Academic Terrorism

Nothing makes my blood boil more than when educators indulge in hate mongering, which is just too common in Pakistan. And they get away with it over and over again. They get away with hate speech and they get away with the most heinous crimes like threatening students based on their beliefs. It happens all the time without notice, without noise, without media attention. Anyone remember the case of the Ahmadi student who was expelled from Comsats because of her belief? Jahanzaib Haque blogged about it and asked “How do you fight an enemy planted inside the mind itself?” How indeed. All we can do is make noise.

So in the spirit of making noise, I stand by Arsalan Bilal who was recently unfairly rusticated (seriously hate using this archaic word but it’s fitting since targetting someone based on their belief should be archaic) from Bahria University, Islamabad. Details from The Nation:

A student of Bahria University, who was rusticated on the charges of threatening his faculty members by emailing them revolutionary poems, has decided to go on hunger strike on Friday (today), alleging victimisation at the hands of university administration for questioning the governing of the institution.

Arsalan Bilal, a student of Department of Humanities and Social Science, Bahria University, has decided to go on a hunger strike for an indefinite time period from Friday (today) in front of the university.

According to him, he has been subjected to the most appalling form of “academic terrorism” on campus as he was discriminated against and victimised by the university management and purported academics.

He said that he was rusticated from the university on the pretext that he is psychologically unstable, and had threatened his faculty members by emailing them revolutionary poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Noon Meem Rashid.

The student who has been studying on merit scholarship in the university believes that he was victimised for raising questions, in various discussion sessions, over the manner in which the military management and ‘pseudo intellectuals’ of Bahria University were governing the institution.

He alleges that he was marginalized as he belonged to a minority sect, which is pervasively persecuted across the country. It is noteworthy that Bilal was repeatedly discouraged from conducting his undergraduate research on “Politicisation of religion in Pakistan”.

It is worth mentioning that a lecturer of the university, Qamar Riaz, was also maltreated and fired by the management on raising a question at a seminar regarding governing of the institution.

“The students had protested to reinstate him and I have been victimised for being an active student in the movement, Bilal alleged.

Demanding dignified restoration with apology from university management Bilal has resolved not to call off his hunger strike until his demands are fulfilled. He sought cessation of all kinds of discrimination on the basis of race, caste, creed, religion, affiliation, etc. on campus.

He has demanded abolishment of dress code at the university and to render more need-based scholarships to students by eliminating fee discounts for children of naval officers.

He has also sought the replacement of all retired military officers in the university gradually by qualified civilians and all serving military officers in the university be directed to quit their jobs and return to purely military functions.

He said the post of director campus should be occupied by a highly qualified academic and the plagiarism check policy on faculty members be tighten.

When an official of the university was contacted to have his comments he said there is no official spokesperson of the university right now so it is better not to include the official version of the university in the story.

This is the press release I was sent:

Announcement of indefinite Hunger Strike by Mr. Arsalan Bilal

Arsalan Bilal, a student of Bahria University, has decided to go on a hunger strike for an indefinite time period from Friday, April 6, 2012 in front of Bahria University Headquarters, Margalla Road, Islamabad. Bilal was subjected to the most appalling form of “Academic Terrorism” on campus as he was discriminated against and victimized by Bahria University’s top management and purported academics. Arsalan Bilal was rusticated from the university on the pretext that he is psychologically unstable, and had threatened his faculty members by emailing them revolutionary poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Noon Meem Rashid.

Bilal, who has been studying on merit scholarship in that same university, believes that he was victimized for raising questions, in various discussion sessions, over the manner in which the military management and pseudo intellectuals of Bahria University were governing the institution. Moreover, Bilal was marginalized as he belonged to a minority sect, which is pervasively persecuted across the country. It is noteworthy that Bilal was repeatedly discouraged from conducting his undergraduate research on “Politicization of religion in Pakistan”.

Bilal has resolved not to call off his hunger strike until the following 14 demands are fulfilled:

1- Dignified restoration of Arsalan Bilal with apology from university’s management
2- Redress all grievances by reprimanding those responsible for committing atrocities on Bilal
3- Cessation of all kinds of discrimination on basis of race, caste, creed, religion, affiliation, etc. on campus
4- All serving military officers in the university be directed to quit their jobs and return to purely military functions
5- All retired military officers in the university be gradually supplanted by qualified civilians
6- Post of Director Campus should be occupied by a highly qualified academic
7- Purge the university of pseudo intellectuals
8- Constitute a special autonomous body of academics to ensure checks on faculty members
9- Tighten the plagiarism check policy on faculty members
10- Decision to retain faculty members should hinge on students’ feedback
11- Empower Students’ Affairs department for allaying apprehensions of students
12- Public proceedings of all cases before the discipline committee
13- Abolish dress code
14- Render more need-based scholarships to students by eliminating fee discounts for children of naval officers
If you’d like to know more on the subject, or schedule an interview with Mr. Arsalan Bilal, please call his media spokesperson, Mohammad Hissan Khan on +92 (0)321 5899 478, or email him at hissankhan@hotmail.com.

