Homophobia: Confession of a Pakistani guy – by Dr. Shazia Nawaz
Let’s call him Kasif. He is my cousin and a 28 year old young man. He is very handsome, went to English medium schools, lives in a posh area in Lahore, has several cars, and speaks English fluently. He read my posts on homosexuals and decided to share his story with me. “There are countless homosexuals in Lahore Baji”, he said.
“Last year a middle aged man who I met in a van started to flirt with me. I gave him a vague response. He asked me if I wanted to meet him up at a private place to have some fun. It made me so angry. What a bad person he was! And he thought that I could be a part of something like this? I decided to punish him. I said, ‘Sure dude, let’s meet tomorrow and I’ll pick you up from the same place.’ I spoke with my friend and he agreed that this pig needed a lesson. The next day, both of us picked him up and took him outside Lahore.
He sort of realized by that time that something bad was going to happen to him. He started to look afraid and said he wanted to go. I said, ‘We will let you go. Let us have our fun first.’ Then both of us beat him up, tore his clothes, broke his cell phone, took his wallet, broke his watch, and left him in the middle of no where, miles and miles away from Lahore. Sachi baat hay baji, now I regret it. I don’t know what happened to him. I wonder if he ever made it back to town?”
My cousin looked uneasy when he got to this part. He still seemed unsure if he had “punished” the guy correctly or had “punished” him too much.
It took me a few minutes to analyze it and offer a conclusion to my cousin. I asked him if he would have done this same thing if it was a woman who had asked him for some fun.
I told him that what he did fell under the category of a hate crime. That homosexual man did not try to molest him. An adult man asked another adult man for a date. If my cousin was not homosexual, or not in to dating, he could have just said NO. But what my cousin did to that homosexual man was truly a crime.
Interestingly, many reading this story would be confused and would find it difficult to comprehend where the blame exactly should go, and such is a Pakistani mind!
The banner is interesting. It read “At US behest …”. God’s wrath befell upon ancient Mid-Eastern people for practicing homosexuality and showing that path to the rest of the world and these guys blame America. Maza Tum Lo Aure Kasoor Amreeka Ka!
Dr. Sahiba, don’t worry about these issues. Spend your energies in building a Pakistan where Hindu girls are not abducted in the name of “conversion”, mentally handicapped christian girl is not arrested at the instigation of crook Mullahs. Our Lord (PBUH) educated faithfuls to confront oppression (ZULM) manifesting in all forms.
“Such is the Pakistani mind” is a huge generalization. There are Pakistanis working for LGBT rights within Pakistan and elsewhere; there are Pakistanis who of course will be horrified to hear such stories, who believe in essential human rights. To be confused about who the guilty person here is, the guy who wanted a simple date, or the guys who beat him up for wanting some fun, is not the Pakistani mind but the Pakistani mind that is allowed to express itself freely. People who think otherwise need more forums to express themselves so there can be some sort of change.
Also, Fazil Barelvi: we cannot say that one problem is more dire than another. Minority rights is a huge problem is Pakistan but so are other issues and we have to confront them as collective issues stemming from the same mindset.
Dear AA,
I agree with you entirely. I hope what Barelvi Bhai objects to is the prioritisation of issues. Many decent people in the UK have expressed their dissent from the Coalition Government’s policy of devoting tax-payer money and Parliament time towards Gay Marriage legislation, merely because it is a fashionable liberal cause, over and above more urgent problems.
If that is his sole concern, then he is no different from millions of people here who have not a prejudiced bone between the lot of them but want the Ruling Elite to attend to the Economy, Law and Order and Immigration etc.
You are exactly right about the victimisation of the Weak or those deemed `outside the pale’by every do paisay ka bigot.All arise from the same cesspool. I hope we all agree on that fundamental principle, also laanat beshumaar on any who bully the weak, the vulnerable and the defenceless, not to stand up to them is a sin in itself.
Blessings all around.
Agree Asma Bibi, agree. Thank you I have to turn on ‘bulging belly glutton’.
the whole situation revolves around Shazia Nawaz