Flashback: When ‘fear’ was a word in the dictionary (By Sher Alam Shinwari)
Syed Amiruddin Shah Gillani hails from a spiritual family; his ancestors migrated from Iran many centuries ago and settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, providing spiritual guidance to people. Now in his 80s, he recalls a time when peace prevailed everywhere; there was no violence in the land of the ancient Gandhara civilisation.
“There used to be peace, hospitality; literary and cultural activities. A typical tribal society with hujra and jumaat (mosque) entwined in social norms and traditions that kept institutions and people tied together is now in ruins. The image of a peaceful Pashtun society is smeared with blood and the smoke of bomb blasts everywhere. Tribal life in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has undergone a tremendous change; for Peshawarites, fear was a word that existed only in the dictionary during the 60s and 70s,” Gillani recalls sadly. (complete article) (via umalik)
Pakistan: Does a veiled woman make you uncomfortable? (Tribune)
How does veil make people feel in a Muslim country. Personally I am no one to tell a woman what she should wear but yes there are few things which I have a strong opinion about - and some people might not like them. (via umalik)
A discussion you wouldn’t think be happening in Pakistan, but hey here is something to surprise you with.
Antoine Pagis: Around the world in search of an ‘ideal match’
Antoine Pagis, a 30-year-old Frenchman, is visiting Pakistan in his VW van fuelled by two desires: to explore the world and to find ‘Miss Right’.
Pagis has been on the road for two months, having decided on a world tour after waking up one morning fed-up with the drudgery of his daily life. He quit his job at a software company in his hometown of Montbrun les Bain, southeast France, and embarked on his dream trip. “I felt the need to feel alive,” he explained.
He also felt the nagging need to find his perfect match. Marriage and children are on his mind, and Pagis told The Express Tribune he seeks the one true love of his life — something to alert all single Francophile women in Pakistan.
What qualities is he looking for? “I’m a young man. Of course I want her to be beautiful, but it’s very important that she’s also smart,” he said.
Arriving in Karachi, he was pleased with what he saw. He said he was glad to discover that young and ‘modern-looking women’ exist in this part of the world. In Quetta, by contrast, he said he rarely saw women, except for elderly ones or children. (Complete news article)
Am thankful to Nadia Rasul for finding them worthy enough for an inclusion. However for the kind of interest it has generated, I understand that it will not have many people pleased but that is what my opinion of the gathering was. You might consider me myopic in my approach here, but well that is my approach and as always I shall stick to it unless proven wrong. And of course as always when I am proven wrong I will admit it publicly.
Although probably not dancing, the ‘dancing girl’ is unquestionably ‘a pleasing little thing’. Naked save for a chunky necklace and an assortment of bangles, this minuscule statuette is not of the usual Indian sex symbol, full of breast and wide of hip, but of a slender nymphet happily flaunting her puberty with delightful insouciance. Her pose is studiously casual, one spindly arm bent with the hand resting on a déhanché hip, the other dangling so as to brush a slightly raised knee. Slim and attenuated, the legs are slightly parted, and one foot - both are now missing - must have been pointed. She could be absent-mindedly surveying her wardrobe, except that her head is thrown back as if challenging a suitor, and her hair is somehow dressed into a heavy plaited chignon of perilous but intentionally dramatic construction. Decidedly, she wants to be admired; and she might be gratified to know that, four thousand years later, she still is.
Keay, John. India: A History. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000, p. 15 (via 6656)
In the midst of violence and chaos in Karachi, master craftsmen are giving birth to art-in brass. Unfortunately, business has taken a down turn in the recent years due to instability in the city.
This blog aims at telling you the "truth" about Pakistan. Unfortunately, today the news emerging from Pakistan on the Western media are so much polarized that it gives a very unreal image of Pakistan.
At "What no one told you about Pakistan", we aim at telling you the real stories about Pakistan.
