When you think about Pakistan what comes to mind? Everyone has their own opinion about the country and about the people who live it. Pakistan is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. I can understand why people have a tendency to think the worst.
On Tuesday April 29th Dr. Mirza, a new professor in the religious studies department at Chico State, gave a lecture titled Understanding Pakistan. Dr. Mirza graduated from Yale university with a degree in Islamic studies and was born in Pakistan.
To start off the hour long lecture Dr. Mirza first gave us a brief background about the country as well as some demographics and history. What I found most interesting was how the country gained its independence from the British in 1947 and resulted in two countries: India and Pakistan. With this new found independence it led the Muslims to believe that they needed separate land from the Hindus. He also talked about a man named Ghandi. Whom most of you probably heard of. Gahndi rallied the two could co-exist while the leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah was apposed that the idea; it was not a possibility. I also found it interesting that Pakistans population is just over half the size of the U.S and two times the size of California. The language there can be broken up into four different ethnicities: Punjabis, Pathans, Sindhis, and Baluchis. Between this diverse combination of people, the shared national languages are Urdu and English
Dr. Mirza went into some detail about how the country has been in was and revolutions ever since 1979 and is still a very dangerous place. There seems to be no peace in that part of the world. What hit home the most was Dr. Mirza talking about the strong “Anti-American” sentiment. Know one wants to hear how much they are hated by other countries..
America being as wonderful as it is has allowed many people from that part of the country to come here and get jobs and educations. However, it is a scary thought that they send money and knowledge back to their county. Even though not all people there hate America there is still a large majority who do. This lecture opened my eyes not just to the differences and misconceptions that people have about the country but also there is a very strong divide between our countries that is not easily fixed.
2 comments on Cultural Event #3 Understanding Pakistan
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Great blog!!
It's always interesting to hear about that side of the world. East Asia has the greatest population on this planet and yet most of us know only a little about them. No wonder we have a lot of trouble finding common ground.