“Can we do anything in Pakistan without it being linked in some way to either appeasing the Taliban or kicking sand in their faces?” asked blogger XYZ on CafePyala.com, who also had a few choice words to say about my methods of journalism (which incidentally I would gladly tackle off-pitch if I know the name of the faceless cackler to whom I make my argument).
Mr or Ms XYZ was writing in reference to an article I wrote over the weekend for The Times entitled “Pakistan fashion week pushes back boundaries”. In it, I couched fashion week in terms of a defiant action in the face of radicalism and conservatism – a tack taken, I noticed, by most of the other international media present. Considering this, and saving the riposte for another time, I’d like to answer XYZ’s original and very pertinent question with an apologetic but hopeful ‘not yet.’
Last week I was interviewed by three South Asian television stations, two of them Pakistani. Their immediate questions were all the same: why couldn’t the West report on Pakistan without mentioning terror? Well, for precisely the same reason that for years, few articles about the United States failed to mention the blunders of George Dubya, or that a piece about Hollywood can rarely omit botox and colonic irrigation. Not everybody voted Republican (as it turned out in 2000, the electoral majority didn’t); for each surgically enhanced smile there is certainly a tramp living among the rats off Hollywood Boulevard.
Pakistan throws parties and puts on fashion shows; it wears jeans and listens to hip hop. It smokes joints and drinks beer and catches up on all the latest HBO box sets. You can get a good plate of sushi in Lahore and a decent macchiato in Karachi with relative ease. But it’s also impossible to enter that restaurant parking lot without having your bonnet and boot checked for devices. I wouldn’t be able to pick up a bottle of Johnnie Walker from an Islamabad supermarket on my way home, or have hopped on a bus to the local shopping mall as a lone woman. Any visitor to the country couldn’t fail to notice the road blocks, the armed guards, and the number of automatic weapons on any stretch of pavement. The fact is, a journalist arriving at the opening of London Fashion Week would not have a car full of policemen dedicated to her protection.
The first point to be made, therefore, is that however normal it has become for residents, Pakistan still has a problem that foreign commentators find fascinating. Not least because in the UK we can in some ways sympathise. Going through police checks and repeatedly handing over IDs or having venues double searched for explosives reminded me of what it was like to grow up in the 1980s and early 1990s in the midst of IRA terror. We were comparitively blessed to escape such constant vigilance, but at the time we considered it humdrum. How immune we are even now to walking through infra-red body sensors before getting on a plane, or listening to announcements about unattended baggage on the London Underground. This wouldn’t have happened on September 10, 2001. Sometimes outside eyes can see what others cannot.
Secondly, and more cynically, the challenge for the journalist is to package a story in a way that will woo editors and educate and entertain readers, without patronising their sources or betraying journalists’ most unforgiving of masters: the truth.
Put bluntly, even if a Western journalist wanted to ignore the bombs and threats, Pakistan’s fashion week will not yet make the editorial schedule on its own merit, not least in the week where New York closes its catwalks and London’s open. The story for the UK commuters making their way through the drizzle on a grey February morning is not that Pakistan has favoured canary yellow taffeta over last season’s cornflower blue satin, but that it has a fashion industry at all. If that’s ignorance, then mea culpa.
I blush in acknowledgment of the phrase ‘parachute journalism’ and all that it (often correctly) implies, and the perils that come with a job that require reporters to become five-minute experts on everything. But some – often the acronymed and unaccountable world of the blogosphere – like to suggest that journalists are at best automatons, “led up the garden path” by their sources, as my critic suggested. At worst, they are guilty of that most overused of phrases, “lazy journalism.”
People talk about parachute journalists as if they’d be quite pleased if the rip cord broke on their descent. Some think that we dust ourselves off and dash as quickly as we can to the nearest air-conditioned hotel room with wifi connection and stay there until it’s all over. Our stories are apparently researched by a quick skim through the ‘culture’ section of the Lonely Planet guide. But we also pack a few books and local newspapers, or a list of useful contacts in with that parachute, we go to social gatherings and make phone calls, and talk to people whose geographical and cultural territory is their birthright.
And then we walk through that territory with the eyes, ears and prejuduces of a mediated resident citizen of our own country. I want to argue that this is a most necessary of evils.
Our readers’, editors’ and journalists’ prejudices in the UK are formed of a war that has cost us over 260 lives in Helmand, a spate of attempted bombings at London airports, stations and roads, and a successful attempt which killed 52 people and wounded over 700. Along with other coalition forces, we are fighting an unwinnable war against an enemy we don’t understand. Two colleagues working for UK media have been killed in the field in as many months. The idea of a fashion show in Pakistan is light relief – we find ourselves in a situation where we have what might be peversely termed ‘tragedy-fatigue’. Perhaps you will understand why radicalism is our frame of reference.
