ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/12/enough-is-enough/

The Wazir Khan mosque case is disturbing

We believe religion to be a powerful thing, and it is; we believe it is meant for all time, and is looked after by the Divine Being Himself. The religion of Islam was handed down to man thanks to the extreme dedication and incalculable efforts of some extremely courageous individuals; in our hands it is meant to be a manual for life, for all humankind. Why then is the attempt to distort it, and make it accessible only with great difficulty, one of the greatest ambitions for so many humans? Should it not be accessible, so that everyone, Muslim, non-Muslim, men, women and children, they can all access it, easily, without first scrubbing between each toe, and heaven help you if you miss a corner?

For those who dispute the claim that it is inaccessible, check out almost any mosque in Pakistan to see how many women are allowed in. By contrast there are many mosques in the USA, notable among them a mosque in Virginia– and there are others around that country and the rest of the world, where that place of worship is used as a community centre as well as a place for prayer, as it should be.

Men, women and children visit that mosque in Virginia to learn languages, computers, and other subjects. Young people use the main hall as a basketball court, and when it is time for congregational prayers, these young people tidy up and leave the room, perform ablutions before returning, many of them, to join the congregation and pray. It would not otherwise be easy to get as many young people to put in an appearance at a mosque.

It is also not just men who pray here; women do too, although so as not to offend the sensibilities of those prone to take offence, they pray separately, in a gallery upstairs. Tolerance is one of the very important aspects of religion. The Imam of the mosque is a pleasant man. Women can obtain an audience with him just as much as men can, and neither need to make changes to their attire when they do. This is a mosque that would attract followers, a mosque that can achieve much.

This rant was kicked in motion by the criticism leveled at, and even an arrest warrant (a bailable one) issued against a couple of actors and singers who filmed a video in the beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. They have been accused of  ‘desecrating this mosque.’

The Wazir Khan Mosque is a heritage building, a beautiful one, built nearly 500 years ago. It was recently restored by the Aga Khan Foundation and the Norwegian Embassy. What is wrong with using this as a background for a video, the theme of which is nothing offensive, if making it does not disrupt congregational prayers? It is likely, in fact, that seeing this beautiful mosque in the background people will ask “where is this beautiful place?” and make a point to visit it when they are in Lahore.

\Religion needs to be taken out of the hands of those who exist with their heads in the sand. We live in a difficult world, one that was never very easy. To make it possible to exist in this world it is important to realise that women, humour, technology, laughter, literature – as well as crime, men, vulgarity and tragedy, they all stem from the same source, the same Divinity, the source of all pleasure and hardship. The hardship exists as a test for us, not a battle zone.

There were a couple of lines doing the rounds of social media recently which said: ‘Religion is what we do after the prayer is over.’ Doesn’t that make a great deal of sense?

Prayer reminds us of Him, the Being we pray to, and of what He wishes us to do, and He certainly does not wish us to kill, exclude, destroy and mock. His wishes, as stated in the Holy book are to welcome, help, include, love and be just with everyone, not just with one segment of society, or with the segment that can pay for it. Having prayed to Him, that is what we must seek to accomplish.

Instead of disapproving of a mosque being used as a background for a video, lets be happy that this beautiful place of worship was considered worth it. If that video contains dance and music, so be it. Laughter, eloquent movement, and beauty, these were all created by the same One Being. There is no inherent crime within any of these things.

Are we so weak and spineless that a video can make us change our convictions?

If one must condemn beauty and music, then let us examine the Wazir Khan Mosque itself. It is hardly an austere building. It is a beautiful mosque, a hymn to the Creator who is worshipped within its walls. If beauty is a crime, why was this mosque allowed? Why do maulvis perform nikahs at weddings where women wear beautiful clothing? At weddings where in fact, very often, too much is spent on that clothing and on those events to the point of vulgarity and waste, making such weddings almost a crime in a world where so many people lack the basics of life? That is the real desecration, is it not?

A mosque does not stand apart from the life around it. They are each part of each other. The must lend each other a hand. Similarly, religion is meant to be incorporated into one’s life, to help us deal with it, to be adapted around changing times keeping the main principals in view. That is the only way it can hold any meaning. We desperately need to take ours back from the hands into which it has fallen at present, where it is being strangled to death. We must stand up and say: Enough.

A LIVER TRANSPLANT FOR AN ALCOHOLIC

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/04/a-liver-transplant-for-an-alcoholic/

Does the Single National Curriculum solve anything?

