When contemptible street scum actually is contemptible

Abid Sher Ali (left) and Rana Sanaullah (right)

Shireen Mazari uses the word ‘guttersnipes’ to describe the filthy Rana Sana, Abid Sher Ali and Talal Chaudhry of the PML-N. As an upstanding citizen of Pakistan with the moral obligation to tell misogynistic a-holes to go to hell, I stand with her and her choice of words to describe these men.

So PMLN guttersnipes have come out showing their gutter origins by using filthy lang ag PTI women - from Abid Sher Ali to Talal Ch to Rana Sanaullah & in footsteps of Kh Asif! Can respond in kind abt PMLN women but will not stoop to gutter level! Let them wallow in their filth

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) April 30, 2018

It all started when Abid Sher Ali in his infinite (lack of) wisdom decided to call Shireen Mazari a ‘tractor trolley’ on the floor of the parliament; the very same parliament where we expect the best of us to go and debate and listen and make laws. Instead of apologizing, he doubled down on his vulgarity and gave a new weapon to PML-N supporters — that it was OK for them to harass and verbally abuse the women of PTI.

It is no secret that the PML-N has always been envious of Imran Khan’s unrelenting popularity in the upper-middle class of Pakistan. This class is educated, moneyed, social, outgoing and constantly calls for changes to the established power structures that we’ve been seeing since the 1980s. So how does the PML-N react to this class? They go after the upper-middle class women by slut-shaming them. In their tiny, regressive worldview, the PML-N yanks think that slut-shaming these women will elicit the same reaction that they would have if somebody slut-shamed their own mothers, wives and daughters — hurt the ego of the men.

Will boycott interviewing Abid Sher Ali, Rana Sanaullah and all such misogynist creeps if they don’t publicly apologise. Enough is enough.
All female anchors/journos should boycott them. #RespectWomen

— Rabia Anum (@RabiaAnumm) April 30, 2018

But this vileness does not swing from one tree. PTI is also notorious when it comes to lack of women protection. The vitriol they spew against Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar, or Ayesha Gulalai, or heck, even Imaan Mazari (daughter of Shireen Mazari) will leave anyone’s mouth agape. It all points to the bigger fact that these men (of the PML-N and PTI) believe it is OK if women are befouled as long as it’s the women of the other side; it only becomes an issue if it’s the women of their own side who are harassed.

@MaryamNSharif @marvi_memon @Sairaafzalpmln @shaistapervaiz @Marriyum_A & all other women in PMLN:

Have the moral courage to stand up to safeguard respect of ur female colleagues 2day & women in general by ENSURING action is taken over the FILTH spewed by your party-bearers,

— ایمان زینب (@ImaanZHazir) April 30, 2018

I do not expect Rana Sanaullah or Abid Sher Ali to be punished by the leadership of the PML-N. Rana Sana’s foul mouth has uttered unbelievable vitriol in the past without a single hair ruffling on either of the Sharif brothers’ heads. It will be no different this time. What I am happy to see is that instead of the people saying “this is more of the same,” they’ve really taken both Rana Sana and Abid Sher Ali to the cleaners. Rabia Anum of Geo says she will not invite or interview Rana Sana, Abid Sher Ali or any other “misogynist creeps” until they apologize. Imaan Mazari has publicly called out Maryan Nawaz Sharif Safdar, Marvi Memon, Saira Afzal and Shaista Pervaiz and demanded that they stand up to safeguard the respect of their female colleagues.

Will this ugliness make any difference to the political careers of those who foul-mouth women as if they were consuming Rooh Afza on a hot summer day? Most probably not. But if there’s one thing everybody can be proud of, it’s that the conscientious people of Pakistan will not stay silent in the name of such backwardness anymore. 

