Arabification of Pakistan and Pakistani culture:

[Jolie]

Re: Arabification of Pakistan and Pakistani culture:

@Doppleganger

I think that the problem is that many people think that emulating arab = emulating islam and being good muslims. This is NOT TRUE considering wahabiyat and ISIS, Al Qaeda that have been spawned from the gulf.

Arabs of today aren’t the arabs that came after Prophet Muhammad and even then, I wouldn’t blindly follow them if they are wearing the robes and jhaantay. I think that it is overall ill of Pakistani (or muslim) society that we can’t identify ying from yang.

I could also make a thread about indian influence (why do we need ladki when we had larki for centuries) or why do we need to dance to bollywood songs when Pakistan does happen to have a very good industry? Of course, the so-called “islamists” who seem to think that they are doing a service to islam by worship arabs or persians etc would be first ones to jump and criticize ‘indianness’ on that thread. I can probably name them but lets avoid the conflict.

I agree with Indianisation is also an issue, but you cannot really outlaw saris or certain accents and dialects because it’s still part of the same shared heritage in one way or another. Bollywoodnisation of Pakistani weddings, or mindless Hindification of Urdu language is a different issue, and slightly more worthy of being talked about.

Allowing elites to pick on how covered up ‘unparh’ and working class population and bash it under the pretext of Arabification of masses is counter productive. If you really want to talk about Arabfication in real terms - then it has to be acknowledging the Biddah police and sectarianism, not beards and Hijab. Wahabism is an issue some of the most educated folks living in Western world, not just Pakistani working class.

Already in this thread someone had said that they opted for abaya because they didn’t have the patience and time to find a new jora for every other every day. Now for Pakistani working class women, replace patience with money, don’t you think there are plenty of socio-economic reasons for working class women to opt for one piece black Burqa? Considering in Pakistan, there’s a such a manic obsession with designer lawn and boutique labels which can be recognised from miles, people are judged by that. Even in my experience, I have found that when I’m in Pakistan, I need to put 50% more efforts into my clothing just to compete with the super trendy and stylish locals. I can imagine why working class women would rather go for burqa than waste money following latest trends.

We are not living in 80/90s where any printed kameez, white shalwar and white dupatta would do. Pakistanis over the years have generally grown lot more materialistic and fashion savvy.