Last month, on the 16 August, the Prime Minister launched the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC), which is supposed to ‘guide the youth of the nation in one direction to achieve success.’ It is said to be an important step towards providing the growing generation of Pakistanis an equal opportunity for a good quality education across the board.

This curriculum has apparently now been implemented from classes 1 to 5 across the country, except as yet in Sindh. It is planned to implement the SNC among the higher classes by stages. The directives that go with the SNC apparently include teaching certain subjects, including science, in Urdu.

As with so many other initiatives in this country, this is a ‘virtuous’ idea, but a sadly impractical one, not one likely to survive the initial zeal of its initiators; it is an initiative that provides great press at first glance, but is certain to share the fate of sundry other initiatives stemming from the same source, rather like the gymnast who decided to swing impressively from vine to vine in the jungle, in the same way as he swung on ropes in the gym, only to find that vines growing in the wild were less hospitable than the ropes in his gym, so he immediately lost interest and looked around for other interests to push.

The fact is that ‘equal opportunity’ is an unknown commodity in this country, where it seems to be the aim of most citizens to make sure that no such aberration gets off the ground. It is also a fact that simply plonking down a syllabus is not going to cut any ice. What we need, very badly, is an overhaul of the national brain, which seems to bank on inequality. Equality is not something our feudal systems and elitist society appreciate, nor something our begums look kindly upon. There is also the sad fact that equality, in Pakistan, where women are fighting for existence, invariably applies to men only.

It is unlikely that the private school system, which under the SNC is permitted to teach students extra material/books of their choice– but must also teach the SNC books, will take much notice of either that rule, or those books, always presuming that the SNC books are worth taking notice of. We cannot seriously imagine, that the parents of children who expect their progeny to gain admission in expensive universities will take the SNC seriously, or allow it to be used for very long, and we know who calls the shots. What is far more likely to happen is that since all schools are to be examined to ensure they are using the SNC, expensive private schools will teach it so as to ‘get it over with’, and then move on with their own system. The schools that do take the SNC seriously will become the ones to be mocked, and they would be the ones already suffering from that attitude. It will end up as the same gap with a few additions to contend with.

What with the disruptions due to the pandemic, the last thing children need is sudden changes, and further disruptions.

The good thing is that the SNC is to be implemented in all streams of education (Pubic, Private and Deeni Madaris); that latter is the best aspect of the whole venture.

The number of deeni madaris (religious seminaries/schools) in Pakistan rose sharply in the 1980s. These schools are particularly popular among the poorer segment of society, because in addition to providing literacy they also provide lodging, which includes food. These schools are the only option many parents have of providing a good meal and an education for their boys, a question of ‘one down, three more to go’, if they have four children to feed.

These religious seminaries teach little beyond their version of religious studies, which judging by what is seen when you pass the open door for some of them involves much rocking backwards and forwards sitting cross-legged at a low table. Apparently, a few also teach logic, philosophy and mathematics, with the aim of furthering the understanding of said religious subjects. It also appears that most militant extremists once attended these schools, as indicated by the profile of suicide bombers. The SNC can therefore only be an improvement as far as the curriculum there goes.

Is the SNC really likely to close or narrow the gap between the various systems of education in this country? Wouldn’t it be a better option not to mess with the ‘better’ education wherever found, and improve what is taught elsewhere?

The English language is a factor at the crux of this issue. It is indisputable that so long as one segment of society is taught in English, and the other poorly taught and in Urdu, ne’er the twain shall meet. But is for example teaching science in Urdu a rational alternative? Tell me, what do you call a telephone in Urdu? Or is there a word for Sodium Nitrate? Or pertussis, or syncope? According to maulana google, syncope in urdu means ‘hum ahangi’, which is translated into English as ‘harmony’. But that is not at all what syncope means in English, it means fainting or losing consciousness. So how do we propose to teach this subject in Urdu?

I know we are proud of the fact that the first doctors, chemists and astronomers were Muslim, but there is no such thing as a ‘Muslim language’; in Pakistan Urdu is the national language, yet only a small percentage of Pakistanis actually speak it; and what is equally of note is that Urdu has not kept up with the developments in science.  Is there any point in teaching a subject in one language (that few people understand), loaded with words belonging to another?

