ramadan, (and honestly I don’t even know the spelling of ramadhan, ramadan, ramazan, though I have been here longer).  But seems to me, it is a holy month that people try to gain some intimacy with God during the month?  And then they probably realize how abundantly they have living and hence grow feelings for the poor and share food with them.  Now my questions are two  1. Why does it have to be the only month you care for the poor?   2. Why do people stuff themselves more (and become fat) if the whole purpose is to feel hunger in fasting?

I have been reading a pretty cool book called Freakonomics so I am guessing the author Steven Levitt would like to conduct some experiment on this.   But see, if he hires me, I will tell him how insane people have turned in terms of their attitude towards food!

We, the foreigners, happened to be at Hyperstar in the wrongest hour on the wrongest day (the day before the first day of ramadhan). It pretty is just like the traffic in China before new year, you just see all the population in one super market at once.  Now, we were pushed by uncle ji , auntie ji, ama ji… family of 6, 7, 8 all came out shopping in this evening. You see POS of free sample food saying to kids “ye bachon key lia nahin hai” because they were pretty confident with the number of customers tonight. Food was open. Trolleys lying around. There was no room to move.  There could have been more controls.

I took a couple of pictures, well, I was all in sudden illiterate towards the “no pictures allowed” sign just like how Hyperstar ignored the promised quality of service.  Can you imagine that a brand like this compromised on getting profits and let their customer sweat? Also the belt didn’t work so I had to move the products manually at the cashier.  And we waited like 40 minutes just to pay (and fat women were pushing us!)

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I don’t know if this is necessary to push the demand in the market all in a sudden. It may good for the economy. It is like new year except I really felt the FEAR from people that if they don’t get a trolly-ful food for 3 months they will not survive in Ramadan.  I know people need festivals (and excuses) to eat fatty food, but having a religious holiday is really differnet right? China never promised anything to the immigrants the America did when it founded.  Neither does Chinese observe similar festivals in terms of fasting. (We do burn money paper for people in hell, just thought they might need it. So you can imagine the inflation in hell :P)

Anyways. I went to a friend’s house (for…? a peach?) and came out a bit early. So I found the driver turned the AC on in the car.  Of course I didn’t say anything. I guess it is pretty okay in a developed world, except we are living in Pakistan.  Now, that changes every rule. There is a great deal of bureaucracy which I hate but this is just sort of the way things work here.  A driver shouldn’t turn on the AC if it isn’t his car or his fuel (I guess).  I also don’t know why he didn’t first bring the bottles of water back home before picking me up.  Like I said, I have been reading freakanomics so in one chapter it talked about Game Theory and the Dictatorship vs. Altruism.  originally I was the first type, who would give to others maybe base on my background or the environment (as in I follow the way people treat one another in a developed world since that is where I grew up)

Dictatorship works in this way— In the book it says if you give $20 to a group of people and give them options to give $2 or $10 to person B, 30% people would actually give $10 to person B.  If now you let people to decide how much they want to give to Person B, the average amount of money drops.

But then if you give them option to take away the money $3 person B has, or give nothing, or keep all the 3 options mentioned, more than 50% people would just choose to give nothing.  And now if these people found out person B also is given with $20, the percentage of giving drops again.  But if these people have to work with person B together, and they receive the money together, high percentage of people choose to neither take person B’s money away, nor to give him money.

So why I am telling all these irrelevant stuff? Well obviously I encourage people to read since I am a nerd, and then I want to bring up the part Zikkah (money you donate to the poor).  Don’t you think that you can apply the experiment in this scenario? I think in Ramadan, people are forced to give just like the scenario, you only have the options to give.  Perhaps now since there is no law applied so the poor is receiving a limited amount. If the law says that you have to give either Rs.10 or Rs.100 to the beggars maybe the beggars will get more money eventually.

And I have to admit one thing, ever since I started working, I feel less guilty about using my driver. I mean, I work, everyone works. Work is no fun.  (I would like to imagine driving me around is fun) But I work for 8 hours too, he spends a lot of time resting and talking to his wife.  So the thing is, I am not married to my driver, so it really is okay that he isn’t perfect.  I guess I won’t just change him because you know what? I rely on him too. So you can say I am not all that altruistic, I just behave in a certain way I feel I should. But by the time I found out the rules in workplace I feel less guilty asking him for doing his job.

