tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33689950.post6619989429753865076..comments2023-09-24T13:36:00.981+01:00Comments on The night and half-light of dreams: Dispatches - Pakistan's Taliban generationPragmatic Mystic http://www.blogger.com/profile/08877990361303745003noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33689950.post-15872966430560367292009-03-20T16:36:00.000+00:002009-03-20T16:36:00.000+00:00Anonymous -Children whose parents are dead, towns ...Anonymous -<BR/><BR/>Children whose parents are dead, towns razed, schools for girls razed, policemen with their heads cut off and signs reading "Anyone who moves this body will suffer the same fate"...mortar fire in the background?<BR/><BR/>sensationalised? Added for effect?<BR/><BR/>I think not. <BR/><BR/>What, people disappearing or having their heads cut off and put on display aren't bad enough for you? Listening to a Taliban say that children are simply tools to achieve the will of God not bad enough for you? Images of limbs blown off not bad enough for you? Listening to a teenage boy go on about how women shouldn't leave the house and how that should be taken care of not enough for you?<BR/><BR/>Not enough evidence for you, is it?<BR/><BR/>This isn't an academic essay, it's a picture into what life is like NOW.<BR/><BR/>And as for the burqa wearing, I CAN TELL YOU, HAVING SPENT A GOOD PART OF MY LIFE GOING BACK EVERY 2-3 YEARS, THAT IT HAS CHANGED. AS CAN COUSINS OF MINE WHO LIVE THERE. <BR/><BR/>No one here needs an academic study wondering whether they mean 1990 or 1790. Because FRANKLY, if you were to compare how women in the West cover themselves now to how they covered themselves in 1790, it WOULD BE MEANINGLESS, BECAUSE THE CULTURE HAS CHANGED SO MUCH. <BR/><BR/>It's obvious we're talking about change over the last 20 years or so.<BR/><BR/><I>One expects that if the condition was so grim, anthropologists and sociologists would be pouring over one another to study the trends and the factors contributing to that.</I><BR/><BR/>FFS, it's a WAR ZONE. WHAT ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND SOCIOLOGISTS ARE GOING TO BE POURING IN TO STUDY THERE???? ARE PEOPLE DOING FIELDWORK IN IRAQ RIGHT NOW?<BR/><BR/>Use some common sense. I'm not sure whether you're a Westerner who hasn't got a clue about Islamic culture and how repressive it is - and just how sociopathic the Taliban are - or whether you are some kind of Muslim male trying to apologise for their behaviour, but either way, you go ahead and keep your ivory tower/apologist head in the sand.<BR/><BR/>We're talking about people suffering, not a DPhil thesis. <BR/><BR/>That's what journalism is ABOUT - bringing the plight of the people here and now to your attention so you can do something about it, rather than sitting in your comfortable little privileged life musing about anthropological studies whilst a brutal regime carries on.Pragmatic Mystic https://www.blogger.com/profile/08877990361303745003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33689950.post-18336665203352156152009-03-20T11:27:00.000+00:002009-03-20T11:27:00.000+00:00The documentary draws attention to some important ...The documentary draws attention to some important facts about Pakistan. However at a few places, it succumbs to the temptation to sound somewhat sensational. One example stand out:<BR/><BR/>Travelling through Swat valley, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy claims that women in Swat never wore a burqa earlier. "Now the few women we could find on the streets were fully covered in burqa." <BR/><BR/>Sharmeen never qualified her statement to say that what two periods of time or locations in Swat are being compared to claim a radical change in the outfit Pashtun women in the Frontier province wear outdoors. <BR/><BR/>I wonder whether the situation is really so grave or it is portrayed so for an added dramatic effect. <BR/><BR/>One expects that if the condition was so grim, anthropologists and sociologists would be pouring over one another to study the trends and the factors contributing to that. <BR/><BR/>How come, Despatches could not find such experts to back their assertions with some genuine fieldwork that goes beyond what is seen on the surface?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33689950.post-1522780155829750342009-03-17T19:08:00.000+00:002009-03-17T19:08:00.000+00:00Oh my God. I haven't the first idea what to say a...Oh my God. I haven't the first idea what to say about that; I'm too horrified. I had no idea the Taliban was in Pakistan.<BR/><BR/>Ari.xxCEADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04778999811353354648noreply@blogger.com