What, moreover, do we do about those children who may have a single curriculum if they go to school, but who are unable to go to school, because they work? What do we do about people who employ children in their homes, factories and other businesses? What do we do about families that are unable to manage without the earnings of every single one of their members, and so their children work too instead of attending school, about parents who consider education to be overrated and a waste of time, about children who do not attend school because there is no school where they live?

Those are the issues to take care of before a thing such as the SNC can be implemented. It may have been set in place with the best will in the world, but that will tend not to last very long here. What do we do about this?

Just as sufferers of cirrhosis of the liver are never given a liver transplant if they continue to be alcoholic, the people of Pakistan are desperately in need of education, and a better one, but there is little point in going through the expense of putting a new one in place if it is almost certain to be rejected before long.

- A

CONTROLLED BY A SPECTRE

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/08/22/controlled-by-a-spectre/

Ever since its inception figures in authority have used the spectre of India to scare the bejesus out of the people of this country. It is high time we realised that the problem lies not with India but with us.

According to Forbes, ever since 9/11, the US has spent more than $2 trillion against Afghanistan. That is $300 million a day, every day, for two decades.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports in 2020 that India’s military budget was the third largest in the world behind the USA and China. About Pakistan, SIPRI reports says its military expenditure has gone up to reach $10.3 billion.

What have any of these countries achieved against their targets?

Pakistani society is mired in values that are in dire need of change. Its tribal areas in the north and Baluchistan are where militants have the greatest support, where women are most oppressed, where education has suffered much more than anywhere else, and all else is affected as a result. The reason behind this support for militants is probably the myopic, patriarchal structure of these societies that view change as a threat to their existence. As a result, the regressive, so-called religious views of militants are welcomed, and there is of course the fact that many of them hail from these regions.

It is not as if things are any different elsewhere in the country.

Why, when it is these attitudes that need to be changed are we so focused on some indeterminate threat from across the border?

India cannot be ignored, of course. We have had several wars with our neighbour, and border skirmishes take place on a regular basis. But it must be borne in mind that the society across the border is little different to ours, it contains almost as many uneducated minds, as much poverty, just as much religious bigotry and the same degree of religious intolerance. Why, instead of following the same route do we not try to follow another that is more likely to lead us down safer paths, down avenues where our people can discover their strengths, and actually make progress? Why cannot we adopt a rational policy towards our neighbour instead of one reminiscent of the belligerent hero of a Punjabi movie?

It is a crime to spend what money Pakistan possesses on beating the drums of war. That money needs to be spent on measures that will lead to greater, deeper, more long-lasting change. Measures such as education.

According to statistics gathered in 2017, Pakistan’s total literacy rate was then just around 59 percent. That means that half the people of this country cannot read. They cannot read their names, their history, a summary of their goals, or tot up their financial records. That means that almost half the people of this country can be led by the nose to believe just about anything, even something that is far from reality and far from their interests.

The figures also indicate that just 47 percent of the women of this country are literate. It means that more than half of those who nurture this country’s future lack what it takes to turn them into thinking, informed individuals; they are unable to impart to their children the knowledge that literacy is able to provide, because they are unable to decipher the alphabet themselves, unable to read to their children or teach them to read.

The fact that only about 71 percent of men too are literate serves to underline the attitudes prevalent in society, where it is considered more important to care for and educate one gender at the expense of the other, where one gender is more privileged than the other.

The figures gathered in 2017 indicate that far from narrowing, this gap has been growing at a steady pace.

It is past time we recognise the importance of social change versus war. If this country fails to recognise this, then nothing can rescue this nation from the pit into which it is sinking deeper by the day, and war – which is meant to be a last resort when all else fails, will further destroy us.

Our funds must go to support education on an urgent footing, much like a war effort, only this war would be fought against ignorance. We need schools that actually exist, not just on paper, and teachers that really teach rather than simply draw a salary.

They must go towards controlling a population that has already outstripped its resources, a population the size of which should be controlled before it outstrips those resources beyond redemption.

Funds should go towards changing the mindset that says that population control is unGodly, that says that education is unnecessary, or only for males. A mindset that considers it acceptable to attack women physically and verbally, that considers women to be fair game, to tease, ridicule or control.

They should go towards providing justice and accountability, to raising an awareness against the vulgarity, display and ostentation that plagues our society.

