Adil Najam
We have used the ‘Jahalat‘ caption before in headlines (here, here and here). It is time to do so again.
This picture is from PPI and the caption reads:
“A physically paralyzed girl lies half-buried in sand at the banks of river Indus. Local mythology suggests burying paralyzed children in sand and exposing them to solar eclipse helps overcome paralysis.”
Need one say more!
I guess even a solar eclipse is no cure for jahalat.
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.
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Parveen
Here is a taste of the journalism that you are supporting…
Say you are reading the holy Quran in your open air backyard. Suddenly your child cries out in pain or your haandi is burning. You get up and try to run, in hurry the Quran slips from your hands and you accidentally step on it. Right at this moment your neighbour takes your picture and sends it to a news paper. ATP sees that news item and puts it up on their website with a caption “Jahil Lady stomps on the holy Quran”. Next day a mob shows up outside your house and… you get the point.
Now would’nt you want ATP to do their home work beofre putting up the picture and the caption??? As a matter of fact this actually happened (on more or less the same lines) and the mob burned that poor guy/girl alive.
I guess my point is that do not call some one jahil, just beacuse they had to make a hard choice for their child. We do not know what their circumstances are.
Some one posted a link to a news story on a mother who did not want Chemotherapy for her son dying with cancer. I followed that story closely. Her son’s cancer would come back after several sessions of chemo. The son was really in pain because of all the chemo. The doctors did not guarantee that chemo will eradicate cancer completely and gave her 30% success chance. The mother had to make a choice… see her son go through extreme pain and still die Or seek an alternate painless treatment. To me she made a tough choice. What would have you done in her place?? If I were in her place what would have I done? To be honest, I don’t know…
Deeply moved by ABC’s post. I stand by him and wish ATP change the title and add more to the body of the post correcting its statement.
The picture is not really remarkable, but the comments are.
The nonsense about “getting permission” is ridiculous for anyone who knows anything about journalism. This is not a case where you would require such permission.
Whether the PPI caption is wrong and this is a ‘picnic’ is more interesting, but only in a funny way. Since we have no way of knowing whether it is or not the sensible thing is to assume that they did do their homework and you cannot reasonably ask everyone else to go and dig out the family and ask them when a major news agency has stated that to be the case.
More interesting is the case of sympathy with the parent. My sympathy is also with the parent and maybe the headline is a little harsh, but only a little. It *IS* jahalat certainly, but probably not the type that should incite ridicule. I do not believe that the author is trying to ridicule the family, rather showing that we do silly things without thinking about their consequence. That is a legitimate and admirable journalistic point, because it is true.
So, I do feel that what these parents are doing, even if in love, is wrong. But I do not feel angry at them, I feel their pain. I just wish that we will stop being a society where such things are encouraged. In that, I think the attitude of many commenters is quite disturbing because they seem to be supporting this, even suggesting that maybe this is the solution.
I am deeply appalled by the fraudelnet journalism shown here by ATP. You just saw the picture on another newspaper and reproduced it as is on ATP. Did you do your research? Do you know what are the circumstances under which this family is doing this? Did anyone ask this family why they are doing this? This is the exact kind of “Jahil” journalism that Pakistanis are known for. I thought that ATP would have some sort of higher standards than the negative journalism that we ususally see in Pakistan.
Instead of calling this family ‘jahil’ and other names, has anyone even thought about what their plight is? what are they going through? why are they doing this? As a father of a special needs child, I can tell you this… a parent will go to any lengths to save their child. The mind set becomes totally different. No other person can undersatnd it.. even other parents with normal kids. Let me tell you two true stories that happned recently…
News 1
A 65 year old woman shot her 40 year old (with brain function level of a 2 year old) special needs daughter and then committed suicide. She left a note… “since I am dying with cancer, I do not trust anyone to take care of my daughter after I die”.
News 2
A dying mother left her 26 year old (with brain function level of a 2 year old) special needs daughter to her step sister. After her death, the sister locked the girl in the basement, and never fed her. A year (or much less, I can’t remeber) later Police found her frail body covered in her own feces. With no food and water the poor girl ate her own feces. When she was left in her sister’s custody, she was 140 lbs… when police found her body, she weighed only 60 lbs.
Now you tell me… was the Mother in News 1 wrong in killing her child???? I asked the same question to myself when I read that news, and I could not decide whether what she did was wrong or right. As a father of special needs child I am scared to death of the moment when I might have to make a choice. I pray to Allah that no one be faced with this situation. So please be considerate, we do not know what this family is going through and what their situation is. Thanks to ATP, this family’s dignity is being publicly humiliated.
On the other hand, I will admit that parents of disabled and special needs children or any parent for that matter, always tends to find the magic pill that will fix everything quickly. I, myslef has wished for this… a miricle that would cure my child. But the realty is that there is no magic pill, there might be a miricle, but I can not wait for that miricle. Parents of special needs children need to realise that they must not wait for that magic pill or miricle. They need to apply themselves and work hard on their kids.. therapies and whatever else is recomended by the professionals. The goal is to make them as independent as possible. Certainly one always prays to Allah that He show his miricle and cure my child.
The biggest challenge from Allah to man is the challenge of their children. Even the prophets were brought to their knees by this challenge, then who the heck are we?? or as we say in Urdu “hum kis khet ki mooli hain”. I pray to Allah that no one has to face that challenge.
@Akif. I don’t think it is picnic. Parent’s faces look sad and pained.