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.
What a beautiful ad. Those who find it smehow dirty, the dirtiness is in YOUR own mind, not in the ad.
This is a great ad, I love it and hope to see Pakistan move this way more in the future (when Benzazir returns (inshallah)).
I saw some pretty western ads recently in Karachi so I don’t think its too hard to imagine a liberal, tolerant Pakistan. As someone else said, diversity (which is now lacking) is the key. I wonder if it would be possible to draw more people back?
Part of the reason most Pakistanis earn less than $2 a day is because of childish mullahs who are more concerned about a woman showing her wrists than starving to death – these people have to go and the country can start with the red mosque that has been creating many problems recently.
Mudassir, I appreciate your sentiments. And I am sure you practice what you preach and it makes you happy. That’s all that matters, in the end.
However, the issue here is one of freedom. The same Quran that says everything that you mentioned, also says there is no compulsion in the matter of religion. If someone does something outright illegal in the sense of harming another person, fine, prosecute them. But if a woman wishes to wear a dress or a skirt or jeans or a hijab, let them be. Take it upon YOURSELF to look away if you don’t like something.
Secondly, when you say things like, “who will wish her sister or wife to be treated like this”. Well, I just want my mother, wife and sisters to do what THEY want to do. I don’t want to control their lives and I genuinely believe that they have their own moral bearing and have as much intelligence as I do to formulate opinions of their own. Therefore, I don’t feel the need to tell them what to do.
Consider also, that the image here is NOT immodest. She’s not naked. Yeah, she doesn’t have a hijab, but it isn’t as if this image is pornographic. It’s actually quite pleasant. Why is it that the unislamic west is actually able to control themselves/behave themselves in the presence of women who are wearing, say a skirt, whereas the God fearing musalmans amongst us believe that the appearance of such a woman would rob Islam from everyone’s hearts…. essentially amounting to a free-for-all. For God’s sakes.
After all, that would be like saying stop wearing gold because you may tempt someone to steal it. Stop driving in a fancy car because someone may have their faith tested and they might want to wrest it from you. Where does it stop?
Religion is a personal thing. Let it stay that way. Malaysia shows a good mix of allowing people to do as they wish. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, shows what happens when you force people into behaving a way they are not comfortable with… many Arab ladies remove their hijabs and burkhas as their plane lands in London or Paris and reveal the latest skimpy D&G fashions underneath. Is that healthy? Is it healthy to suppress people to the point where all the “Evil” goes underground where it is unregulated and flourishes anyway?
I hate mullahs by the way. They are a completely unislamic phenomenon. The whole point of Islam was to make the relationship between God and man direct. They have inserted themselves as Allah mian’s private assistants. Which they are not. All they do is make religion a business, and they make decisions which are beneficial to the business, not to the word of God. They need to be done away with if we ever want true Islam.
I m very sorry to read the comments of majority of the people. Reading all the material above we can conclude that today we have become purely unislamic. we have pushed the teachings of islam aside. we haven’t ever opened the HOly Book to get some guidance where each and avery aspect of human life is described in complete detail. Today we can easily converse on such topics without having even a minimal knowledge of Islam. If we had read what is the object of our life there would be no need to oppose each other and we would have agreed on every single point. Allah has created us only for being worshiped by us. God could have sent all of us to “Jannah” directly but he wanted to test us.He wanted to judge who makes himself deserving on account of good deeds. So he sent Hazrat Adam (A.S) on earth. So we have to understand one fact that we have been basically sent on earth only to justify ourselves to be sent to “Jannah ” by saying our Prayers and doing every thing only as required by Our Creator. So we need to eat, Drink and live just to live long and Spread the Message of Allah to all the Mankind. In Quran are mentioned thousands of times the things going to happen in the LIfe which comes after this meagre span of time which we spend on earth. But i am very sorry to say that we have considered this life the ultimate and final blessing of God. So we are trying to get extra and axtra in all the aspects whether it is money or any thing else. Real Pleasur is in “Namaaz” but we think it lies in singing, dancing, skin exposure, mixing of males and females. This is absolutely rubbish. Why? Because it creactes a number of problems in society. a women who exposes herself boldly among the people do u think its liberty? no, never. It creates in youth an urge to chase after her and to satisfy their needs through eye contact and sometimes through physical contact. So who will wish her sister or wife to be treated like this. If still we tolerate this and call it the liberty, there is a serious defect and flaw in our brain.
NOw the need is to bring ourselves under accountability and seek the knowledge of Islam and Leave the rest on Allah being hopefull for the better and peacefull ending of each Person. For this we have to say prayers 5 times and recite HOly Quran once every day. If we do this we will definitely start diffrentiating between the right and the wrong.
May God bless all of us with the real sense and confer upon us the knowledge of Islam. ( Ameen ).
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