Female Image in the NWFP

Re: # 51
mantolives, you suck. before even thinking about bacha khan and his family ta olamba (take a bath). u ugly piece of shit.

who you calling riff raff ... you prole you!

Non-violent I am ... just not the hypocrite type ;) i.e. Gandhi-kind, frontier or otherwise.

Manto, you chauvinistic riff-raff, say sorry before your wife makes you realize the virtues of non-violence (In the name of feminism offcourse).

... and to stop blaming the zionists for it ... wink wink...

Yawn...

Tell ... Bacha Khan`s daughter in law to return the panties she stole from Marks&Spencers in the 70s...

Manto bhai.

There is a remedy for your condition, its called ``Dhaniyay wala Paani``. Try it some time.

Regards.

P.S. Make this your screen saver......``An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.``

cliftonbridge, taureankhan

Often a good way forward is to view things in a temporal framework. So, sufism was replaced by (militant) Islam. Now, let`s say we would like to turn the tide back. We need to look around and learn from societies and places where local institutions (Pushtoon wali, in this case) were able to recapture their influence from (militant) Islam. How did they go about it? Can that experience be replicated?

khan, thank you for the insight. Although i understand your frustration i do think that there might be another side to the equation...although female literacy is estimated at 2% in non urban NWFP/Baluchistan that number is growing, and male literacy is ofcourse growing at a faster rate.
I doubt that new found jihadism is going to be here for long, it is bound to self destruct when people wisen up to the idea that fighting them often in injust ways IS what makes them stronger.
I agree that there is no easy answer but these are the same people who were sufi`s for centuries before they were wahabi`s so i doubt it is impossible for them to change direction once again, just so long as we do enough to alleviate poverty and illiteracy the rest will follow. It wont happen tomorrow sadly.

re. article and #43:

Amer Khan sahib: It is a privelege to read your well-informed analyses and to get a sense of your concerns for developments in the NWFP in the not so distant future.

Is the genie really and truly out of the bottle, or is there a chance that Pakhtun Wali might reassert itself? And if it does, what are the dangers it brings with it? What would be its essential difference/s in response to the challenges of (modern) secularization, failure of socialism, and globalization, which, I think, are the main factors contributing to the sucess of radical, extremist islam in the Frontier?

Thanks in anticipation.

Re: # 40

Dear cliftonbridge:

This is Amer Khan.

you said: ``I think the cultural diff. may be more obvious with the whole taliban angle but this cultural thingy is older than the taliban...where does it come from?``



Here is my take on that:


--social conservatism is, I think, prevalent in all frontier/periphery regions...whether its Taxas or Tank....for Pathans the conservative sociol institutions collectively called the pre-Islamic ``Pukhtun Wali`` - implying a code of honor which has been much more effective then the government writ even during the British times. The demarkation of ``hujra`` and ``Jumaat`` (mosque) was clear cut with hujra playing a much more active role as a social institution (acting as a dispute resolution mechanism also).....Infact if you read the most popular pashto poet Ghani Khan`s works, you will not find a reverntial place given to the mullah....Extremist Islam never played a part in Pathan social existence.

-- with time, the hujra has weakened and the mosque strengthened as unemployment, urban migration and general fall in human condition slowly increased social frustrations...pashtun nationalism did not appear to provide any solace......vacuum filled by religion- Afghan war acted as a perfect escape with double benefits - dollars and a promise of heaven!!

---

Afghan war demonstrated that ``might is right``.....also resulted in rise of a new generation of ``warrior men`` susceptible to the call of militant Islam by the religious leaders.....

hence, social conservatism took a violent and Islamic extremist idiom in the backdrop of general economic decline and underdevelopment.....

I might sound apoclyptic, but the social tensions frothing up particularly due to the rising income disparities will further intensify this situation, economic tensions translating into ISlamic extremism... Being a sensitive, educated and progressive Pathan, I am extremely worried about the whole state of affairs in my province.

Thanks.

adam bhai,

I tend to agree with Ghani Khan`s definition... but conversely would that make a hypocrite like ``Ghani Baba`` a Mullah too?

The picture is hilarious. This is what being stripped off context does.. not that I have any real affection for Bacha Khan`s or Mufti Mahmood`s progeny.

The actual ad has a guy out with a bunch of chicks on the beach.... and he says ``Shama meray dil ki awaz`` and they are like ``shama who your wife?`` (they are hurt thinking he is married and is just playing with them) and he is like ``No No... Shama my life`` ... shama being the ghee

khan you have made my day :) as a liberal i was torn between supporting the intelligent things you said and feeling bad about all the pushtoons who might read this....there is nothing wrong with a pushtoon telling the truth and being self critical, infact i applaud you.

May i ask you, what is the root cause ? why has the evolution of NWFP been so diff. from the other parts of persia (iran) and indo-pakistan? I think the cultural diff. may be more obvious with the whole taliban angle but this cultural thingy is older than the taliban...where does it come from?

After all the pushtoons were the most famous sufi`s so i dont think cultural wahabi-ism is the reason. Any thoughts?

Re: # 38

Dear PM,

How the West was won, Oh yes, thoroughly enjoyed it, back then when guns were cool and killing thy enemy macho. Damn, that was a longtime ago. Thanks for perking up my day!!

arif bhai!

Yes, I know that we were talking about Pakistani social values from the start but.... but now I`ve forgotten what the point of the debate was... :-)

Khair... thanks for the CSM article. Please keep posting both, such enlightening articles and your thought-provoking views.

Oh, and ... thanks for finally dropping the sahib bit. abb voh mujhe zeb nahin deytha. :-)

Speaking of which/whom... were you old enough to have enjoyed the series How the West Was Won on NTM in the late 80`s?

Re: # 17

Interesting, indeed! leave to the imagination of the viewer what the face under the hijab reflects - joy, happiness, satisfaction or what have you, very original way of advertising one`s wares, one must say!