I do not think my female friends should come back to Pakistan

[LeGenD]

I think what you mean is children or 'offspring', because siblings means your brothers and sisters.

Yes, my bad. Thanks for the correction.

 

[VCheng]

What I tried, perhaps I failed, to say is that for Pakistanis who have been overseas and lived among Westerners for a while, not merely as tourists but for school and jobs, and became critical of Pakistan's social issues, defenders of Pakistan should try to convince these people that Pakistan's social flaws are not as bad as, or even better than, the flaws in the West.

For example...

Pakistan's literacy rate is lower than America's. So the tactical objective is to argue that as long as there is even just one illiterate person in the US, both countries' literacy problem is the same. The US have mandatory education for up to age 18, but since there are still illiterate persons in the US, Pakistan and America are no different than each other.

Some people will buy this argument. As far as Americans go, we are perfectly fine with this line of reasoning.

The goal is clearly to keep the internal audience convinced that they have it great (and even as good as, or better than, USA, the ultimate yardstick, positive and negative), in the best traditions of such controlled societies. Therefore, any comparisons that provide proof to the contrary cannot be tolerated - witness what happens here on PDF as an ample example.

Everyone can see what the reality of Pakistan is, and where it is headed. As long as that vision remains external, and is successfully discredited internally, all is well - until it is not, in the end.

(Baghdad Bob comes to mind here. )

 

[waleed3601]

What do you mean by intolerant? Do they kill a woman whenever they see her in public. Then why do I see women daily going for jobs etc in areas like FB area, Gulshan or Gulistan?

In KPK, they probably do. My uncle has friends in Peshawar's film industry (he ran a business there for 10 years) and he told me that 80-90% of the female actors in Pushtoon films are Punjabi, because the locals don't allow their daughters to act. Besides that I think if you check out the male to female workers ratio in KPK and Balochistan you'll understand that these cavemen treat women as their 'property' and don't even allow them outside their home. Of course you can rebute with a few exceptional cases but that's that. Sindh and Punjab are the only places where women to an extent are given freedom of some sort.

 

[Taimoor Khan]

You don't tell a nation about women rights and all the palaver, who as collective have send a woman to the top office in Pakistan twice! Women empowerment they say?? Let America send hillary to white house, a feat no woman has ever achived in the history that country. With regards to sexual predators, they are in every society and Pakistan is no exception.

 

[PaklovesTurkiye]

Yeah I know man, they are some desperate fools who just want to get some ratings from specific group of people. They believe that by depicting such things they will be gaining popularity and fame.

Bloody narcissist

Sir...this is exactly kind of behavior which makes people angry and pissd off.......this is why people make lose their anger on like of sharmeen obaid chinoy who, may be don't have any agenda, but still indirectly showing that all Pakistani men are of barbaric nature who just knows how to throw acid and oppress their women. And then we make objection, we will get labeled as religious extremists or "Mullah".

We are far more tolerant than others. People are forgetting that India, in recent past, has even banned the film "India's daughter" , a documentary intended to show plight of girl but we didn't do that with Sharmeens' documentary and here people are criticizing us and spitting on our face that how isolated animals we are who just bite any woman we see........

 

[Samandri]

In our community women is respected a lot, treated equally. Men do not dare tease women as they know the outcome. The problem lies with all the communities, rather it is a problem in Urban areas, especially a city like Karachi. Here a young girl wouldn't dare travel alone, or say go alone in a public area. Can't blame the Pathans for that, locals are at it more than anyone, i can make a mention of problems by Mother has faced in Karachi; young boys who have nothing to do all day are at it more than anyone. Problem lies in Urban areas, severity has it's height in some tribal areas. Then again some people look to make their community look better than others.

Northern areas, are at the top among rural areas of Pakistan in my opinion, in giving good and equal treatment to the women. Crime rate is also very low, never heard of rape cases in Gilgat and Baltistan.

 

[Zibago]

The goal is clearly to keep the internal audience convinced that they have it great (and even as good as, or better than, USA, the ultimate yardstick, positive and negative), in the best traditions of such controlled societies. Therefore, any comparisons that provide proof to the contrary cannot be tolerated - witness what happens here on PDF as an ample example.

Everyone can see what the reality of Pakistan is, and where it is headed. As long as that vision remains external, and is successfully discredited internally, all is well - until it is not, in the end.