Ask any foreign correspondent who has been stationed for a significant period of time, and they will tell you that the most difficult thing about their job is remembering the worldview they’re writing for when all they have to hang on to is the voice of their editor on a crackling phone line. They are in the unenviable situation of having to assimilate into an alien culture and plunder its rich resources, whilst wrapping themselves in the mindset of that distant land called home once in front of a computer screen. They face conflicting pressures from their neighbours and from their mother ship. They tread a fine diplomatic line. This loneliness, what we might call the ‘journalist’s condition,’ is documented by writers from Graham Greene to Evelyn Waugh.
When I was working as a nascent freelancer in New York, I asked a good friend of mine – the stationed correspondent for a well-respected UK broadsheet – why the sassy, alternative pitches I’d been throwing back home were falling at the first hurdle. “Guns and diamonds,” he replied. If it wasn’t about either of those, no one would want to read it. Did my pitch include mafiosi? Police corruption? Scandal amongst the young, rich and beautiful? Because no one wanted to hear about housing projects being demolished or the Madison Avenue jewel thief who was found not guilty.
Pakistan can and will shake off the yoke of terror reporting. But it will take time, and more stories such as fashion week, to portray Pakistanis with what they deserve: a human face and a sense of humour. But shortcuts only bewilder readers: only the slow chipping away of decades of cemented perceptions can counter that greatest and most ignorant of faceless beasts: fear.
Mary Bowers is a reporter for The Times.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Thanks, that makes sense!
Interesting comments.
Hi, I treasured to drop you a quick note to impart my thanks. I’ve been observing your blog for a month or so and have picked up a heap of good information as well as enjoyed the way you’ve structured your site.
It is a nice article there is nothing wrong doing fashion we all did when you are young.
Pakistan is now framed by Pakistan.
Come on Marry,
I live in a western country and I know what news from Asian countries are broadcasted.
You will hardly see news about something positive about China/India/Pakistan like winning a game, rocket launch, strong economy etc. But bomb blasts, floods, accidents etc will be first news.
Believe me Western still not able to disgust that Asia will be crossing them economically in 10/20 years.
Now you will ask me why I still back in one of Western country. Simple answer – less corruption and my kids education.
Dear lady,
I would suggest, all of you generalists from west to acquire full knowledge about Pakistan, its culture, its history and its struggle to survive or clear your hearts and mind from being bias. Your argument about security check and safety in Pakistan also needs the study of root cause this situation. Pakistan was not like that and who is responsible for the present situation.
Every Media and journalist Duty is to report what is happening. In Pakistan bad things out number the Good things. There is fear every where because of Bombs and explosion. How can you say foreign media should have reported.
A good article. I tried a lot to live with idealism in the past but failed miserably. So I became a realist, and therefore expect that the readers of this comment won’t mind my words. Like any other business, media and fashion weeks are also businesses. The story has to be then carefully articulated to attract and suit the audiences. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s moderate picture presented by Mary Bowers is too narrow, and is only meant for selected audience. I wish she would have visited Pakistan throughout its length and breadth, and perhaps found that the life in Pakistan has many colours other than fashion weeks. Pakistan is neither a society of few thousands of terrorists nor is it represented by few hundred modernists who prefer exposing themselves in western attire through fashion weeks. It is rather a diverse society of 170 million moderate people who have been sandwiched between these two groups of extremists. This majority of moderates in Pakistan, therefore, feels that wrongs of the one extreme cannot be put right by the wrongs of the other extreme. Like other societies, Pakistani society is also affected by golbalisation. However, the solution to all problems has to be indigenous. If western journalists will offer solution for moderation through by supporting fashion weeks, primarily with the objective of promoting western culture, it will be resisted by the majority of peace-loving sons of the soil. I will therefore request Mary Bowers to do some more research on Pakistani society as a whole, and present its true picture.
LONG LIVE PAKISTAN
Agree!
News stories are like any other narrative. They focus on a few things that are special and noteworthy about the country at a global scale. And, shut out all else. This is how the human mind simplifies complex information, creates a “story”, and understands the complex world by boiling it down to limited categories.
So, USA is often associated with Hollywood. After all, it is the most dominant film industry in the world. And, its business and capitalism of course make the news.
And, Japan is associated with its powerful car industry. Note the Toyota stories reverberating in the media.
China and India stories always focus on their economic growth and how they may one day “take over the world”. Not withstanding the poverty that exists in both countries.
