Finding the right dungeon

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that we are determined to move back in time and find a means to take us back to the medieval age. The Council of Islamic Ideology’s bizarre bill to ‘protect’ women is just one example of that.

We also have the knee-jerk decision by Pemra to ban the obscure, abstract advertisements for contraceptives from television and radio channels – a decision that was made only to be reversed the next day. Presumably someone informed the body that, despite the complaints it had received, a few ads which essentially say nothing at all would inflict no damage. An out of control population growth rate which today stands at over two percent – the highest in the region – could rip apart a country which lacks the resources to care for the sixth largest population in the world.

There are other examples too of terrible ignorance: in the halls of leading universities lectures are delivered to unflinching, unquestioning audiences about black magic, ‘djinns’ and what life after death would be like. We have educated persons, some with degrees and doctorates in higher learning, who apparently believe in the powers of voodoo as an explanation for family sickness and we have multiple stories, such as the one reported about the three young brothers from Quetta – the ‘solar’ children – who apparently sink into a state of listlessness, even near paralysis, as darkness falls each day.

The media has made little effort to gain a scientific understanding of the problem or explain to us what kind of medication is being tried. The ring of ignorance expands. And it can be spotted in everyday situations we come across every day. Perhaps the educational focus on rote-learning has left us essentially unable to use the human faculty of reasoning or rationality.

This situation makes the spread of ignorance especially dangerous. We have been conditioned into believing what we hear, all the more so when it is coated with a few layers of religiosity or morality. We have become obsessed by both. Though there have been multiple jokes about Maulana Sheerani’s pronouncements on the merits of ‘light beatings’, it would be foolish to simply dismiss the contents of the CII’s draft bill, or for that matter Pemra’s outrage over contraceptives.

The events we have seen over the past few weeks drive ideas deeper into society and create doubts over matters there should be no ambiguity over. This includes the beating of any person, man, woman or child. It is not acceptable behaviour. Such discourse becoming common is dangerous.

This also holds true for the letter written by Pemra to TV channels and others. It creates questions where there should really not be room for any. Naturally, we need to promote ideas about family planning and allow these to flow more openly through society. Individuals, especially women, need to be informed about their rights; we need to protect ourselves as a nation against disaster. It is also true that the dangers in the CII ruling go beyond the most publicised issue of wife beating.

The suggestion that women are somehow an undesirable presence in society, apparently arousing all kinds of criminal behaviour, mainly from men, is damaging and disturbing. When we plant suggestions about the need for segregation or advise that women should not be able to greet foreign dignitaries, we are also creating the image of a particular kind of society, and leading people down a road towards greater darkness and greater obscurantism. We already have too much of this in our society.

Similarly, we need to make room for questioning and thinking. It is perhaps a good sign that so many have ridiculed Maulana Sheerani and his advisers. But at the same time, it is also true we accept ridiculous ideas too quickly. We also do not query or investigate.

The story of Quetta’s solar children, who have now been sent home with the gift of a cricket bat, a football and a tennis ball from the president of Pakistan, needs to be investigated much further at both the scientific level and by the media. We have learned the medical test results have been sent off the US. But will we ever hear anything more? Will our own scientists and medical experts make a full fledged effort to solve what appears to be some kind of genetic problem? We really have no way of saying.

We thrive then only on the sensational, the immediate, the newsworthy. We tend to accept things at face value and not delve further into the details. This has crippled us for many years and left us unable to move forward. Right now, we seem to be sinking further down the ladder into some kind of dungeon where the light is not visible. It is hard to think of a single valid finding in the scientific or academic realm which has come from persons working within the country.

Yes, Pakistanis working overseas and in more conducive environments have made tremendous contributions towards the growth of learning and in other fields. Sadly, jealousy or other ‘moral’ factors mean that we prefer to vilify rather than applaud them.

This means there are fewer role models for others to follow. There are also fewer ideas drifting through society and entering classrooms or other realms. All this restricts us. We are already fettering the minds of children by forcing so many of them into madressahs because our public-sector school system has been allowed to collapse. Even those in regular schools must cope with inferior textbooks which in many cases refuse to allow the possibility of thinking outside certain title-drawn parameters. This is one reason why we remain a country where, like Saudi Arabia, the most fantastical ideas can be thrown up and apparently considered seriously.

We need to find ways to move beyond this. The need for certain bodies, such as the CII, must be considered in parliament. Surely there is better use for taxpayers’ money. In the same way, it should not be too arduous to persuade Pemra and other organisations to think carefully before they leap ahead with measures which just make them look all the more ridiculous. We need to prove we are a nation that can be taken seriously. At present, we are failing in this.

A recent survey of the media in about 20 countries around the world, including the US, UK and China, suggested that Pakistan was almost invariably shown in a negative light in the stories that emerged from the country. This is something that needs to change, both for the sake of our own self esteem and for the sake of our image as a nation in the eyes of persons around the world.

Pakistan was once a respected country, and drew in tourists, business visitors and others from everywhere. Why has this changed so dramatically? We need to think and also see the extent to which the mindset we have constructed as the space within which we think and exists contributes to this. The findings could be of extreme significance to our present and to our future.

Living so far behind the rest of the world is clearly not an acceptable option in times when the globe has become smaller than ever before and events that occur in one part affect almost everyone everywhere.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com