Vancouver has the second largest Iranian population in NA, after LA, and I have met many many Iranians. In fact, my boss is an iranian, my best friends; some of my university mentors, working partners on various projects happen to be iranian..I often go to this persian chaikhana to smoke hukka(sheesha), and chill out..I have never heard a work of disprespect from any Iranian ever. Not sure where are you guys getting these facts..hey, if you have any doubts come and blend in with the Iranian population here in Vancouver, I am sure all of this conception will be proven wrong..and yes talking from a mighty personal experience..
Madhaneeji, I refuse to "be proud of our 98% Indian heritage" as you put it. Why 98%? Heck, maybe the person next door is of only 10% pure Indian stock? I think you're missing the point. Like Fanty said, the initial muslims to bring Islam to India were Arabs and Persians to begin with and then the religion expanded to the southern parts of India but be that as it may, that is an entirely different thread.
Fanty, national/ethnic respect has no boundaries and it's true, if a person respects you for who you are regardless of your nationality, that is what matters especially where I am (in the US) which is pretty much a "salad bowl"/"melting pot" (depends how you look at it) and you want your identity established and respected through good example.
Ravage: "...but as far as iranis go, the general perception of the usual attitude of ordinary iranians towards any-given pakistani does tend to be on the snooty side." I've noticed that too, in general.
Halwa, my name as well as the name of my brother are Persian and quite frankly, I don't care whether Iranians love/hate that. They're just unique names which is why our parents named us as such, not because they're Iranians and hence superior or anything crazy like that.
Fraudz: "...the point is that this becomes a problem when you have such preconceived notions about people from any area that you let that cloud your judgement in assessing an individual seperate from whatever stereotypical crap you have been fed all along." Hence the importance of not judging the book by its cover.
Suroor: "...just be who u r and be a nice person. thats all that matters." Exactly.
Epicurean, I don't know too much about Bangladeshis except that they belonged to what was once known as East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
Outlaw, yes in fact Vancouver is the second largest population of Iranians in NA and I definitely agree that most Iranians whether in Vancouver or anywhere else in NA are decent humanbeings no doubt but then again, the flip side is, there are those who badmouth Pakistanis for no reason whatsoever based on stereotypes, which is pretty ignorant.
**
Nice reply, Fraudz. :k:
why pakistanis dont want to admit they are basically punjabis?
why you work so hard to prove you are mughals,arabs or persians?
I am a punjabi and i don’t try to prove am arab, persian or mughal. But what about pathans, balochs and others, they are Pakistani too, are they also punjabi? 
I don’t have any stereo typical image of anyone infact i don’t know any people from other countries to form a stereotype. But I have heard about jews, Iranians, Turks and few other nationalities from my father, uncle and cousins and most of it has been good. So I really don’t have any right to make an opinion about anyone 
Huh? 
I think you’re confused. Where’s all THAT ^ coming from, rvikz?
I’ve never experienced any sort of racism from any Middle-Easterner myself although I have heard from a lot of people that they are racist towards us and think of as smelly dirty brown proletariats… Pakistanis who go to their countries for labour are like that though; they were like that in Pakistan too… I hate it when people lump us all together, they don’t understand we are a diverse country with all sorts of people living here…
I think the problem is we are not proud of our own diverse heritage and don’t respect it ourselves therefore NOBDOY will and that’s exactly what Pakistanis are like, half our people the so called modern ones are Angrez wanna be’s and the other half, the Molvi types are Middle Eastern wanna be’s… And then there’s those who want to hold on to their Hindu past, let bygones be bygones, your not Hindu anymore…
Pakistanis in the west are respected because we stand proud of our identity and don’t look up at anyone and that makes others appreciate our culture but in the Middle-East they have inferiority complexes and look up at the Middle-Easterners so everyone else looks down on them…
Respect your self and people will respect you, don’t wear Middle-Eastern Jubbah’s wear Shalwar-Kameez, don’t wear the three cornered head scarves wear a dupatta, don’t wear Niqaab wear a Burqa’, don’t wear a gothra (sp?) wear a Paki topi (Sindhi ones are the best) or a turban if you must and don’t eat there foods eat Roti and Saalan.. lol.. that’s a bit extreme I know, don’t try speaking in Persian or Arabic cuz it sounds sh!t on a Desi speak Urdu our national language or your own mother tongue like Pashto, Panjabi, Sindhi or Balochi etc…
My Arab mate bought me a Moroccan dress thing, looks cool, makes me look like a monk from the middle ages (so spiritual) lol but I never wear it cuz people will think I’m trying to be Middle-Eastern and we have to maintain our unique identity…
What I’m sayin is if you gonna respect ur self people will respect you..
Like look at Imran Khan, cool guy, married a gori, rich mans daughter, famous n all, but still he’s not ashamed of his culture, when he goes to public events in UK (like Diana’s funeral) he’s not ashamed to wear Shalwar-Kameez, and people respect him much more than they respect Pakis who wear Pant Shirt and try acting like gorey and do all the buttering and stuff…
What I’m saying is when we try and copy people, it doesn’t make us one of them, it makes us look UNORGINAL and WANNA BE’S…
It makes them think that their culture and way of life is superior to OURS and makes them big headed.
And for people who say that Pakistanis are 98% Hindu descent, no they are not because Pathans and Balochis certainly aren’t… And also some Greeks like the Kaafir Kalash etc. are not… There’s some Africans too like Makraanis’ etc..
We are neither Indian nor Arab nor Persian we are PAKISTANI… I admit our country is mixture of different cultures and ethnicities because our region was conquered by a lot of different people, that’s what makes us unique and interesting…
Respect other peoples culture but don’t try being one of them because you never will, you’re a Pakistani get over it…
Walk like a Paki, Talk like a Paki… Put up your hands!! Who’s in the hands? Dhulfi’s in the hands… lol.. 