When the election turns into a selection

Khawaja Asif

Imran Khan likes to refer to Nawaz Sharif as The Godfather because the Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom decided to reference “The Godfather” (a fictional book by Mario Puzo) in the Panamagate verdict. He likes to use it because because the analogy reinforces the idea that Nawaz Sharif is a don (head of the PML-N), surrounded by his henchmen (top leadership of the PML-N), running Pakistan’s version of the Sicilian mafia. Today, the Islamabad High Court disqualified another one of Nawaz Sharif’s henchmen — Khawaja Asif, for life. Khawaja Asif said he’ll appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court, but we all see a lost cause when we see one, right?

Or maybe we don’t. This is more fuel to the fire. First, they went after Nawaz Sharif. They technically couldn’t do much to him because hey, nothing — not the offshore companies and not the accursed flats in London —  was actually in his name. They were either under his sons’ names, or they were under Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar’s name. So what did they do? They pulled the lamest excuse in the entire universe, that Nawaz Sharif is dishonest and untruthful because he did not declare that he could have received a salary from the company of his son, registered in Dubai, and even though he actually did not receive that salary, he still could have received it, to disqualify him from the prime ministership. You still want to say they weren’t out to get him from the start?

Khawaja Asif’s case is different. He has an iqama of the UAE — a residence visa — which allows him the ability to flitter between Pakistan and Dubai should the going get tough; which it seems to have gotten. But the judges said it was not his iqama that was the problem; it was the fact that he was receiving a monthly salary from Dubai, and had not declared his employment in his nomination papers. This made him ineligible to contest the elections in the first place. In 2017, Usman Dar of the PTI filed a petition challenging the legality of Khawaja Asif’s election and thus, Khawaja Asif was also found dishonest and untruthful much like Nawaz Sharif and now, he’s out on his butt for the rest of his life. The establishment’s blue eyed boy celebrates wild today.

We are part of the democratic process. This means that when a judge passes a ruling, we are bound by our civic duty as upstanding citizens of our country to accept it. But even the judges in this case had to concede that this ugliness has gone on for far too long now. Justice Athar Minallah wrote in the judgement that:

“It would have been been appropriate if the petitioner [Usman Dar of the PTI] had gone to the parliament to deliberate on this matter, before invoking the jurisdiction of the court.” 

But Usman Dar did not go to the parliament. He used the precedent set by the Supreme Court, which weaponized Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution of Pakistan, and used it as a sword to cut off Khawaja Asif’s political legacy.

The judiciary (and by extension, the PTI) has made a complete mockery of the democratic and political process in Pakistan. It is the people of Pakistan who elected Nawaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif, Chaudhry Nisar, Imran Khan, Usman Dar, Jehangir Khan Tareen, Asad Umar, and it should be the people of Pakistan who should decide how to punish those who lie to them. And the ladies and gentlemen that the people of Pakistan have elected to sit in the parliament of Pakistan, should deliberate on what needs to be done to those who violate the sanctity of the oath that they’ve taken. That’s the democratic process.

Instead, we’ve got power hungry maniacs invoking a judicial martial law and using it again and again to fire at those that they’re opposed to. The judiciary’s role is not to adjudicate on the political destiny of Pakistan; that is the job of the parliament and the people of Pakistan. The judiciary’s job is to ensure that due process and the spirit of the law is followed.

As it turns out, the PTI would much rather have the judiciary of Pakistan decide the political destiny of Pakistan, even if it means the spirit of the law gets trampled beneath the heavy boots of irony.

When #MeToo isn’t enough to save you from being set on fire

Parents of Asma Yaqoob hold up a phone with a picture of their burned daughter

Nobody is talking about Asma Yaqoob Masih. Nobody wants to talk about her. Nobody wants to listen to the sad, sordid, gut twisting story that Asma’s cold body wants to tell. And do you want to know why? Because she wasn’t some rich, famous, in your face celebrity. She was a maid, who was set on fire because a man felt jilted that she did not want to be with him. So he set her on fire.

Asma’s story isn’t the only one. If you go down this rabbit hole, you’ll find hundreds and hundreds of these stories — spurned men setting their rejectors on fire, or throwing acid on their faces. I felt my faith failing when I Googled “Pakistani woman set on fire.”