(Baghdad Bob comes to mind here. )

There is a thing called acceptence of a problem(i am not denying it exists) and there is a thing called gross exageration this falls in the latter

 

[PerennialAutumn_RR]

ohhh!! Should I leave Pakistan immediately?

 

[Areesh]

In KPK, they probably do. My uncle has friends in Peshawar's film industry (he ran a business there for 10 years) and he told me that 80-90% of the female actors in Pushtoon films are Punjabi, because the locals don't allow their daughters to act. Besides that I think if you check out the male to female workers ratio in KPK and Balochistan you'll understand that these cavemen treat women as their 'property' and don't even allow them outside their home. Of course you can rebute with a few exceptional cases but that's that. Sindh and Punjab are the only places where women to an extent are given freedom of some sort.

I am not talking about KPK or Baluchistan. My point was about Karachi. You said only a small pocket like DHA has given freedom to women which is a lie as far as Karachi is concerned.

 

[Vassnti]

I have spend many years in Lahore apart from few instances only those girls are harassed who wanted to be harassed.

The sort of sleazy little man that is the cause of the problem.

Sure some ones sister/mother/daughter just walks down the street in the hope that a group of guys will walk up and grope them, call them names or worse.

 

[Mav3rick]

The author should invite all his female friends to Karachi, I will personally ensure a grand time for them.

 

[F86 Saber]

Recently a female friend of mine was at a food festival in Lahore. Even though she was with a group of 6 other females they were harassed, followed, one of them inappropriately touched by groups of young boys who probably think this is good fun. And don't you dare this is not common in Pakistan. I am afraid for my sister or my wife going out to these places. And I can say from personal experience it is NOT like this in America. Sure sexual harassment is still there but here it is a SERIOUS SERIOUS crime. In Pakistan it is past time for most young boys. Sorry.

EDIT: Also please ask these women you talk of, what kind of harassment they go through each day and there is nothing they can do but bear it because that's the society we are.

This is complete and utter bullshit, i went to Eat Lahore festival myself with my wife and her friends and so did a lot of my friends, it was perfectly managed with people mainly from the educated class visiting and there was no such thing possible there. The ration of visiting males vs females was 20-80 and if anything it was the men who were in danger of being molested.

 

[Adecypher]

Another exaggerated rant by an elitist idiot who most likely belongs to a rich class of Pakistan--and has NO idea about actual problems and issues that average Pakistani faces at the hands of feudals, waderas, corrupt police, broken hospitals, and exploitative capital owners who rip Middle-class apart by keeping their wages low.

But hey, Pakistanis "hate" women. Lets talk about that.

And yes, I do know that there are lots of things need to be changed in terms of behavior towards girls in Pakistan. There should be much better public protection for girls in Pakistan and so on.

But that's not the core problems Pakistan is facing. Overseas Pakistanis like him shouldn't look at Pakistan through Western lenses--because if you do that, you'll be like this person who wrote this blog--completely void of whats happening on the ground.

For Western World, the issue of Malala was "Oh, in Pakistan women struggle to get education. Women rights!!"...While we in Pakistan know how utterly ridiculous this train of thought is.

Similarly, Western view of "women rights" in Pakistan is very, very skewed and wrong. And our wanna be idiots get influenced by this skewed view and write bs like this blogger dude has written.

Express Tribune would offcourse publish it.

Zabardast post hey...perh key dil bohat khush huwa...bohat duain.

 

[I S I]

Chawal post.

 

[Meengla]

What do you mean by intolerant? Do they kill a woman whenever they see her in public. Then why do I see women daily going for jobs etc in areas like FB area, Gulshan or Gulistan?

Yes, good observation.
I think the OP article is very harsh and superficial. I have seen Pakistan first hand from the more liberal (up to late 70s) to very suffocating (by late 80's--thanks to Zia) to a new Pakistan now where women are even more in public life than ever before... I mean I now see women working as salespersons, on cash registers, in banks, in super markets...in so-called conservative parts of Karachi. I bet they are also active in smaller cities of Pakistan. And thanks to Musharraf, women are guaranteed minimum representations in the highest legislative bodies...

Pakistanis really take the art of wailing and chest beating to its heights! Pakistan is not Saudi Arabia! Never was even under Zia (though he tried).