 Here is Arsalan explaining what happened:

You can find updates on this facebook page.

Arsalan’s hunger strike alone won’t change anything. As someone who was worked in the education sector, I know the sector as a whole couldn’t care less. What will make a difference is supporting Arsalan and other students like him who want to make a change and aren’t afraid to challenge the powers that be.

To the one who has waited too long

Mukhtar Mai, my heart weeps for you, it bleeds for you. It wept the day I heard of you & what you had been through. It will continue to do until you get justice, which I fear you won’t. For years I have waited for our country to come to its senses & give you the justice you deserve. Instead, we have given you nothing but more pain, more grief.

Mukhtar, I apologise for your plight, a plight that could have prevented, could have been addressed had those in power created just laws. Alas, ours are not just unjust, but divinely so.

Mukhtar, your courage has been inspirational & your strength has been admirably formidable. You represent strength for so many women. We stand by you. We weep for you, we bleed for you. You are our pillar of strength.

How Low Can You Go?

A couple of weeks or so ago, I wrote this article, which was also published here. The reaction was ferocious & people decided to only read the ironic part as serious and chose to ignore my actual opinion. I was threatened as expected and since then, people have been trying to change my blog’s password.

My point in this blog post simply was that the Newsweek list of women shaking Pakistan was not a representative list. I used what made for good content and my personal opinion of the women I’ve mentioned is that what they are doing is commendable and worthy of admiration.

However, some people chose to read this only for offense and now they’re crossing all limits. My blog comments are moderated and I have the right to reject comments that are slanderous & threatening.

I was issued the following rape threat by a Saima Ameen Hameed, presumably a transvestite who still uses her male name as her email address, which is khan.moeen@yahoo.com & whose IP address is 207.204.234.24: “I think all you need is a really big one in your cunt. Do you agree Nabiha? I would love to give it to you…”

And then said: “I’m going to be posting a short (but vivid) video of you on Youtube.com. Watch this space… Black bra, pink top. Stay tuned!”

Am I personally worried? No, not at all because obviously no such video exists and unless someone spends a lot of time & money on having a great fake video made, it’ll be easy to point out that it’s a fake. And if someone does go ahead and use up their resources, then it’ll be a waste because it wouldn’t affect me. I truly have thick skin unlike most Pakistanis I know. What others say about me does not affect me. If I don’t respect someone, then it doesn’t matter to me what they think of me. Why? Because I’m not insecure. It’s just as simple as that.

Similarly, people swearing at me, and calling me any names, doesn’t affect me. Why? Again, I’m not insecure & if I don’t care for someone, then it doesn’t matter what they say. What I aim for self respect and the love of those I love in return.

But what I do pose to everyone is the following question: does criticising a list justify threatening someone with rape & fake porn videos? And does the man who is being included, who had nothing to do with it, deserve this? And do my family deserve this?

In Pakistan, a family’s worth & honour is measured by the sexual purity of the female members of the family. Even if my parents don’t believe that to be true, this live in THIS culture, and in THIS country. What did they do wrong other than spawn me? Do they deserve to be this humiliated? Does my sister, who has nothing, whatsoever to do with my writing, deserve this? And what about my innocent brother in London?

Is this a game, I wonder, called “How Low Can You Go?” If so, congratulations dear offended, you’ve proven that it’s possible to easily hit the lowest of the lows and have proven that it’s possible to be an elite terrorist.

Your Happiness, My Misery

“Come participate in my happiness!” they all say to me, over and over again, the same fucking phrase so oft regurgitated that it has lost all power, all meaning, becoming a string of words that go in one ear and out another.

“Your happiness is my misery!” I tell them, the same fucking phrase of so oft regurgitated that it has lost all power, all meaning, becoming a string of words that go in one ear and out another.

