The Land of The Pure - Pakistan

 

 

 

 

 

“What’s the first thing which comes to your mind when you hear Pakistan ?” that was the first question asked by Prof. Mahan Mirza from the Department of Religion Studies at California State University, Chico in his short but very informative lecture about his country of origin, Pakistan. Recently Pakistan has been making international political news with a drastic shift in its political power from a military regime, a strong movement for democracy and assassination of one of the world’s renowned female politicians, Benazir Bhutto.

 

 

 

 

 

“Cricket !” that was my answer to Prof. Mahan’s opening question. Being raised in Sri Lanka, a close neighbor to Pakistan in South Asia, I have been a great lover of cricket and Pakistan has been one of the biggest rival teams for Sri Lankans. As a kid, I used to dread the Pakistan’s finest all-rounder Imran Khan because whenever he comes to bat or bowl, he’s sure to cripple the opponent team with his first-class cricket talent.

 

 

 

 

 

But Prof. Mahan’s objective for the discussion at Holt 170 was not just to talk about cricket but to educate the crowd with facts about demographics, geography, economy, culture, political issues and most importantly address the common misconception about Pakistan as being an extremist, anti-American society where women are being treated as subalterns and the country which was also labeled as ‘The Most Dangerous Nation in the World’ by Newsweek recently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do not intend to write all the information Prof. Mahan presented but instead there were very interesting facts and personal insights that he shared which is not be available in Wikipedia. Discussing demographics, he described about the youth population in Pakistan, where more than half of the population is under the age of 30. “This group with young blood, enthusiasm and the adrenaline to create change which can be easily manipulated for any cause whether it may be right or wrong in the eyes of an outsider” he mentioned which I believe is true. Coming to United States from a third world country, just like Pakistan, I can understand the frustration these youth groups might be going through with no proper jobs to keep them occupied or to even bring in daily groceries. Hence they easily become targets of politicians with ulterior motives.

 

 

 

 

 

He also told the audience about the climate and an interesting fact was that Alexander the Great who invaded Muhan in 325 B.C gave up and turned back because of the intense heat in the area. And it was also interesting that largest block of Muslims in the world is in Pakistan, contrasting the popular belief that largest concentration of Muslims is in Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 

 

 

I also found Pakistan’s defense paradigm very interesting. I was surprised to hear that Pakistan, being one of the underdeveloped nation boasts for the seventh largest armies in the whole world and being one few countries to hold nuclear weapons worth billions of dollars. And India being Pakistan’s enemy for decades over a disputed area of Kashmir, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was compelled to support the Taliban for political stability just because of the fact that they did not want to have two neighboring enemies on either side. But please understand that it does not necessarily mean that Pakistan support any Islamic terrorist activities.

 

 

 

Towards the end, Prof. Mahan addressed one of the most talked about issues when it comes to Pakistan : Women’s rights. He disproved the fact that Pakistani society undermines rights for women and that they are a socially suppressed group. He presented the audience with photographs of Pakistani women who are currently at the International level as fashion models, world class cricketers and fighter pilots and stressed on the fact that many misconceptions about Pakistan have arisen due to the international media propaganda.

 

Overall, the discussion was very informative and it indeed increased my awareness about the issues in Pakistan and got rid of some misconceptions that I myself had for years.

 

 

 

To give a brief introduction to Prof. Mahan Mirza, he was born in 1972 in KarachiPakistan with the exceptions of Kindergarten in England and grades 4-5 in Southern California. In 1991 he came to the United States and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of TexasAustin in 1995. After working for two years as a project engineer in Seattle and Washington DC, he left his job in pursuit of answers to deeper questions. He studied Arabic and the Qur'an for a year in Lahore and then joined the graduate program in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. In 2001 Mahan joined Yale's PhD program in Islamic Studies. He’s proficient in 6 different languages which indeed amazed me.