Not until these things are achieved will the people of Pakistan be able find a secure footing, both within their country and in a world where societies like that of the Scandinavian countries have progressed so much, and provided their people with what is rightfully theirs, with what is their due. Let’s choose our priorities and aspirations carefully before it is too late.

THE CULT CULTURE

 https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8105796839443061496/3980351365977412465

Will the Taliban cult gain recruits here?

A cult is a group whose members share one or several ideas, ideas which may be based on a certain interpretation of religion, spiritualism or philosophy, or a belief in a particular goal or personality. A study of specific cults or the phenomenon in general is interesting, and has been of great interest to sociologists.

The word ‘cult’ reminds one straight away of the Manson Family, or the Rajneesh Movement, but these are just some of the better-known cults, whose members included some people who were in the public eye, for example Bernard Levin, Parveen Babi, Mahesh Bhatt, Terence Stamp, Arianna Huffington, Vinod Khanna, Prince Welf Ernest of Hanover… associated with the Rajneesh cult; and Sharon Tate, Phil Kaufman, Deanna Martin (daughter of Dean Martin), and Squeaky Fromme (who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford), associated with the Manson Family.

There are both religious and secular cults out there, and even anti-cult cults, destructive cults, political cults, doomsday cults, polygamist, racist, and terrorist cults– and others, all over the world. Why do they occur? Why, in some cases, do they attract so many followers? And what can be done to prevent people from joining the harmful ones among them?

Cults are attractive because they present an illusion of peace and comfort (which are often overlapping states) by promising things that are rarely attainable by the means suggested by the cult. For example, you have to work for peace. You cannot attain it, inner or outer, by means of violence, or meditation. As for comfort, people who have the means, those who are relatively well off, they do not lack comfort in their lives. That means that it is predominantly those who yearn for it because they do not have it who are most attracted to cults which offer some version of comfort that could be attained by means such as violence, sex, drugs… Some cults also create the illusion that comfort is possible regardless of one’s finances– which it can be to an extent but not to the extent that it is promised.

Cults satisfy the human desire for definite answers, by compartmentalizing things, events and people as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ rather like Snowball’s summary of the difference between animals and humans, in Animal Farm: ‘Four legs good, two legs bad.’ Simple. The problem is that life is not as black as white, and answers to problems can only be attained by means of reasoning, and a certain amount of education. So, once again, it is the uneducated who are more drawn to such conclusions.

Cults are even more attractive to people with low self-esteem, who may yearn to belong to a group, have friends, be accepted, or be involved in something ‘big’. A result-oriented educational system that does not cater to the individual is likely to give rise to many adults with low self-esteem.

Cults are made particularly attractive for potential or new recruits, who are surrounded by a very deliberate and flattering response to their presence, in an attempt to lure them in, regardless of academic performance, financial status or appearance. How many organisations in any society can boast such a thing?

Members generally do not realise that this friendly, exciting thing that they signed up for, this group that holds out so many promises and has suddenly provided them with a feeling of belonging and many friends and colleagues, is actually a cult.

Cults promote an ‘us versus them’ mentality, which is already a major factor in societies like ours where the huge gulf between the haves and have-nots promotes this attitude. They’d have no problem at all gaining recruits here.

It is easier to join a cult than to leave it. Penalties for trying to leave one can include death for the person and his family. This grim fact can help the organisation achieve a frightening sort of power that is attractive to some people.

Many cults are able to provide the excitement that is so craved by young people, not very different to what must have been experienced by the band of Scarlet Pimpernel followers.

Cult leaders are good at mind control, and possess the ability to get people to do exactly what they want. They are masters at enticement, promising what might be completely unrealistic, making it appear within easy reach. They are also good at self-projection, often projecting an image that is powerful, and quite unlike reality. One of Manson’s followers for example said later on that Manson never had to say that he was Jesus. It was just ‘obvious’ that he was the closest to Jesus that this follower would ever witness on earth.

So, here’s a profile of those who are likely to be attracted to cults. It may be something of a generalization but it’s likely to be not too far from the truth.

Most people who are attracted to a quick, often militant, extremist solution to the ills of the world and for their own problems are likely to be those who are not given to rational introspection, who perhaps have little time for it, and although there are many exceptions, who are less educated. These would be people who have learnt the hard way that striving and hard-work does not pay.