Your happiness, my misery; it’s all one & the same when it comes to wedding related ostentatious “look at me I am Punjabi loin ROAARRR!” events that I can’t stand; these “functions”, these displays of wealth, these symbols of power make my blood boil.

I am not interested, I maintain, over and over again, in wasting my precious time with something that will upset me, aggravate me, and make me angry & venomous. Weddings turn me into Euripides’ Medea, an untameable, outraged virago, ready to sacrifice her own for a betrayal. And what a betrayal you are dear DNA sharers! What a betrayal!

When you say that my misery makes you happy I feel betrayed. I feel cheated on. I feel like I’m being reduced to insignificance while you place yourself on an undeserved pedestal. I feel like I’m being asked to sacrifice MY happiness for yours for no good reason other than the fact that you want to show off your popularity. “Look at me!” these weddings scream. “I am so rich, so popular!”

No, thank you, but I am not interested in helping anyone perpetuate a myth of family unity. And I am not willing to sacrifice my mental health for you, even if I do love you. Love & misery go hand in hand in seems, for me, the Punjabi wedding avoider. How can it not when it seems that they revel in my misery.

Your misery is my happiness is what you seem to be telling me, illogically.

Shall we deconstruct? Let’s.

“Share my happiness” they say, as if happiness is something like a candy bar we can split into two. The message this sends me is one of conformity. Don’t dare to be different. You will not belong. Happiness should, apparently, mean one and the same to everyone.

Disagreements are not tolerated it seems. The right to define what happiness is for me isn’t tolerated it seems.

“I do not ask you to eat pork!” I once yelled. Asking me to come to a wedding is like asking me to shove aside my principles for one day. How convenient that it’s ok to ask me to do so, but if asked to do something they detest for me, I wonder if they ever will. I will not try to even find out because I do not think that those who revel in my misery have any real love for me.

It takes a particularly sick & twisted, sinister mind to revel in my misery, declaring it happiness. I can’t help but question this weird definition of love. What kind of love is this, this oppressive emotion that relies on my misery in order to define the opposite?

From now on, no more. No more will I indulge any more of this “share my happiness” bullshit. For you see, your happiness is my misery.

I am Aasia

I am Aasia and my story has revealed the death of common sense and compassion in my land. I am Aasia who cries at the demise of a once tolerant land.

 

I, Aasia, live in a land that puts itself on a pedestal, demanding immunity to any criticism of its warped interpretations of religion. I live in a land where everyone colludes to silence those who don’t agree with them. I live in a land where if you don’t agree with inhumane state sanctioned discriminatory practises, then your head is cut off by those who claim they are doing it in the name of a religion of peace.

 

I am Aasia. I believe the blasphemy law is nothing but a force to silence any voice of reason. The blasphemy law is a force of control. I do not believe you have the right to declare me a lesser person based on my religion. I do not believe you have the right to demonise me or call me unclean while claiming to practise a religion that doesn’t discriminate. I am Aasia, your ehle Kitaab, a woman any Muslim man can even legally marry. I am Aasia and I question your audacity to treat me as an outcaste.

 

I am Aasia for I am used as a pawn: a target used to demonise when you don’t want to listen to your own bigotry, your own hypocrisy. I am Aasia and I reject your intolerance, your hypocrisy and your infliction of your persecution complex upon me.

 

Forgive me while, I, Aasia, ask you why YOU think you have the right to say what you will about me, but not even tolerate a word from my perspective? I ask what gives YOU the right to judge me while insisting that I dare not judge you. Forgive me while I point out to you just how nauseating your double standards are. Forgive me while I ask you to hold up a mirror and take a long, hard look at yourself.

 

I am Aasia, yet another fashionable cause. Those of you who can make a difference have done nothing but give me lip service and I’m afraid it’s not good enough. As long as this law exists, Aasias will proliferate the land.

 

I say this because I am Aasia, the most disenfranchised of you all. If you can read this, you are probably sitting very comfortably in front of your computer screens, safe from mobs, guarded from the reality of poverty. Most of you are too busy leading your rich lives, deaf to my pleas, deaf to my cries, comfortable in your homes with your cupcakes everywhere. And I know some of you might appropriate my pain, my misery and exploit it for your own elitist benefit. I fear you will reduce my suffering into a cause that you can fight with fashion, the way you say you fight terrorism with tank tops.

 

I am Aasia. Silence me if you can. I am Aasia for I, too, shall not be scared to challenge discrimination against me.