And, what would one say is truly world-class and best-of-breed in pakistan? I would have to point to the terrorism. Most major terrorists pass through pakistan at some point. That is notable and makes a lasting impression. And, that unfortunately colors everything written about pakistan.
best
Ahmed
As an Australian of Indian heritage, I can only empathise and identify with the dismay of Pakistani newspaper readers about the overshadowing of “good news” by constant references to negative aspects of day to day life in the country. For decades, India had to contend with “poverty”, “bakshish” and “babu-raj” reportage by “parachute” journalists, i.e. “instant India experts”, so much so that Mahatma Gandhi had coined the term “drains inspectors” for them because according to him if one only looks in India’s gutters, not much chance that one would find anything other than filth there.
It is only now, since India’s emergence as an economic force following long heralded and much needed economic reforms in the last five years or so, that news other than the country’s ills makes front page news. In fact, now with some semblance of balance appearing in the media, the general public in India seems to be demanding more accountability in the public sphere because it is now better informed of what is happening in the country, warts and all.
I know how is painful for one nation to be constantly reminded to the dark side of its own past and present. My country, Serbia, has gone through similar experience.
Unfortunately, Pakistanis will have to face with that even on such events as Fashion Week.
No one foreign journalist can write relaxing about the beautiful fashion models without look back at the tragedies that is happening every day in your country.
I do not think that British journalist did anything bad. On the contrary. She wrote a good article. Pakistani blogger is unrealistic and biased. First of all, he or she has no courage to sign the full name. And then there is no courage to call their own people and artists to take advantage of such events in order to change bad things.
The fact that your country’s establishment reportedly supports the Taliban casts a shadow over all the other nice things in your home country. Just like in my country, Serbia, where the war criminals, have been protected by the official governments for the long time. In the name of false patriotism. Because of it all the beauties of Serbia and all the valuable and respectable people stayed less important to the world. It took time and years to change things for the better.
For one foreign journalist it is really impossible to enjoy the beautiful dresses in Pakistan knowing that only a few hundred meters there was bloodshed and only a few dozen kilometers Taliban making plans for a new slaughter.
If Pakistani people want to be accepted widely as a creative nation without mixing with political past, before all, Pakistanis must solved with themselves what they want and what they do not want.
Or they will go to a place where illiterate terrorists will control them. And even their Fashion Week.
Couldn’t have agreed more with Sasa, It reminds, we might divide world politically into numerous units but as Human race we remain the same, our problems may be different but the causes of these problems remain same moreover the way these problems can be solved would also hold true world-wide. Lets begin with genuine intend of changing our respective societies for good.
Question:Why couldn’t the West report on Pakistan without mentioning terror?
Answer: Because Pakistan holds a Guineess book of world record for maximum bomb blasts in a year
Because Pakistan holds a Guineess book of world record for most people killed in bomb blast
Pakistan’s identity is linked to terrorism
@ Karuna: you are right in these statistics, but that makes Pakistan a “Victim of terrorism”. So, it’s identity should not be linked to terrorism but it internationally, it should be linked with “Sympathy for Pakistan” as we are officially fighting against evil, which is not created by us but by others.
Right on. Kudos.
A very well written piece. She is right about editors. They want juicy stories and Pakistan provides that.
I am amazed with some of the responses to this article. go out of your a/c houses/offices and you would realise that we stay in a REALLY REALLY violent and dangerous society. Even a simple drive in a 4 wheeler to the neighbourhood market is dangerous. If not a bomb then a wayward driver or animal could finish u off. A couple of people in rich bright clothes and listening to some songs do not make a “fitting reply” or a “moderate and developed” society.
Dear Asad,
You are so right. Situation in India is the same only that here its a bit lesser in intensity. Root cause of our problems is religion and religion alone. Take an example; Sati (burning of widows) was abolished by British. I am sure if it was prevalent today, our present day politicians would not have the guts to do so.
We in India compare with Pakistan and feel happy but the reality is there is much too great influence of religion in India too which need to be abolished. The idea of good governance is not equal importance to all religions but ‘equal distance from all’. Then only fanatics and their extremism can be crushed.
Kapil
I think there will be a conflict of understanding between the western media and the Pakistani society. With respect to your statement of “an enemy we do not understand” I’d say, it’s not just the enemy but the Pakistani society at large. The only way i can define the complexity of a Pakistani society is that within a quarter mile compound you can find an extremist, a moderate, a liberal. What we are failing to achieve is a way to co-exist.
I don’t know if a fashion week is the way to go about countering radicalism, to me it appears as more of a spin to the vicious cycle of radicalism. This is not just the West’s war, it’s our war. It’s the war of our selves, in which we can only win by rising above who we are. Challenging ourselves for the greater good.