How Gender Sells in Pakistan

My marketing professor told us a research shows that in Iran the percentage of women shown in advertisement, comparing to the west, is….. HIGHER!
Yes i thought it should be lower, since you know, staring at womem and having any fantasy about women who are not your wife is haram. Haram! So it shocks me that the best marketing strategy in Pakistan is to have fair, thin, smokey eyes models to stand by your product. And smile.
The research argues that the more conservative society responds more to advertisement that have pretty women in it.  Hey who knows? People may have seen Ipads but they have not seen a woman.
Everything is possible.
I remember the boards in Lahore (La whore, i saw this spelling again) were taken down because of a sexy advertisement. I thought it was something WOW that caused men to have traffic accident “oh woman…..(bang!!!)” But in fact the ad was just a fat woman lying there, that is it! I think it was StoneAge. Never liked the hideous brand though.
And I also remember omar sending the link of an ice cream ad, with a woman having the product as if she is having sex (that is what omar said in his well written blog)  But it was a disappointment. It wasnt anything WOW and people were having serious debate on whether it was appropriate? Oh come on, I find Indian dances disturbing. If that is ok then these ads are for kids. Your kids. Not mine.
I really dont understand the need of distinguishing genders. How can sex be a propoganda anyways? I mean we like pretty people, but hey people get too desperate over those mediocre models. I have so many prettier female friends.
I feel this is kind of double standard. Well of course it is natural for opposite genders to be attracted from each other. Even the same gender seriously, I read half of american population say they are gay on gallup. So then let women be women (who wrote that poem let america be america?) I feel they sre cheap tools being used to sell product. You can use women in ads but there is no need to go on the extreme side.  Well actually the Hardee’s ad of a super sexy model having her burger as if she is having sex is really disturbing. Now that lady is HOT and i see more reason that sex sells. I dont encourage anything. Maybe i am simply suggesting that there is something seriously wrong with the Pakistani society for men to.react to any sort of women in the ad as long as they are not men.

Fine, sell your fridge with a girl. It is not the end of the world for.me but it is not cool.

Zara- Made in India

Today I had a very confused day.

When I saw Singapore, I was happy!

But when I see Delhi, I have so many question marks…… and I think I do have a bit of jealousy being a quarter of Pakistan.  Why does Delhi get to have so many foreigners?

These foreigners know the culture and Hindi to some level as well.   And those Indians in the women chambers in Metro dressed up so liberal that I felt as ridiculous it would be for wearing full shalwar kamiz in Taipei. I have finally seen some brown legs!

How exactly did the Metro system work in a country where

1) there is no system

2) there is disparity between the rich and the poor?

Metro is very cheap.  It is like Rs8-30 to everywhere. It is that cheap.

But listen, if a country can be fine between the rich and poor, if it is proven that men don’t stare when women all wear skin-exposed clothes, if there are tons of nice shopping malls with evidence of foreign investment in Delhi, if Pakistan was not this Islamic when it was founded, and if the population of Muslim is only 10 million less than the total population of Pakistan…. then,

Why make a fuss about religion in Pakistan?

It hurts me.  Being in Delhi makes me sad for what Pakistan could have.  I thought India had Shahrukh Khan, it proves that they have much more.

The culture is pretty much the same, so I guess it is pretty clear that what is stopping Pakistan from becoming better.   You got to let the women out!

Look at Zara, look at the Rs. 3458 tag that says made in India.  Look at those women purchasing the clothes without a second thought.  How? And even though Zara is a Spanish brand, it has made some really nice Indian style clothes.  It is beautiful.

What’s your plan Pakistan? What’s your plan Pakistan? What’s your plan what’s your plan what’s your plan?

Alcohol, Haram

I wish I had seen what Pakistan was like 20-40 years ago, the country has changed so much.

Is it really you, Pakistan?

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This post dedicated to George’s friend whose name also starts with G and I might want to thank him IF I do become the next foreigner (even better! Oriental! Woman!) writer on Pakistan with an honest voice.

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The first year when I came to Pakistan, a friend gave me this non-alcohol drink “CINDY” by Murree Brewery .

“Hey Cindy, this is your drink!”

It was an awful drink, don’t get it.

The moral of the story is……..

1. Why would a drink have a westerner’s name CINDY in Pakistan?

2. And why would a drink labelled non-alcohol when it is basically beer…?

.

This thing of course did not bother me at that time but everything made a lot more sense tonight.

Seems like my adventure about Pakistan really begun after I started this blog.

Yes there is so much about Pakistan that I don’t know, and I am trying to learn it from different people. And I feel especially fortunate to have friends with amazing(ly and freaking interesting/weird/HARAM) perspectives.

We have heard about the double standards, about how it is wrong for a poor man (wait, if he is buying alcohol, how can he be poor) to buy alcohol from Firdous market and when it is perfectly fine for a rich man to order alcohol in Avari Hotel.  Maybe for Pakistani richer people have more liberty to go against the islamic laws as they are more powerful?  It is like “How can I serve you sir? With Islamic law for the rich or Islamic for the poor?”