 

Emails to the UK Visa Office

I applied for my British visa in the beginning of May and have, like many others, yet to receive it. What’s most frustrating and worse is the lack of cooperation from the British US visa office. First of all, it defies the senses that the visas are sent to Abu Dhabi to be processed. It feels racist really. Although Gerry’s, the courier office, happily responds to phone calls etc, they are thoroughly useless and politely say “we don’t know” to anything and everything anyone asks. Eventually, hoping to find out something, anything, I emailed Abu Dhabi only to get a reply saying they’ll get back to me “soon” but never replied. Irritated and desperate, I sent many sarcastic emails, which I cannot reproduce here just in case they decide to sue me or something. As a Pakistani citizen, I have no legal recourse as we are all well aware. I shall just reveal the delicious tit bits that got their attention.

I received my first positive response from Abu Dhabi (since “soon” had come and gone) after sending them the following email: I would REALLY APPRECIATE and love a reply to my query. I’m willing to even donate you an ovary and piece of my soul for this precious information.

They asked me for additional information which I sent them instantly. And then again, I waited in vain. Finally, I sent this: Really would be most grateful and appreciate a reply. Would mean a lot. PLEASE.

Followed by this a few days later: Do you require anything else? If no, A REPLY WOULD BE REALLY NICE AND APPRECIATED. It’s been 2 months. Thank you very much for inconveniencing my life sooooo much. I’m very grateful. Your instant replies must be lauded. And I sincerely thank you from the BOTTOM OF MY HEART for making us Pakistanis look polite and super efficient.

I’ve asked before: do you need an ovary for this precious information? If so, I’ll make arrangements to send it if it will get me a response. I have plenty to spare since I’m not even 30 yet.

Much regards and appreciation for the constant anxiety and migraine.

They replied the next day, on July 15^th, confirming that my documents have been processed and will be sent “soon.” Of course, this rather cryptic message wasn’t good enough for me, now fully frustrated at the fact that terrorists are issued visas and us, the secular people who are constantly getting threats for standing up against religious extremism are being denied. Are they trying to push me into the arms of those who happily create ludicrous conspiracy theories? Because, at the moment, they seem comforting.

Then I sent this: Does that mean that I’ve been granted and blessed with a visa or have I been rejected? Would love a reply again since the rejection rate from Abu Dhabi for Pakistani citizens is an astounding 47%. Secondly, could you please define “soon” and please let me know if they have been sent. Because sometimes it can take a very long time. The acceptable definition would be 3 or four days, but please let me know soon so I can book my ticket.

Abu Dhabi replied saying they couldn’t tell me anything due to the Data Protection Act. My reply: So you guys can’t even define what soon is? Because, according to many experts in the language who I have consulted regarding this matter, they say that your use of the word isn’t right. Soon would have meant I should have received it today really. It’s not like Abu Dhabi and Lahore are that far really. I’m not asking you to send me my documents to Mars. So I feel rather deceived. This isn’t soon. I feel lied to. Not nice… Do you perhaps put our documents on a ship, send it to Antarctica and then send them to Pakistan? That’s what it seems like. Again, thank you very much for this distress and the constant headache. I may be Pakistani, but I’m a human being.

And since this was a few days ago, I just sent them the following email:

Dear nameless, faceless visa officers,

Again, my kindest regards for making us Pakistani look efficient. It continues to defy my senses what your definition of “soon” is. I shall have to start teaching my students that they must learn a different definition of soon from now on if they ever apply for a British visa. But they’ll probably give me the standard reply: “but ma’am visas are issued by people playing eeni-meeni-minie-mo with our passports!” I’m afraid, at this point, this joke doesn’t seem like a joke, but a bitter reality.

According to many conspiracy theorists, you do indeed ship our documents to Antarctica before sending them back to Pakistan. They believe that since we are constantly denied visas and our passports are often hijacked for month on end, a few sympathetic White people decided that our passports should at least be allowed to travel. Now, since it is going to make a stop over in a land full of penguins, I was wondering if you could please send me a pair along with my passport. However, since penguins also have homosexual members, could you please ensure that one is male and the other is female? I only say this because it would be nice to have a family of penguins as a souvenir for my passport’s holiday since I doubt I’ll get my passport in time to go on mine. I have absolutely nothing against homosexuals; in fact my biggest desire is to produce a gay son one day.

Again, thanks for the wonderful treatment and the delay has just been the most wonderful thing ever. I missed my 10 year high school reunion. I cry every day when I see the pictures. I’m desperate to go see my friends, but why am I telling you this? You obviously don’t care…