Adil Najam
PIA print advertisement from the 1960s (Originally uploaded by PakPositive.com which is a blog that highlights the positives aspects of Pakistan).
Let me continue with the ‘Image Pakistan’ theme in choosing the picture for today. I find this advert for PIA absolutely fascinating; both for what it says about how PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) saw itself and how it saw Pakistan (or wanted Pakistan to be seen).
Was this the reality of Pakistan before theso-called ‘darhi wallahs’ took center stage? Or was this ‘image’ of Pakistan as much out-of-sync with the reality of what was Pakistan then, as the image of the bearded-gun-totting-bomb- throwing-jihadi-Pakistani is today?
Speaking of ‘image’ and ‘brand’ the Association of Pakistani Professionals (AOPP) has recently launched an initiative on the subject and held a thoughtful and thought-provoking event on he subject in New York on June 3. I was asked to moderate part of the program, and found the discussion to be mature, reasoned and reasonable–something we should have more of.
I wish we could somehow bring the Pakistan promised by this image back… Zia badbakht ruined everything!
Some of my friends on this forum have looked upon this image as sexual explotiation, and I just have one question to ask. What is wrong with you? How depraved is it to look at a woman’s face and to consider her exploited? It says more about the gazer than the gazee, if you get my drift. Chill.
Allah karay mullah hazraat ka khatma hoey. Can’t wait to have ourselves rid of this menace.
Awais,
Don’t tell me what I am and what I am not. If I claim to be a Muslim, I am a Muslim. You do not need to go around passing self-righteous judgements on other people. It’s just a picture of a woman with various destinations silhouetted against her neck. Geez, get over it people.
If you don’t like it, don’t look at it.
PIA wanted to portray what the ‘Roahsan Khayal’ Govt of that era wanted it to show. (Was PIA working out of Govt influncne then? ofcourse not).
It was Ayubi martial law. What freedom was there? So what I understand is these ‘tactics’ were nothing more than experiments (by an illegal govt) to test the limits of average public tolerance and to keep them away from democracy. It backfired then as it will now (can you see the similarities?)
Pakistan has to develop its unique identity. Copying west will not help. Have pride in yourslf.
Religion, morals, culture, freedom, society… oh my! This is an incredibly complex issue and I am not even going to try to offer any solutions or conclusions.
I would like to share some observations though:
1) Freedoms/liberties have their limits. They are fine as long as they are not harmful to other members of the society. Definition of harmful is of course decided by each individual society. I can argue that images such as this PIA ad can be harmful to the society, and that’s the same point a “mullah” would make.
2) A lot of the folks here have made the argument that religion is something personal. We should not try to impose our religion over others. That’s a noble idea. However, Islam is a deen and not just a religion. In it’s true nature it should govern all aspects of our lives, including the government. So how is it supposed to be just a personal thing? It just doesn’t work that way. (Would a non-believer be allowed to post an ultra provocative banner outside his shop at the Zainab Market, or sell alcohol in public at Tariq road?)
3) The photo is only as provacative as we think it is. Sex/skin is such a taboo in Pakistan. If it wasn’t, nobody would care and I wouldn’t be writing this reply. It seems the West is over this and perhaps it’s better that way? May be Pakistanis should get used to a little more skin and get over it already.
4) It’s fascinating that so far very few of us have mentioned that the photo in question is just simply against the teachings of Islam. Women are only supposed to show their face. And a tank-top is definitely out of the question. There should be no debate about that. And since we are all Muslims, except for Steve, why are we even debating this? Is anyone here saying that hijab is no longer necessary for Muslims?
5) I am a confused Pakistani, and likely, so are you.
I am not sure how pertinent is the slogan “Pakistan ka matlab kia……”. But certainly the creation of Pakistan had nothing to do with this slogan. How can you expect it from a bacon-eating and whisky drinking man to go for this slogan and enshrined with a separate state.
Showing more or less skin is not the point here, the point is making forward looking country that should be free of bigots. A country that could tread the successful civilization’s path. Where the ‘iman’ of mullah should not only focus on women’s apparel and let honest, straight forward and clean thinking prevail. Are we really so naive to acknowledge what our youth thinks and does? The do every thing what a youth from a ‘liberal’ country does, just they do it in clandestine way. When they are asked they lie. Simple. Thus we create hypocrites who watch blue-films and say Friday prayers regularly. A sex starved society where the only purpose of Internet is to see porn. Look at Google search Trends, Pakistan is top of the list for searching word ‘sex’ followed by ten other Islamic countries. Height of frustration! A country where character is judged by your biological behavior and not by the honesty and truthfulness of the individual.