They are willing to give up their comfort zone, perhaps because there ain’t much of it anyway, and because they find that it gives them a sense of purpose to take up arms for a given cause. The sense of belonging and adventure that goes with the undertaking proposed by the militant extremist group might also make life worth living for them. They are willing to take by any means what they consider to be rightfully theirs. And because cult leaders excel at holding out elaborate promises, we have the promise of paradise and all its lures, reachable by some extreme short-cuts. It sure beats a life-time of being on one’s best behaviour.

It may seem as though we in Pakistan are relatively free from cult culture, but that is not true. With the militant extremists gaining power in Afghanistan as rapidly as they have done, we would do well to worry. Very much.

It is unrealistic to ascribe the ascent to power by the extremists in Afghanistan to violent means alone. There is after all the question of where the manpower to wield those arms comes from. And now that they are close to gaining Kabul, we in Pakistan must realise who our real adversaries are, and they are yet another powerful cult, and ours is a culture very much attracted to power and cults.

There is a large segment of society attracted to militant extremism in Pakistan. It is important to pay attention to why that is so. And to the solutions, which have little to do with armed intervention.

Some suggested solutions would be a more widespread and better education, and more facilities for the young where they can participate in activities and expend their energy, both mental and physical. A big aspect is to provide them with a better, more rational approach to religion. And a society in which hard work pays off, even in the absence of ‘contacts’ in important places. A society in which there is no compulsion to bribe, extort, and fight for what is rightfully yours.

IS THIS HOW IT SHOULD BE?

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/08/07/is-this-how-it-should-be/

When the poor suffer, it's par for the course; when the rich suffer, it's a tragedy.

If you are a woman living in Pakistan, it might be an idea to brush up on a spot of self-defense. We are all familiar with the reasons, which are borne out by a survey conducted about three years ago by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. That survey concluded that Pakistan is the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women, with India the first, and the USA the tenth.

These results should not come as a surprise for a country with a regional history of ‘honour killings’ (it is high time that phrase was changed) dating back thousands of years, a practice that thrives to this day.  These ‘honour killings,’ as a result of which women, who are accused of adultery, are killed by the men of the family to maintain the family’s ‘honour’, are just one among the many forms of violence committed against women in Pakistan. In other forms, women are routinely abused, injured and killed, following domestic violence and rape.

The clerics seem to be making the situation worse in every way. There’s little point in enlarging on that theme. As for the Prime Minister of the country, he has had this to say regarding the prevalent attitude against women in this country: “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact, it will have an impact on the men, unless they’re robots.” The prime minister said, “I mean it’s common sense.”

It is not just the Prime Minister who holds such views although not everyone has such a penchant for speaking without first weighing their words; he also has liberal access to air-conditioned environments where he lives with his walking tent. No, this mindset is easily available across society where people believe that despite the heat, and despite the amount of work they must do, women must cover themselves from head to foot at all times– leaving men to go exactly where their lecherous minds take them.

There are thousands of such incidents against women that never make the news, and only a fraction that are prosecuted, and action is taken in another fraction of those.

It all starts pretty early in a woman’s life. To speak of a handful of recent cases, there was the case of a six-year-old girl who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed in Karachi last month. Her body was later found dumped in the garbage.

Also last month was the case of a little girl, a student of Class 8, who was abducted and sexually assaulted by a group of men in Rawalpindi. She, mercifully, was rescued.

And last month, a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped and assaulted for about three days, but she too was rescued.

There was also a 15-year-old girl raped in Toba Tek Singh in June, and in May there was the case of a bride being gangraped by four men in Multan.

Again, last month, a Filipina, who had come to Pakistan to earn some money, was raped in Lahore.

A young couple was stripped and assaulted by a man, with other men present in the room. A video was recorded showing this.

These are only some of the cases that made the news, and they took place within a period of two months. It is the tip of an iceberg that goes way down.

Some activists stand up on behalf of these abused women, prominent among them Asma Jehangir who is now no longer with us. The rest of society, much of it, condemns it, but it has become a way of life, something that a large segment of the country takes for granted: women are property and can be dealt with as the male segment of society wishes.

There are however some cases that catch the limelight. Such as the recent tragic, and terrible murder of Noor Mukadam, which hit the news and social media like a meteorite on fire. As it should. May God help her family in this time of extreme need.

There is no need to go into the details. The victim lost her life in circumstances which will never be forgotten. The thought of what her family must go through is painful beyond endurance. The person responsible for her murder should face justice.

