Smoking amongst Pakistani Youth - A product of frustration or peer pressure?

I believe that the Pakistani youth is very uniform. Be it good or bad habits, you will see them all across a particular strata of the Pakistani youth society. This made me wonder whether the Pakistani youth succumbs to an unusually large extent to Peer Pressure. Afterall, if you look at the number of guys smoking in colleges in Pakistan, you will notice that it is unusually high. In the developed world, smoking is almost considered 'disgusting', especially amongst the educated people who know about its health risks. However, if you notice in Pakistan, almost every 'popular' person (especially males)on campus smokes, and that also proudly in public places. I believe one of the reasons why smoking is become so widespread is because the youth is very frustrated. I've heard a lot of people smoking likea chimney saying that they are very stressed out and smoking helps them. It is also sad that our society never brings out the Islamic view on smoking, because its inconvenient because if not the person,one of his/her loved one smokes. Most religious scholars around the world agree that smoking is Makrooh.

Another popular myth seen amongst the youth is that sheesha is 1.Halal 2. Not addictive 3. Harmless! (trust me I’ve heard a lot ofpeople say there’s no harm smoking sheesha!). Firstly, most scholars agree that sheesha is Makrooh to say the least and even though it might not be as addictive as smoking, all my friends who smoke sheesha say that it is addictive. And to the last point, some of you might be surprised to know that SMOKING SHEESHA IS VERY HARMFUL – a 45 minute session of sheesha is like smoking a pack of cigarettes.

The Crown Of Disgrace- Miss Pakistan World.

‘Miss Pakistan World’- an open assassination of the Pakistani cultural values, a historical disgrace and the demise of our values on a global scale occurred in 2003. Where on one hand, the religious and moral boundaries were butchered in the name of liberty, freedom and global competitiveness of the Pakistani women. On the other hand myriad so-called ‘broadminded’ majority esteemed the launch of ‘ Miss Pakistan World’ held in Canada which acclaimed to bring about the Pakistani beauty on the global front and grant the Muslim women the same rights as the other women in the world, by walking the ramp for various rounds in the contest including the ‘bikini round’

The pageant which was aimed at bringing the young Pakistani women from around the world to compete for a ‘diamond studded beauty crown’, in my opinion largely demanded immoral and anti-cultural practices that can be regarded as an ultimate insult to Muslim women . Walking a ramp before the crowd of billions in a bikini is certainly not a symbol of ‘FREEDOM’ rather it portrays the lack of dignity and values on behalf of the Pakistani women who very proudly participated in the contest.

Our culture/ religon most certainly grant women with the fundamental rights and ample freedom in all aspects, however, it does not allow one to misuse their yearning for freedom and bring such shame to the country/ society. Nothing justifies this gesture of these women, who can perform such heinous acts for a mere ‘diamond crown’ and for those who call it liberation of women, its for them to choose whether a mere diamond crown (that calls for “shedding off clothes”) is worth the massacre of your dignity?

Upheaval- the enriched status of women.

The stereotypical image of Pakistani woman has been that of a conservative, dejected and a miserable being that is forcefully confined within the four walls of her dwelling. However, in the recent times our culture has undergone a radical change. The women, who were known for remaining behind the veil, have now taken the frontage! Owing to the escalating rate of awareness due to media efforts, the contribution by the government, rising rate of education amongst the women clearly depict that they have a chief role to play in all aspects and no country can develop without the joint efforts of all its inhabitants.

Women now have the freedom to attain education, perform jobs and earn a livelihood, be it in the field of education or sports they have acordingly earned a respectable status and a separate unique identity for themselves. This trend is primarily increasing in the urban areas of the country. Undeniably there are still many areas of Pakistan that remain prone to immoral, unethical and brutal hostility and exploitation of the women at the hands of the male dominated, illiterate and sadistic societies, the most prominent examples of which include the violent practices against the women in Sindh, and NWFP region.

Mostly, the western media and even some ignorant citizens of Pakistan accuse ‘Islam’ for these brutalities without realizing that Islam is the only religion that grants women equal rights as the men. The elementary teachings and spirit of Islam are clearly unbiased; it regards men and women as honorable equals. Man is technically the head of the household, but Islam absolutely encourages matriarchy.

Therefore, the orthodox images of greatly emotional and concealed Pakistani women should be cut down by the media. Instead, the enrichment of the status and role of women over the past 60 years should be highlighted so that the upcoming generations rather feel proud of their culture and religion =)

The “Yo-generation”! Is this what I am left with?

Gelled-up spikes, a colorful t-shirt whose sleeves have rolled-up to present a better picture of the hard work spent on the beefed-up muscles, the ever-visible boxers which have vowed never to go in modesty and some branded sneakers and I present to you the result of MTV westernization.

This is the modern Prince Charming. This is what we have reduced our tastes to. We modern women are marring our name in history. But we are not entirely blameworthy. We are not left with many choices. In fact, many of us dames have never even encountered a knight in shiny armor.

There was a time when our mothers had crushes on truly classy men. Yes, they were classy. Although their choice in dressing differs from us but when it comes to men they have seen the remarkable kinds. Both Imran Khan and Junaid Jamshed made dashing hairstyle statements, the sophisticated Rahat Kazmi, the classy Dr. Mani from Shahzori and others of the like.

Unexpectedly, I had a crush on one person, who I had often seen during my childhood when Pakistani dramas had a standard, was Shakeel. His calm and demure manner and his smiling gaze at his wife whenever she was venting her anger at him is something which is actually called “cool”. Not your boyfriend’s dressing. This reminds me, he wore a simple white shalwar kurta but it added more to his style.