So why is there such a law in Pakistan that banned alcohol? I always thought it was Zia-ul-Haq who turned Pakistan so Islamic.  But it was earlier before Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization on Dec 2, 1978, in 1977 alcohol consumption of Muslim was banned by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

According to the article Pakistan Brewery’s Recipe For Surviving Alcohol Ban,

 The move was pure Pakistani politics — a leader seeking to appease religious conservatives and distract the population from a less-than-stellar governance record.  “The leaders we’ve had over the years, they’ve always misused religion by stirring up the masses, alcohol is the easiest child to whip.”

However Bhutto’s plan did not work out and Zia-ul-Haq still took over the power on Jul 5th, 1977.  And so for 34 years the law has been there in Pakistan.

But the question is, suppose I have been brushing my teeth with Colgate toothpaste for 20 years and it is banned due to some “drug chemical” involved……..How will you stop people who are already addictive in brushing their teeth?   And suppose brushing teeth is perfectly normal 34 years ago?

What about those people who grew up with alcohol and would never feel degraded being a muslim while using reasonable amount of alcohol? What about those people who meet the ends of their lives in this business?

Take Muree Brewery as example, it was founded in 1840, long before the partition took place in 1947, and long before Pakistan changed its name into Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.

But obviously I worried too much, the business is going well and according to the article Still Brewing in a Dry Land: Pakistan’s Only Beer and Whisky Firm the sales of alcohol is growing and majority of the buyers are muslims.

How can a country live with two standards?  Why can’t Pakistan abolish the ban now? (And let the French ban the veil and alcohol, oh just kidding)

I agree with the fact that it is better to have dominating/corrupted government than a complete no-government situation. However, there must be people who suffer from these laws, take Asia Bibi as example. I am sure there are a lot more people who do not have the luck (as I happen to, tonight!) to meet a good cop who is passionate in bringing justice. Most people drift away easily as it is easier to joint hands and enjoy “power”.  So what can be done for these people who were living fine before these Islamic laws?  Pakistan was not an Islamic state, and seems like it was much more better before the Islamization.

I see a land full of potential.  But everyone is waiting for its day to come, huh?

I wish I knew Pakistan earlier.

Something worth looking at:

Non-Muslims and foreigners can acquire an official permit that allows them to buy 30 bottles of beer or a quart of spirits every month.

Hehe.

What my Islamic teacher thinks about French new ban on veil

I am feeling so tired now so I guess I will keep this post short though I (unusually) have a lot to say on this political/religious issue.

Here is what my Islamic teacher thinks “No this is discrimination for muslim religion. If Christians can wear their religious clothes, hats and gowns, then why can’t muslims also wear their traditional clothes?”

Ummm then I asked about the identity….. “No why do they want to know their identity? They must have their DNA and fingerprint registered in the police office. They don’t need to know their identity every second.”

Then I asked about following the norm of the society,……”but France is a country that advocates liberty!”

Then I asked about if he had migrated to France, and suppose he had daughters, would he allow the girls to wear skirts like other western girls?……. “I will teach them about Islam, that is my responsibility. But they can decide.”

He put the conclusion as …..”there is misunderstanding between Islam and western countries”

——

First of all, I feel people take it too “personally”. Even though the veil is only practiced by Islam, it doesn’t mean the French government has anything against the religion.  How much can you ask a government to ‘respect’ a religion when obviously your ‘freedom of religion’ affect other citizens’ fear on terrorism?  And plus, government feels women should have identity.

Your suspicious identity?

A BBC comment says:”I agree with this law. The women who walk around in public in the burqa, cause feelings of both fear, and pity. I have often heard that these women complain of being totally ignored by those around them – hardly surprising, really. Hiding your identity causes others to become wary and suspicious” (Fiona Richard)

In my imagination, what if I had kidnapped a small girl in France and put her always under Burqa? In that way police can never find her!

And perhaps police don’t need to check their identity every minute, but again, does that mean when women go out they cannot have their own identity? They cannot be recognized?

I am a forgetful person, and I don’t remember faces. If France is a busy country, and suppose you are immigrants, how exactly will you develop friendship with others when they cannot possibly remember you? Or when you have put such barrier to show you need to protect yourself as you don’t trust strangers? Why do people shake hands when they greet each other?  I guess, you can have as much as of your culture if you live in your original country. But if you have chosen to move to a country due to various reason (health infrastructure, education, job opportunity etc), to some level you have agreed to follow the rules of that government.   Then why do you still look back?  Then don’t look back, come back! Your home country might need you to do something good!

 

Honestly I don’t feel comfortable to talk to people who wear sunglasses. Don’t laugh, it is true.    I never know where to look at when talking to those people, and I don’t know if I was given any attention by them.

So I think covering hair is fine as you don’t need to communicate through hair.  But  you do need mouth and eyes to communicate, and I think as human being you need to respect others unless you are having coughs.

 

And women rights.