The point of this column is that nothing speaks of the massive gulf that exists in this country as this tragic case does.

There is that huge segment of society, where hundreds if not more, every single year, women lose their lives to murderers, rapists and other predators such as male members of the family. A fraction of these cases make the news as pointed out above. The rest not only do not make the news they go unreported because of that sickening sentiment ‘Log kiya kahen gay’ (what will people say).

For the very, very small number of cases such as Noor’s, her awful fate made the news like only the cases of our ‘elite’ manage to do.

Why do other victims never get as much coverage? Why do they never produce as much outrage as this crime did, when in terms of tragedy they are all on a par with each other? Where are the processions, petitions and outrage on social media for them?

This outrage stems from a fraction of the literate segment of society, and you wish that this segment was equally outraged across the board.

One can live with one person getting away with affording a better sofa than the other, or getting a better higher education than another, but we are talking about a person’s life here. The life of a mother, a daughter or a sister. A human being who lived and breathed and loved and worked. One of God’s Creations.

Justice is meant to be blind. The law should apply across the board. But does it? People are concerned that when a person from a well-to-do family commits a crime, he or she gets away with it. They’re trying to prevent that from happening in this case. But how about when the victim is poor, destitute and friendless, perhaps old, or belonging to some other religion…and once again, poor.?

We need justice for such people in Pakistan too, but there doesn’t seem to be any…what is being done to change this?

THE POWER OF WORDS

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/08/01/the-power-of-words/

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

Socrates

People must have the ability to read and write to be able to work at most professions, and also so that they may be aware of what happens around them, but several things prevent them from doing so. Illiteracy of course is the major factor preventing people from reading, and censorship is another. Neither of them is a new phenomenon. They both involve words.

Words are easily the most powerful things in the world: words on paper, as well as spoken words. We grope desperately for them if the right words do not come to mind, and a sudden or prolonged silence between individuals can be more unpleasant than a physical dispute.  Words are potent, they can change the course of events, move obstacles and transform lives. That is why, throughout history, words— not guns or bombs— have posed the biggest threat to those who seek to remain in power. Guns after all can only kill and bombs destroy, and then what? Power means nothing if there is no one to wield it over.

Plato in the Apology, called his mentor Socrates ‘Myops’, which in English means ‘Gadfly’; the name refers to Socrates’ ability to chafe the Athenian political scene, and not allow it to become complacent, very much like a spur or a biting insect pushing at a slow-moving horse. According to Plato, Socrates believed that one must ‘question everything, admit what you do not know, and never stop seeking wisdom/knowledge.’

His weapons, to put it another way, were words. And for his pains Socrates was condemned to death, by drinking poison. Free speech and the tendency to question and seek knowledge has never been welcome to those who seek to remain in power at any cost, censorship is nothing new; people encounter it every day all over the world.

There are so many avenues through which information reaches us, the old means such as newspapers, magazines and books, the relatively newer ones such as the radio, television and the newest and most potent of all, the internet.

None of the older means of communication were as interactive as the internet, as a result of which more people use the ‘net than they ever read. There is a cell phone in almost every hand, even in poor countries, making it harder and harder to prevent information from being disseminated. This poses a problem for those seeking to control, but not for those seeking to facilitate reading.

The population of Pakistan is predominantly un-educated, but this has not stopped its people from accessing social media. They use it not simply to listen to inane jokes on Tik-Tok, but also to message each other. Even those who do not otherwise read, manage to message each other on their phones.

Take for example the following message from a young man to his employer:

Baji ji may aaj nahi aa sakta. Behen bimar hai. Mai us ko huspatal lay ja raha hoon

The young man who wrote this knows enough of the English alphabet to be able to convey his Urdu message in Roman script, even though, if he were given an English book meant for students even at the secondary school level, he would be unable to read it.

You wonder why he did not use the Arabic script to convey the same message.

The reason is that the Arabic script, beautiful as it is, does not come off as well on electronic media as the Roman does. The Arabic script is always written in the cursive style. There is no provision in that script for each letter to be written separately. It is hard to decipher small Arabic script, dots and all, on a phone as compared to a similar sized Roman script. And when it is written in the cursive it is not easy on the eyes with the dots and dashes not always where they ought to be. And so, the legibility of the Arabic script takes a knock. This is why an increasing number of people— and they are not always uneducated— have taken to writing as the young man did above.

