The Pakistani Spectator

A lot of my Pakistani brethren have a deep affection for all things Iran in general, and Mr Mahmoud Ahmedinijad in particular. As someone who has traveled extensively in Iran and quite liked the country I have to relent that it is not an egalitarian utopia that a lot of Pakistanis believe it to be. It is as flawed, if not more, a society as Pakistan is, and given a choice I would chose to live in Pakistan a million times over than in Iran.

Apart from my deep rooted patriotism, the sole reason for that would be an elusive something called civil liberty that still exist in Pakistan (at least in the urban centres) and state (still) does not get to tell me what do I wear (the burqa clause), what do I study (only a small percentage of people are allowed to study English in the state universities in Iran), when can I leave the country (Irani men do not get passports unless they perform two years of mandatory military service) and when do I get married. According to recent media reports, a major Iranian state-owned company which controls Iran’s huge gas and petrochemical facilities, has told its single employees to get married by September or face losing their jobs.

Iranian media reported that one of the economic entities in the south of the country has asked its single employees to start creating a family. Getting married is cited as an important moral and religious duty. In a similar warning, the governor of the eastern province of North Khorasan has said only married civil servants will be allowed to take up official posts in the region.

The country is in the midst of an unprecedented moral crackdown which has seen tens of thousands of women warned by the police for dress deemed to be unIslamic.

While discussing the matter in an online forum, a lot of people, as expected started defending Iran as an example of a country which has an up right and moral government and leaves a much larger economic footprint in the world. It is strange that there are many people who have never even set foot in that country and are still enamoured with it. A lot of Pakistanis romanticize the 1979 revolution and want something similar to take place in Pakistan. The reality of that country and revolution is a lot different.

How many of these proud defenders of state of Iran have actually gone to the country and saw it for what it is, and here, I am not talking about touristy visit to the museums and a leisurely stroll in the ruins of in Persepolis. How many of such staunch defenders of Islamic revolution have gone to the University of Tehran and tried speaking with the students there about their civil liberties and found out that they face persecution if they utter a word against the ruling regime. How many of them have been expelled from their universities in various parts of the world for holding slightly more liberal political views than their governments? Irani students face this every day. How many of them are professors and are sacked because they refused to indoctrinate their students with the directives that come from the holy council and government? Irani academics have been subject to that.

How many of those defenders of all things Iran are women who have been publicly chastised by the moral police in the cities of Qom and Mashhad because they were showing three hair and wearing lipstick? I have been subjected to that along with millions of women who live and visit Iran. How many of them are women who wanted to become judges but cannot aspire to do so because the state does not recognize your right to be part of judiciary on grounds of your gender – something which is pre determined and one has absolutely no control over it? How many of them are women and are interested in sports but are banned from watching any of the sporting events where men play in their countries? Irani women are; they cannot even go to the stadium with their families.

They have the same problems of corruption and nepotism like any other country. Not everyone on the street is interested in becoming a nuclear power, not even the so called radical citizens. Like all of us, Iranians too want access to better employment and better health care and education.

Pakistani men break into bhangra at the drop of the hat at every occasion, be it a political rally or the New Year’s night yearly sojourn to the beach in Karachi. Irani men are not even allowed to dance in public. The moral police can arrest them for this offence and can keep them in custody for a week or two. I prefer to live in a country where personal expression is not curbed to this level.

Iran is a closeted society and the information that is fed to its people is extremely limited. Pakistan shares a long border with Iran and faced a catastrophic earth quake in the fall of 2005, when I visited Iran in 2006, no one, including our guide and translator who was the protocol officer with Iranian state television company knew anything about that earth quake. We have had volunteers from lands as far and remote as Cuba but our next door neighbours were unaware of that; such is the level of lack of information in that country. Harmless social networking sites like orkut are banned because the government believes that they promote promiscuous attitudes in the youth. A lot of web logs are banned for the same reasons. The government in Pakistan blocked youtube for a few hours and people took to streets and ridiculed it to no end on all the private television channels, which is why I like living in Pakistan. At least my right to protest is still sacrosanct.