Reading the Harry Potter books as an 11-year-old girl living in Quetta and surrounded by political turmoil was naturally a way for me to escape the harsh realities of life.
SONORUS
Reading the Harry Potter books as an 11-year-old girl living in Quetta and surrounded by political turmoil was naturally a way for me to 
escape the harsh realities of life. Curled up in a ball on my bed I dived into the world of wizards, witches, Butterbeer, Pygmy Puffs, broken wands and so much more. Such was the investment that I didn’t realize the power dynamics which Rowling had carefully constructed to reflect a society riddled with racism, classism and xenophobia - much like the society I lived in. The only difference was that Harry Potter combats those social ills in the end whereas our society is still searching for The Chosen One.
So there I was, happily enjoying rereading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while the maid in our house asked me to lift my feet up so she could sweep the floor underneath. I came across the part in the book where Hermione discovers the cruel subjugation of the house elves in the Hogwarts kitchen. The realization struck me like the Whomping Willow (yes, I will exploit every chance to use a Harry Potter reference in this article). In the real world, I was the evil subjugator that Hermione strived against. Sure we paid the help a healthy sum in our house but so were the elves paid with food, shelter and their ownership. The power dynamics that existed in our house between us and our maid were no different than the ones between the house elves and their owners. And that is the reality of so many average households in Pakistan.
As the novel progressed and Hermione grappled with the glaring truth that there was nothing that could be done about the house elves and they would continue enjoying their low status in the hierarchy I had to grapple with the truth that I cannot change the deeply ingrained social hierarchy in my lifetime.
A larger narrative in Harry Potter reveals the racism and caste systems that exist within our society. The wizards and witches are firstly identified by their birth status. The Muggle borns are immediately ostracized as they are new to the Wizarding world and its customs, much like the immigrants in our country or elsewhere who are viewed with suspicions and scrutiny. Even J.K Rowling has acknowledged the similarity between Lord Voldemort and Donald Trump who has voiced his racist opinions many times and continues to do so.
This narrative is made blatantly obvious very early on in the books. In the Chamber of Secrets, Draco Malfoy calls Hermione a “mudblood” which is evidently an awful racial slur. At that point I felt Hermoine’s pain but when I put down the book and resumed living in the real world it dawned upon my young unripe brain how racial slurs are thrown around ceaselessly where I lived. Pathans are a source of our much loved comedy sketches and that didn’t affect me the same way hearing the word ‘mudblood’ did.
It is evident, that we have much to learn from the Harry Potter books. So many narratives and debates are left unexplored when we get lost in the beauty, the wonder and the excitement of this magical world. It is time for us to pick up those books again to learn more about ourselves and our society.