Hum kisi se kam nahein iss ka ham ko hai yaqeeN… 
pakistani dont live as ethnic minority in arab or iran like kurds so why you have to invent a problem that does not exist?
Re: Iranian perception of Pakistanis...
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by sweetpie: *I am still offended by how carelessly Iranians can lump ALL Pakistanis in one category in a heatbeat, making silly gross generalizations.
[/QUOTE]
Hypocrites can't really get beyond their own hypocrisy. Why did you 'lump ALL' Iranis in one category?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Dhulfiqar: *
My Arab mate bought me a Moroccan dress thing, looks cool, makes me look like a monk from the middle ages (so spiritual) lol but I never wear it cuz people will think I’m trying to be Middle-Eastern and *we have to maintain our unique identity… *
[/QUOTE]
ANd how would wearing an Arab 'dress thing' take away your identity?
It's all in the head dude.
^
Wearing their stuff is like adopting their culture innit.
If they start wearing Shalwar-Kameez then I’ll wear their stuff but I’ve never seen an Arab do that but Pakistanis, Indians and Bengalis always wear their stuff, it ticks me off. 
^I don't agree!
It's just a piece of cloth, ppl could be wearing it because they it's comfortable or simply because they like it.
Like I have arab friends who love wearing fancy shalwaar kameez at weddings and stuff because they like the material, design etc. They say it looks classy. They definitely don't wear it because they want to 'adapt our culture'
"If they start wearing Shalwar-Kameez then I’ll wear their stuff "
That sounds rather childish to me
**Sweetpie, Hahle shoma cheh towreh?
Khob, digeh cheh khabbar? :D
If you're not a person who cuts into lines, don't normally
speak so loud that 10 isles on either side of the store
can hear you, aren't rude, disrespectful or anything
else generally considered impolite then I'm sure you
wouldn't be categorized by an Iranian or any other
non Pakistani nationality as such. It doesn't matter
what race or nationality a person is, if they have
traits or characteristics that are generally not
curteous they won't be liked. I'm sure there
are Iranians who are like that too. It's a stereotype
everyone makes towards someone else at least
once in their lifetime.
Baleh? :D
Movaffagh bahsheed now.
**
.....
Imarn Khan in his prime time was not a poilitician.
Sorry but I have to disagree with you. Where do you people live? I went to school with lots of Arabs. Also I’ve been to many parties where Arab women dress in all sorts of desi clothes in saris.
It tickes you off b/c you were there stuff and they don’t wear ur stuff? Now that is sooooo funny. Sorry but that is nothing to get upset about, but to only laugh at your silly comment.
why do you people care about what they think? even if all those stereotypes were correct, ur gonna try to change urselfs and ur status for OTHER people? didnt think so
epicurean I know sewn clothes were first introduced in the Hindustani Sub-Continent by Middle-Easterners/East Europeans but Shalwaar-Kameez has assimilated into our culture and today it’s the distinctive dress of Muslims from the north of the Hindustani Sub-Continent and the surrounding areas.
I didn’t know Saarii was originally Turkish, as far as I know it’s South Indian, but I’m not interested in talking about South Indian culture because that is as foreign to us (if not more) than Middle-Eastern culture.
I agree we should be proud of Islam and put it before everything else and not look down upon others of different ethnicity or nationality, and think of other Muslims as our brethren and never to think of ourselves as blue bloods like some Middle-Easterners do but we should also remember that we are Pakistani, we should never forget our identities and pretend to be something we are not.
Punjabis and Sindhi’s were once Hindu’s (so were the Arabs one pagans) so GET OVER IT… We’re Muslims today and proud of it but we are not Arabs.
And when did I say Imran Khan was a politician in his prime?
ShiNoO & halwa I’ve never seen any Arabs like that if they really do exist then they are a rare breed.
Baat respect ki hai, if somebody is not going to think highly of my country then why should I appreciate theirs?
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Dhulfiqar: *
**epicurean* I know sewn clothes were first introduced in the Hindustani Sub-Continent by Middle-Easterners/East Europeans but Shalwaar-Kameez has assimilated into our culture and today it’s the distinctive dress of Muslims from the north of the Hindustani Sub-Continent and the surrounding areas.
I didn’t know Saarii was originally Turkish, as far as I know it’s South Indian, but I’m not interested in talking about South Indian culture because that is as foreign to us (if not more) than Middle-Eastern culture.
I agree we should be proud of Islam and put it before everything else and not look down upon others of different ethnicity or nationality, and think of other Muslims as our brethren and never to think of ourselves as blue bloods like some Middle-Easterners do but we should also remember that we are Pakistani, we should never forget our identities and pretend to be something we are not.
Punjabis and Sindhi’s were once Hindu’s (so were the Arabs one pagans) so GET OVER IT… We’re Muslims today and proud of it but we are not Arabs.
And when did I say Imran Khan was a politician in his prime?
ShiNoO & halwa I’ve never seen any Arabs like that if they really do exist then they are a rare breed.
Baat respect ki hai, if somebody is not going to think highly of my country then why should I appreciate theirs?
[/QUOTE]
are pakistanis civilised before converting to islam?
:k:
Madhaneeji, who said anything about “bragging” about being Persian or Arab or what have you. All bragging aside, I don’t care which way you slice up the bread, at the end of the day, it remains bread therefore, it doesn’t matter which part of us is Indian, which part Arab, which part Persian, which part Mongol, etc. etc. etc. ANd etc.! At the end of the day, we are Pakistani and THAT my friend is what we need to take full pride in. Not too difficult to comprehend.
Aalhan, your Persian (that IS Persian, isn’t it?) is quite impressive.