This photo is credited to famous photographer Fayyaz Ahmed.
According to Fayyaz’s notes, he found this subject at the tomb of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Clifton, Karachi. When he asked for the photo permission, the subject replied:
“Whatever you wish”.
I saw this photo for the first time a few days ago but I keep coming back to it again and again. There is something about this guy’s eyes.
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
WOW! Amazing & very very powerful!
Owais:
Traveling through Pakistan I stop at the ‘Mazars’ when ever I can. To me these places, large and small, present a microcosm of Pakistan. A perfect laboratory to study my own people. You will find perfectly sane and ‘educated’ people of ‘Shrine Culture’ performing ‘Sajada’ at the graves, and then not so sane ones staring at you with a piercing gaze. At these ‘Mazars’ I have seen hundreds of faces like the one shown here.
Qandeel, I posted without reading your comment (or having seen the latest National Geographic). Sorry for basically repeating what you said (but it proves we’re probably right on the money).
Well, the others are right…the first thought I had was, he’s a drug addict or mentally ill, definitely not a “normal” look. Dark turban and shawl wrapped near his chin complete the sinister cloaked look.
Unfortunately this tends to be the stereotypical face of Pakistan for Westerners. I’m thinking of the Newsweek cover right now, too. They’d love that picture. It’s also the sort of thing that is peddled by those pimps of the exotic Other, National Geographic.
The picture is quite similar to the front cover of the September 2007 issue of the National Geographic. This man’s eyes are definitely more intense and piercing. I wouldn’t want to test to see if he can turn me to stone.