Let me give you an example.  I usually stay quiet if I don’t sit at the front row.  (Sometimes I enjoy being invisible.) But I usually feel more comfortable to speak up when professors can easily make eye contacts with me.

But as a student everyone has the right to be noticed and entertained. It just that sometimes if you are sitting at the back you may be treated differently, simple as that. We all are human beings.

And then this depends on how much you want to exercise your right.

 

Protection.

Security is the bottom line in every country.  Look around Pakistan, why can men wear jeans? Why do women need to protected? Why don’t I wear shorts? It is so hot nowadays.

Ok so there is kind of a rule for girls not to do this or that in Pakistan. But this is irony.  If you live in France and feel insecure enough to wear burka to protect yourself, then how come in religious states like Iran (or to some extend Pakistan too) that you still wear it? Shouldn’t you feel safer in your home country with people who follow the same religion?   So then it is not about religion, it is about people.  You have your own ideas about how people would act, then French government must also take action towards what people would act if their identity is covered.

And I still don’t get this, why do we need so much protection for girls?  Why? Because we are weak? (I am tired though, I don’t feel well today, and I am ready to return to my sleep any minute ) Because we are inferior? Because of what?

 

 

I would love to ride bicycle in Pakistan.  Maybe I would do that in burka if that can protect me.

This is just a little bit too odd.

3 questions a Pakistani muslim should answer

Dear I have a blog and that is so cool blog,

It certainly was a remarkable day.

My new semester started today with an confusion with “WHERE IS MY CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM WORLD CLASS?” I ran to E126 (according to my memory) and found some people sitting there. “Is there a class here?”  they said no. I said “where is my class??”  I ran away and found my friend coming…”hey it is E126…”     What??  Then we went back to E126 together, oh those people were still there:”Are you here for contemporary muslim world class?”   They said yes.

WHAT? I don’t understand how these 2 questions were different. Somebody explains to me please.

Our instructor was a friendly person I predict, because he came 15 minutes late. And he was about to let us go abnormally early but I asked him 2 times “What are the topics we will look into in this course?”  “What are the things you expect us to understand and learn?”     He asked us (we were a class of 7 people today!) :

1. How many Muslim countries are there?

I was confused, did he mean state religion or muslim majority countries? Or are these 2 the same thing? I’d say maybe 50? Because 20-25% of world’s population are muslims, and there are around 197 countries in the world. 50 is a good number to me.

2. In which region in the world do you have majority of muslim?

I said Asia, because of Indonesia, Pakistan have highest and second highest muslim population, and there are muslims in India still! It cannot be Africa, cannot be in middle east, it has to be Asia. My friend said Middle East.

3. How many languages are spoken in Pakistan?

I said 30?

It turned out that there were 47 countries with muslim majority countries.  Indonesia has 228 m, Pakistan 173 m, Bangladesh 162m.    I said 50, so yes I am numerical.

My India wasn’t in there, but check this out:

India is also home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.  (Demographics of India) Wikipedia

In total there are about 1.57 billion muslims in the world, you can see the mapping over here. I cannot find the exact number of muslim population in India, it is a bit more than 162 m I think.  But hey, Pakistan has a muslim population of 173 million, which means there is only 10 million difference! Can you believe that The Islamic Republic of Pakistan fight with India all the time because “we are muslims and they are not”  Oh come on, half of you are still stuck in India!

Answer for question 2 is……… ASIA!  Around 62% of the Muslim population are in Asia. Not middle east, and not Africa.

Then for the last question, the languages used in Pakistan, besides Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, there are Hindko, Saraiki, Kashmiri and Persian.  Don’t forget 57 minor languages such as

Aer, Badeshi, Bagri, Balti, Bateri, Bhaya, Brahui, Burushaski, Chilisso, Chitrali (Khowar), Dameli, Dehwari, Dhatki, Domaaki,Farsi (Dari), Gawar-Bati, Ghera, Goaria, Gowro, Gujarati, Gujari, Gurgula, Hazaragi, Jadgali, Jandavra, Kabutra, Kachchi (Kutchi), Kalami, Kalasha, Kalkoti, Kamviri, Kashmiri, Kati,Khetrani, Khowar, Indus Kohistani, Koli (three varieties), Konkani, Lasi, Loarki, Marwari, Memoni, Od, Ormuri, Pahari-Potwari, Pakistan Sign Language, Palula (Phalura), Sansi, Savi,Shina (two varieties), Torwali, Ushojo, Vaghri, Wakhi, Waneci, and Yidgha (Languages of Pakistan)

So how many are there?  66? Man who told me to learn Urdu? 😛

One thing for sure is that teacher would love me because he wanted exact numbers and I gave him pretty awesome ones. 😀  I was either close or correct or at least on the right track. I was expecting minor languages but didn’t expect THAT many minor languages.

I think this is the most exciting 8am class one can get!