“Teenager burned to death for declining marriage proposal” ... “Woman set on fire for attending wedding without husband’s permission” ... “Girl burned alive for refusing marriage proposal in Murree” ... “16 year old schoolgirl drugged, strangled and set on fire for helping friend elope” ... How many hundreds more are we missing?

Last night I had an epiphany. Those who have turned the “mera jism, meri marzi” movement into a meme should be forced to watch the horrors their high handedness inflicts on those who shout “mera jism, meri marzi.”

It was Asma Yaqoob’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi was overturned and she was set on fire. It was Khadija Siddiqui’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi resulted in her being stabbed 23 times in broad daylight. It was 16 year old Sumaira’s jism. But it was not her marzi, because her marzi resulted in her throat being slit by her brother, and her writhing in front of a crowd of onlookers for almost an hour before she passed. It was Qandeel Baloch’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi resulted in her brother strangling her in the middle of the night in the misguided belief that he was saving the family’s honor.

Rizwan Gujjar was a good, pious Muslim man. He wanted Asma to covert to Islam and then marry him. She said no. She said no to becoming a Muslim, she said no to marrying him, and she said no to his ego. How could she have dared? He doused her with kerosene and set her on fire.

I wonder how these good, pious Muslim men find it in them to set another human on fire, stab them, strangle them or slaughter them. I wonder which religious decree these good, pious Muslim men follow which leads them down this road of depravity. I wonder why these good, pious Muslim men don’t die of hypocrisy when they say it is not women’s jism, and it is not their marzi; when they say it is God’s jism and God’s marzi; when they forget to speak when God’s jism and God’s marzi are desecrated by men.

Asma Yaqoob Masih is just another statistic. She didn’t even make a blip. You might’ve heard of her just in passing. Or you might not have heard of her at all. But it’s too late now anyway. She’s dead because our apathy, our myopia, our insistence women don’t have it as bad as they say it is, led to a man thinking the appropriate response for a rejection, was inflicting intolerable, unbearable, unendurable, unmanageable pain on an innocent soul.

It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.

When Meesha Shafi wasn’t hot enough to be harassed by Ali Zafar

Ali Zafar

Meesha Shafi called out Ali Zafar for sexual harassment, publicly — and all hell broke loose on Pakistani social media. The Twitterati had a meltdown, the social justice warriors went tapping away on their keyboards frantically, and the rest of us watched in amazement as those who we thought had some modicum of sanity, resorted to obscene objectification of Meesha Shafi to prove that Ali Zafar would never harass her.

The amount of social breakdown I saw in the aftermath of Meesha Shafi’s allegations has rendered me completely speechless. I knew there was a reaction to the feminism movement in Pakistan — I just didn’t know it’ll come out in such force. The number one objection to Meesha Shafi’s allegations was that she’s simply not good looking enough to be harassed. This was quickly followed by the more conventional “she’s a slut, so she was asking for it”  line of thinking that the Pakistani nation is accustomed to.

Now I am not going to go into the depravity of someone believing only “good looking” girls can be harassed, or the fact that most guys commenting on this tragedy today were of the opinion that being harassed is actually an honor that Meesha Shafi should quietly accept. No.

What I am going to go into is the fact that the vast majority of men and women are so biased in their assessments against victims, it should literally give you migraines. Pick any victims over the last 10 years. Mukhtaran Mai, was bullied and harassed on national TV by Mubasher Lucman in his show; to be followed by Pervez Musharraf saying she conveniently got herself raped to get foreign visas. Malala, shot in the head by Taliban, conveniently dismissed as a western agent, an actor, and questioned about how she’s alive after being shot in the head. Shazia Khalid, a doctor posted at Sui, raped by an army officer in the middle of the night, beaten and tortured, and then drugged by the medical staff who she had gone to ask for help. And then, she was put under house arrest. Then her husband’s grandfather asked her husband to divorce her for bringing dishonor to the family, and when the husband refused, the grandfather assembled a mob to kill her. Khadijah Shah, stabbed 23 times in broad daylight, who’s perpetrator’s father said in open court, in front of a judge, that he would leak her pictures if she didn’t back off. Her attacker was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Then it was reduced to 5 years. Then the judge himself asked Khadija to pardon the attacker.