Violence blurs out right and wrong and make them appear as one.
I am still not convinced.
Here is a piece I read in a book. On some local radio channel in US a program was being produced by Pakistanis where the topic was , how to improve the image of Paksitan. One of the replies was to improve the image of a dump of filth, u have to clean it. There is no other way to improve its impression.
Writers such as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene were not terribly lonely. Cerainly no one would accuse them for being a Tiger Wood in distant lands. But they wouldn’t be amused by a “fashion show” in a major city of Pakistan either. The idea that some Pakistanis are contemplating “beauty”, like the way the ancient Greeks did in a religious sense in the midst of distress, would have appeared perverse to them. Nor they could had shown a propensity, like the writer of this blog does, to engage in optimism:”Pakistan can and will shake off the yoke of terror reporting.” Perhaps they might have needed more than just one fashion show.
I know that friends of Pakistan like Mary Bowers want to present Pakistan in a favorable light, sometimes quite desperately.
When bombs are going off everyday, the civilian government is completely emasculated by the army, maybe the only positive one can talk about is the fashion show!
Nice article Ms. Bowers. Just to inform you that we Pakistanis too are human, in fact a lot more than what others think., we too love fashion, music and the other enjoyments of life. Actually its all about how our country is portrayed by the media, specially the western media. Also, the problems currently being faced by us are not entirely of our own doing, many others are actively involved in this scenario. So happy reporting, we only ask for a fair deal. As for the homesick and the worried, as they say, if you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I see. That is why the Basant festival has been banned in Lahore. The CD shops are destroyed in Swat. The classical music and classical dance (e.g. Kathak which was greatly encouraged during the Mughal emperor’s reins) are no longer taught anywhere in Pakistan.
I am afraid you got it wrong on Mughal emperor’s theme. Infact the last Mughal emperor ‘Aurangzeb’ had not only banned music and singing during his rule but also imposed Sharia by force on people other than Muslims. However it is good to see all right minded people in Pakistan condemn terrorism in all forms. Hope peace will soon return to this country.
“Nice article Ms. Bowers. Just to inform you that we Pakistanis too are human, in fact a lot more than what others think., we too love fashion, music and the other enjoyments of life. Actually its all about how our country is portrayed by the media, specially the western media.”
Yea, but how many Pakistanis enjoy a good fashion show or other such “enjoyments”?? Maybe 0.5%? 1%? I am sure if these fashion shows were shown to the Pakistani mainstream you would have a riot on your hands. The mullahs have already convinced 80-90% of the populace that only way to save the country is to turn it socially into a taliban heaven.
There is a problem with mullahs as well but remember since few decades we mixed our culture with religion so strangely that now its difficult to look beyond them. Islam has their own culture requirements but unfortunately we cover those with our own cultural mindset which has resulted a total new shape. Infact I discovered so many things about Islam in UK which make me wonder what we have been grew up with in Pakistan. Therefore, my dear fellow readers don’t just go on one side for being critical, we have to look honest views.
@Ayesha if you want to have basant have it, but make sure you know lahori’s are educated enough to deal with consequences. What you reckon here in Britain if some one dies like this with “door” what would you see in the next media. These people value the lives more then social enjoyment. So we should celebrate the basant but with education.
When:
1. Hundreds of CD shops were destroyed in FATA and Swat by Taliban because according to them ‘music is haraam in Islam”.
2. Pakistan does not enter any beauty contests anywhere in the world – one platform where other countries can see your fashion sense.
3. The first ever fashion week in Pakistan happened in 2009 after having to be postponed 3 times due to security threats. Even the current show happened under heavy security. No foreign fashion designer was part of the Lahore or Karachi fashion week.
4. Pakistan’s non-Muslim population has gone down from 25% at time of independence to less than 5% now. Ahmediyas have been declared non-Muslims and the blasphemy law is used to intimidate anyone who is non-Muslim.
5. There are pretty much no movies coming out of Pakistan.
SO you are wihin your rights to describe Pakistan as a country that loves music, fashion and other enjoyment of life. Most unbiased external observers would conclude that very few Pakistanis are privileged enough to have these enjoyments.
So having a fashion week is a measure fo how civilised a country is, really a very shallow benchmark.
Our neighbour India has many fashion weeks and lot of vulgarity openly accepted through Bollywood but does that mean there is tolerance in the streets. Ask the 2000 Mulims massacred in Gujrat by Hinuds who were supported by state governments. Ask the Biharis who are being told to leave Maharashtera.