Now we have crushes on the likes of pretty boys aka Christiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Ali Zafar and we can never forget our hulky neighboring Bollywood stars Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham etc. These are the idols of the todays young generation and their carbon copies can be found now.

In an article, “Missing Bollywood’s Good Old Days” Aamna Isani reminisces about the time “When heroes were men not metrosexuals”. She writes that “Whether they were brooding romantics like Dilip Kumar, sensitive souls like Sanjeev Kumar or the quintessential lover boys like Rajesh Khanna or Dev Anand, they never appeared anything but pure ‘man’…….Today most of Bollywood’s heroes appear as pygmies on steroids…..Because the hero must dance better (Hrithik Roshan, SRK,…….) than his female counterpart and he must be dressed just as colorfully too, if not more.”

That was a time when a person brought his individual personality. This uniqueness appeals more than some eight pacs. Once a friend of mine tried to get out information about what type of men attract me. And it was a bit difficult for me to explain since my generation can not comprehend with the fact that apart from attractive physical features and a good salary (we all are gold-diggers) what else does a woman wants? Surely we want attractive and well-groomed men but the one of the most charming aspects is personality. We all want to be mesmerized, don’t we ladies?

Political and Economic Environment of Pakistan: Its repercussions on the youth.

This is probably the scariest point in Pakistan’s history. Threatened with rampant terrorism and being engulfed by the world economic recession, Pakistan’s future seems bleak for those that like to stick to reality. The youth, especially those that are attending college and will soon be looking for jobs are all reacting differently to this situation.

There are those who believe that no matter what, they can never leave their country and are hopeful that things are going to get better soon. They cannot stand pessimism and treat those who try to give them a ‘reality check’ as traitors to the nation. They believe, that one day they themselves will be the ones that will become the change they want to see in the nation.

However, there are others that take things the opposite way. These are usually people who have lived a significant part of their lives abroad. They are sometimes arrogant, as can be seen by their all-knowing looks as they quote economic indicators and CIA predictions. Indeed, they have no shame in using phrases such as “the country is going down the drain”, or “there won’t be a Pakistan soon.”

As the youth is said to be future of the country, I am puzzled by what the future of my country holds as I look around. Will the educated use their education for an exit strategy to leave the country? Or will they use their education towards not only investing and working to make a better Pakistan, but to improve its international image? As for me, I like to believe that while accepting the fact that Pakistan is in bad shape, I know that there is a lot of hope. After all, the Germans had to carry a cart full of cash to buy a loaf of bread, just to realize that the price had increased by the time they reached there! If they can survive, so can we – it only depends on our nationalism.

What Language Do We Speak In?

How the language used by people in Pakistan has changed can be said to be both humorous and tragic. Whether it is Urdu or English, it seems we cannot use a language without ruining it and tearing it to shreds.

Urdu, our national language, is considered one of the most beautiful and expressive languages in the world and yet most of the time, when you hear someone speaking in Urdu these days they chew up half the letters and at times even entire syllables of words. A pleasant salam used to be the generally accepted greeting. Somehow, nowadays, greetings aren’t ‘in’. I’m not going to say much about Urdu. This is because phrases such as ‘kya scene hai?’ or ‘kaisa hai boy?’ have led me to believe that our beloved language is now in danger of extinction. For me to start pointing out where we lost Urdu does not require a blog, it needs an entire book!

Now please allow me to hit out at the English speakers. Right, I’m referring to all those people out there that are ashamed of speaking Urdu because speaking in English just makes them sound so much ‘cooler’. In fact, I believe the official terminology used to describe such people is ‘mummy-daddy’ (I won’t even start with everything that’s wrong with that term). How English lost its way is a much simpler task to assess when compared to Urdu. Firstly, we can blame our own efforts to be cool or to try and fit in. If other people start using slang, then we probably should too. People may have forgotten that the word slang actually is an abbreviation for STREET language.

Secondly, the hip-hop culture!! Perhaps, if I could go back in time, I would warn the likes of Tupac Shakur of the everlasting damage he was unknowingly about to inflict on the English language. ’Sup, dawg?’ is all I need to say to prove my point.

And then there’s instant messaging. ‘Lol’, ‘brb’ and ‘tc’ are just a few of the commonly seen abbreviations found in a typical instant messaging conversation. Now there probably is no need for me to tell you what any of those stand for as it is understood that EVERYBODY knows what they mean. That fact, in itself, serves as a pretty good indication of how far this decay has spread through our society. One may argue that, fine, there is nothing wrong with using such abbreviations or acronyms since it is just instant messaging. What bothers me, though, is that a lot of people actually use the abbreviations in verbal conversations as well. Is this what we’ve come down to? Have we actually become too lazy to say (or type) complete words? At this rate, soon enough a normal conversation between two people could end up with them just spitting out random letters at each other only for it to make complete and absolute sense.

Lets hope we can find a way to solve this growing problem. Until then i'll TTYL!

Religion, Morals and Values: Our Lost Identity

As is the same with all societies, Pakistani society, too, has evolved over a period of time. However, what becomes difficult to accept is that we seem to have lost our identity, both as an Islamic state and also as a society which prides itself on being built around firm morals, values and ethics.

Today, empty mosques, increased usage of alcohol and drugs amongst our youth, corruption and greed as well as a lack of respect of elders and authority are all quickly cementing their place in our society and, unfortunately, these sights even seem to be gaining acceptance among the general public and the younger generation in particular. It also seems strange that individuals who indulge in immoral activities are, at times, held high and placed on a pedestal.

There was a time, not too long ago, when people were looked down upon for drinking or for being disrespectful and when religion was a high priority to people. We need to rediscover ourselves and find a way back to reclaiming our true identity.

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