By Amir Zia
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Murtaza Khaliq, a film student at Pakistan’s biggest university in Karachi, produced a music video for his final-year project.
But right-wing Islamic students opposed to holding art shows on campus attacked the graduating student’s year-end exhibition and smashed the computer he had planned to use to screen it.
“My video had no objectionable material. There weren’t even any women in it,” said the frail-looking Khaliq. “They found it offensive because it was a musical video.”
The battle on Pakistan’s campuses between liberal and conservative students mirrors a wider struggle for the soul of Pakistan since it won independence from Britain in 1947.
Many Pakistanis are relatively liberal but the influence of conservative Islamists has grown since an Islamization campaign by military ruler General Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s.
Pursuing arts at the University of Karachi, the country’s largest cosmopolitan city, is a risky business.
For years, the powerful Islamist lobby blocked the opening of a fine arts department and it was only in 1999 that courses for select fine arts disciplines, including textile design, film production and architecture, were allowed.
But these courses are constantly scrutinized by Islamists, who abhor music, painting and sculpture and want them off campus.
“Our first challenge is to pursue arts over here,” said Durriya Kazi, chairwoman of the Department of Visual Studies. “Our presence here means that eventually the two sides will have to compromise and start tolerating each other.”
Not just in Karachi, but at other major campuses there have been repeated incidents in which baton-wielding conservatives have imposed their moral values on the majority.
Musical concerts and mixed gatherings remain banned at most state-run institutions and a male student can be beaten just for sitting next to a female.
In the late 1980s, campus violence – including a series of killings and acid attacks on liberal female students – became so bad that authorities deployed paramilitary rangers to ensure academic peace.
The rangers’ presence put an end to the gunfights, but the tension remains.
SELF-CENSORSHIP
Despite considerable self-censorship, students and teachers of the Visual Studies Department say they remain under threat.
The Islamic students who attacked the final-year exhibition in November said it was sacrilege to hold the show during the fasting month of Ramadan.
“Ten to 15 boys stormed in and started throwing computers around,” said textile design student Azeem Rana.
Rana’s computer displayed his textile patterns with soft music in the background; the attackers threw it to the floor and slapped and kicked him.
Tooba Fatima said she and some other students locked themselves in a room to escape the assault. “It was very scary.”
The exhibition reopened the following day, but only after teachers barred all videos and music.
“How can I show my work?” asked Zoheb Anwar, pointing to a couple of sketches he made for a cartoon film which is no longer part of the exhibition. “I am unable to define my ideas.”
The student wing of leading religious party Jamaat-e-Islami was blamed for the attack. Its chairman Noman Ahmed denied they were involved, but implicitly backed the actions of “religiously minded” students who carried out the attack.
“We know that many things on display there were opposed to the country’s Islamic ideology. They should have no place here,” said Ahmed, himself a final-year student in the Mass Communications Department."
“We should promote Islamic arts such as calligraphy. Music, sculpture, or videos, such as one on eunuchs made by a student, should have no place here. We brought the issue to the notice of the registrar, but he took no action.”
Naheed Raza, a leading painter, said only a small minority opposes arts being studied at the universities.
“They use strong-arm tactics to dictate their views,” said Raza, herself under fire by rightwing students for drawing nudes. "They find nudity in everything.
“These are forces of the dark ages who want to destroy arts and science. But they are failing, as privately people are promoting arts despite the opposition.”