It is possible that this is one way to encourage people to read and write— on the phone, for which the Roman script is far better suited than the Arabic.

It would definitely be worth considering replacing the Arabic script by Roman as far as Urdu is concerned, to make it easier for people to communicate. It isn’t unheard of. Turkey has done it, as has Malaysia. Arabic is always taught separately in Pakistan in any case, so that children can learn to read the Quran. If Urdu turns Roman in an organized fashion, would this help in the fight against illiteracy? Changing a script does not mean leaving behind a literary heritage, because the words themselves, the powerful aspect of language, would remain. If changing a script means more people can read that literary heritage, and more people can learn about the world, would this make it harder to impose opinions, and foist incorrect information upon them?

DESERVING? OR NOT?

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/07/18/deserving-or-not/

Sex and gender are the perspectives from which most things are judged in a society like Pakistan’s. And since women are the weaker gender, they are subject to a host of compulsions, frequently against the law, no problem: they can be married against their wish, they must not work (except of course when they must, when they are grudgingly allowed), they must muffle themselves up in unnecessary garments regardless of the heat, and a whole myriad of musts; later they must not, God forbid, promote rights and independence for other women.

And that is what Malala Yusufzai came up against, as did the OUP when it included Malala’s name in a book that contained a list of national luminaries, and in which her photograph was printed next to that of Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed of the Pakistan Army. A brave man, Aziz Bhatti Shaheed, one to whom the nation owes a heavy debt of gratitude for his courage and ultimate sacrifice. May the Almighty reward him.

The question most frequently asked is: what gives Malala the right to be included among that list of illustrious people? What has she done to earn it?

As much as any other person who stands in the path of danger for the sake of the country and others, the child Malala stood up to the Taliban with her demands for education for women at a time when they, the Taliban, were shutting down schools for girls in Swat. With the support of her parents, the young girl gave speeches supporting education for women, and became a blogger under a pseudonym, reporting on the condition of women under the Taliban. She was unlucky enough to be exposed and became a target for terrorists.

Malala, as much as any other person who actually lost their life in the process, almost lost hers when at the age of just 14, she was shot in the face for her crimes; if the man who shot her had anything to say in the matter, she would have lost it. Clearly, the Amighty had other plans for her.

That she and her family escaped to Britain was not a choice, it was a necessity when it was not possible to treat her injuries as well in her home country, and when it became clear that this was not the safest place for the family to be.

She was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize, she won Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize, and 12 July (her birthday) is now officially Malala Day. She has also been awarded the Sakharov Peace Prize for Freedom of Thought in acknowledgment of her work, just before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize simultaneously with the Indian child rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi. Malala is the youngest person in the world to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to win the right to education for every girl, particularly in societies where it is often denied.

After that, in 2017 she was appointed the UN Messenger of Peace to promote female education, which is one of the UN’s highest honours.

All through this time, Malala has continued to support her cause for the right to education for girls. She has spoken about it, and written about it. Her support has not been an idle matter.

In 2013, Malala and her father launched the Malala Fund, which strives to ensure that girls around the world have access to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. The countries that have priority for the purposes of this fund include Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, where girls are most likely to miss out on secondary education.

For those– surprisingly many– people who criticize Malala, there is this question: how many people have won as many accolades and achieved as much for her country and women in general, even before the ripe old age of 24? Have you?

But this fact of Malala being considered unworthy of praise is only one of the issues raised by the episode when Malala’s name was included in a book published by the OUP. When this happened a team belonging to the PTCB, the Punjab Textbook and Curriculum Board, walked into the OUP bookshop and confiscated these books, and conducted raids across the city to confiscate them wherever else they were being sold.

Censorship is almost always a futile exercise, and it is definitely always based on some particular group’s version of what the public has a right to read. And clearly, it is not always run along sensible guidelines.

Such censorship may be understandable if a publication is promoting violence, or murder or treason, or other dangerous activities. But for adding Malala’s photograph to a book of luminaries…? The mind boggles at the intellect of persons entrusted with policing our reading.

All this takes place, please note, while the Taliban are set to stage a comeback in Afghanistan. They have already taken over the area on the Afghan side of Chaman on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a letter to the local imam that states, according to a resident of the district, that women must not go to the bazaar without a male companion, and men should not shave their beards.

It would seem that we need more Malalas, not less. It would also seem that our PTCB needs to sort its values out, and if it must exist it should clamp down on its insecurities.