As a migrant in Italy, I have had a chance to view many different things. The first and the foremost among them was my sense of alienation. Being an alien, I had to acquaint myself with the new culture which is a European culture; the culture that is much different in almost every respect from the oriental culture. It led me to be a man of inquisitive nature. I kept on enquiring about things whether it was purchasing a train ticket or food articles. I had to see novel things in almost every aspect of the life. If there was a construction in progress in a building, I would keep looking at it and observed things objectively to know how far was it different than the place of my origin. They are just a few of the instances which has had an effect upon my sensibilities in my day to day life in Italy.
How am I being treated as a Pakistani by the Italian people? Pakistan, being a frontline state in the quagmire of international war on terror, has left considerable effects on the image of Pakistani Diaspora. Previously, it remained a key player against the Soviet war in Afghanistan and a central mediator between the Taliban and the pre-9/11 US. Following 9/11, it had to decide, under international pressure, to revise its foreign policy with Taliban as well as to wage an internal war on them operating from within its borders. Due to the influx of terrorists from the region – the hub of war on terror – a large number of notorious incidents have been faced by the country over more than a decade. For instance, very recently, on 16 December 2014, seven members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) perpetrated a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 145 people, including 132 school children, mostly between 8 and 18 years of age. A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all seven terrorists and rescued 960 people. Consequently, these incidents have spoiled the image of the country and its inhabitants are looked at with suspicion in some countries of the world. To quote a personal example, once going back from zattere library in Venice late in the night at 10 pm I met an American family who needed guidance to reach Piazzali Roma. I told them to follow me as our destinations were same. One among them was a doctor and she spoke to me quite a lot about my country and education. We walked along the streets and when I wanted to take them through a quiet narrow street near Fondamenta Briati, she stepped back and silently told her father that she was scared. Her father however couldn’t say anything in my presence and continued walking with a heavy heart. After a short while, we entered the main street and they became satisfied. This incident gave me a consciousness of identity crisis but I didn’t give them any impression and helped them as they needed.
As a migrant in Italy, I have so far not experienced any discrimination in my dealings with the Italian people. Instead, I have always been welcomed positively and have rather been given more attention. This is why, I have got a very good impression about the people of Italy and have praised them where there has risen a discussion on it. Within the university, all the students and my professors have been very cooperative with me and I never got an impression which should have led to any sort of discrimination. On the contrary, I myself have always remained in a state of double-consciousness over my identity in the context I mentioned.
Muhammad Abdul Wahid
Thank you for this post, Abdul. It's always refreshing to see someone else's point of view on matters that we tend to overlook or take for granted. As far as American-Pakistani relation are involved, I'll steer the debate away from politics and into pop culture. I don't know if you watch an American tv show called Homeland starring Claire Danes as a CIA operative in the war on terror. It has a quite significant audience but it's quite problematic since it perpetuates the image of Muslims as demons. And of course media is a powerful tool to shape people's attitudes, perceptions, social norms, prejudices and so on. The writers of the show just don't seem to care about how the image of Muslims being killed tortured discriminated in fiction has obviously an impact on the real lives of Muslisms. It's quite bothering seeing all the bad stereotypes about Islam being reinforced through media just for entertainment purposes. (Martina)
ReplyDeleteYes Martina, thanks for viewing the post. I came to know about Homeland here in Italy. I have heard that it is quite a prejudiced drama series. They have done their level best to spoil the image of Pakistan despite the fact that Pakistan has consistently supported America in the War on Terror. Pakistan's agencies have arrested top wanted Al-qaida members and have handed them over to them. Despite the fact that this is not our war. Attacks had been made on America not on Pakistan but ultimately we suffer. The mess is, you are right, created by the media.....Might is right.
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