Ask the Australian Priest and his sons who were torched in their car by a Hindu Mob, Oh you can’t ask them they are not alive anymore. Ask the low caste millions how they are treated. Ask the thousands of sikhs killed after assassination of Indira, Ask the 70,000 Kashmiri’s killed by Indian army, I can go on as the list is very long……
I hope civilization has not come to this level of judging others on the basis of how many fashion shows they have.
Frankly your response has nothing to do with the original blog nor what I have written. It is a general rant against India which has no relevance.
My comment on the other hand is a direct response to the earlier person who had said that Pakistani people enjoy music, fashion and other good things in life.
Hmmm Akil Akthar, So what are you trying to prove here ??
Reporters are human beings no doubt. Honest article.
I just clicked on the South Asia tab of the BBC website. As expected, India has stories about bollywood, F1 race and Gandhi’s Mont Blanc men. Not a pipsqueak about Pakistan’s fashion week. Frankly, I could care less what the English reader wants to read. BBC has a global audience and a bit of good news out of Pakistan would go a long way in chipping away those prejudices.
“Frankly, I could care less what the English reader wants to read” and BBC editors couldn’t care less about what you want them to publish. They are not there to please you. They are there to please their audience – which is the British reader.
Ms. Bowers:
Thanks for sharing your views, input and perspective. I could not agree more. Bravo, at least, you are not a lazy journalist like some in your profession. You do your home work. A smart reader can detect an investigative piece versus a potato coach writing.
I feel sad for the thousands of Pakistani youth with the same questions. Not only do Pakistanis today have to undergo security checks every day and be in fear of the future, but also get reminded by daily media news inexplicably linking the nation to terrorists and terrorism.
Mary Bower has expressed herself well in relation to her upbringing and what she was exposed to in the hay days of IRA operations in UK. In our case we have lost our sense of direction since July5,1977 and every decade
since that day the abyss has become deeper and wider. Our sense of security is alarming! Here everybody thinks
that unless you have not served in the Infantry or the SSG you do not qualify to serve in the security.I once asked an assistant manager of a security company assigned to a major hotel in Islamabad-Pindi area do you have a Code of Ethics that your guards and you follow, I got blank look as if I was speaking about outer space.
Two other question I asked how well are you or others in your outfit trained in First Aid & CPR and Fire and Hazardous Material prevention and control. He looked over my shoulder and began giving some kind of orders to
his men. The watchman who normally wore Shalwar-Kameez and carried a long sturdy staff now wears a uniform
and carries a gun. The concept of security is far more alarming then the bearded youth with the explosive belt.
To those who have the courage to defy the odds and run 100 meters to return with a gold medal or walk on a stage with floating locks have greater sense of integrity then those fanatics crying thy reckoning is coming.
Thanks for the piece Mary – i’m thankful for the acknowledgement that there is at least a problem even though your overall piece fails to convince me of the real reasons. So essentially your saying that you pander to your editors’ and readerships’ pre-conceived ideas of what pakistan is like. You writing in the name of adding “some context” therefore fails to challenge these stereotypes. So what is the purpose of journalism if your just going to maintain the status quo…i dont want you to gloss over Pakistan’s problems and we all know we have some major problems but i like the news to be reported with some balance.
Why shouldnt Lahore and Karachi fashion shows be big news, it would at least show the world that we are just as enterprising as anyone else. It would show another face of Pakistan away from the Taliban, Bombs and Terror. Well as you have said that would be boring and not a very interesting story to tell.
And so the circle continues…
She did talk about the Pakistan fashion week in the context of terrorism. If you are saying that the Pakistan fashion week ‘should’ be a story by itself, ask yourself why? Why should readers be more interested in Lahore fashion week compared to New York, Paris or Milan fashion week?
Tell me how interested have Pakistanis been in India fashion week, which has been going on for 10 years now?
Good on you Mary Bowers for the straight talk. Surely your heart is in the right place and your mind is open. I would like to thank you in earnest for your response. We, Pakistanis, can only benefit from being alive to how we are viewed/ perceived and where we stand. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to be ever apologetic – but it does mean that we should first think long and hard as to why the world sees us as it does rather than feel insulted because of it.
A very perceptive and lucid article- ‘no news is good news’ when it comes to Pakistan- for the most part Pakistan is in the news only in a negative way and it is only to be expected that even the positive news would have to be tinged with negative aspects for quite some time to come; many Pakistanis find this ‘tinging’ frustrating but your article makes it abundantly clear why it has to be that way…
I am a Pakistani who lives in the US and I couldn’t agree more on the ‘no news is good news’ part.
Mary with due respect please tell us something we didnt already know
Omar R Quraishi