How many men and women in this country believed the stories of these victims? These victims who’s stories are verifiable without any question? We still laugh at Mukhtaran Mai, dismiss Malala, have conveniently forgotten Shazia Khalid and have pushed Khadija to fend for herself in a society that will not rest until her attacker is free to torment her once more.

I have no love lost for either of the two individuals involved in this very public kerfuffle. I don’t know them. But some things do stand out to me. 1) No sane woman in this country called Pakistan would be stupid enough to willingly subject herself to the vitriol that is currently being directed at Meesha Shafi. 2) We have documented proof from Ali Zafar’s Twitter account that he is in fact, a sexist pig. 3) Since Meesha Shafi’s allegations against Ali Zafar, a bunch of other women have stepped forward to claim the exact same stuff as Meesha Shafi. 4) Meesha Shafi’s ignominious attitude aside, there really is never any justification for one human sexually harassing another human.

Ali Zafar says he’ll take Meesha Shafi to court. If I was Meesha Shafi’s lawyer, I would throw Ali Zafar’s Twitter account in his face, call the women who’ve called him out publicly as witnesses, and call it a day. But I’m not her lawyer. What I am, is a rational thinking human who thinks Ali Zafar crossed one too many lines. He’s rich, he’s famous, he’s handsome, and women probably don’t say no to him. And those that do, probably don’t go public with it. He probably tried the same with Meesha Shafi, and now he’s got his face plastered all over the Pakistani internet.

But he should fear nothing, because the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis have convinced themselves that he would never do it because a) Meesha Shafi isn’t hot enough, b) Ali Zafar doesn’t look like the kind of person who would sexually harass another person, or c) it’d be an honor if Ali Zafar harassed them.

Meanwhile the rest of us are going to go stand in the corner with our hats in our hands thinking about the social breakdown that’s led us down this path. 

The True Perspective — 2018 Edition

The True Perspective

Welcome to the new, and welcome back to the old! The True Perspective is now updated and ready for 2018 and beyond. It’s been 8 years since my first post on this blog. In the time since, this blog has undergone massive transitions — design and concept wise. But I’ve finally gotten around to fixing some of the most glaring issues with this blog  (I had to go and learn a bunch of HTML and CSS in order to make that happen) and hopefully, this’ll lead to a more streamlined experience for you, dear reader.

So what are some of the changes that you can expect on thetrueperspective.com then?

1. Mobile — The website is now properly optimized for mobile! Yay! This is something I’m actually very proud of. Previous versions of the website did not render correctly on mobile, with oversized buttons, lack of padding, and no coherency between the desktop and mobile versions of the site. But no more! The desktop version now morphs perfectly into the mobile version. If you’ve opened this link on mobile, you’re already looking at a streamlined interface. If you’re on the desktop, open thetrueperspective.com on your smartphone and check it out for yourself!

2. Medium — The True Perspective on Medium.com doesn’t exist anymore. While Medium is a good platform, I never saw any real traffic on there. I still have a couple of thousand views on this website every month, but the same just wasn’t true for Medium. So I decided it was time to bin it.

3. Comments — There are no more comments on The True Perspective. There isn’t any scientific or spam related reason behind removing the comments section from the blog, except for the fact that nobody comments on actual blogs/websites anymore — discussion about any article, news, link, blog now happens on Facebook or Twitter after the link has been posted there — and it was a resource hog on the website, causing page load times to increase. So I made the decision to get rid of the comments completely.

There are also subtle changes and under the hood tweaks to make this website more responsive, intuitive and easier to load. Please continue to follow The True Perspective on Facebook at facebook.com/thetrueperspective. If you’ve got any comments or you want to get in touch, you can send me a message at m.me/thetrueperspective.

Cheers!