By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
T is a familiar sight. Little children loaded with heavy schoolbags being forced to `acquire` knowledge. We are supposed to know best what is good for them. We may be the parents, the teachers or policymakers who set the paradigms for elementary education.
Continue reading The magic world of a child
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
UNICEF’S The State of the World’s Children, 2006 is titled “Excluded and Invisible”. The authors of the report define those children as excluded and invisible who are deemed to be at risk of missing out on an environment that protects them from violence, abuse and exploitation.
Those children are also considered to be excluded if they are unable to access essential services in a way that threatens their ability to participate fully in society in the future. Keeping this definition in mind one wonders how many children in Pakistan would qualify as ‘excluded’.
In the physical sense, children’s “visibility” in our society is very high. You see them everywhere, even in places where they should not be seen — on the streets, in workplaces, in garbage dumps, and even in battle zones. With 4.7 million children born every year and nearly 71 million Pakistanis being under 18 years of age (about a third of them under five) it is not surprising that the physical presence of children is so noticeable. Yet a huge majority of them qualify as being defined as excluded.
Continue reading Social exclusion is their lot
By Zubeida Mustafa
The story doing the rounds these days is a shocking one about a girl and three or four boys, one of them her brother, studying in a school or a college of Karachi. It has kept the mothers of young girls awake for several nights. The general reaction has been one of fear and anxiety. Is this what our society has come to, it is being asked.
Women talking in whispers at parties, in offices or anywhere they come together are narrating what they have heard about the girl who was gang raped by her fellow students who gained access to the ladies’ room where the heinous act occurred after bribing the maasi. The last boy to enter happened to be the victim’s brother. He has gone into a coma from shock after he discovered that his sister had been assaulted by his friends. The girl is dead. A massive cover-up operation has been launched by the school and the boys’ parents who are very influential. The media has been bribed and so this is not being reported.
Mind you, I am not saying that this incident actually took place. I am only reporting what is being narrated and is creating near panic in parents. Since it has been impossible to verify the incident, because no identifiable source is ever given of the story, one can only hope that this is one of the “urban legends”, which seem to crop up periodically. Remember, how it was being widely reported -–– by word of mouth only —– a few years ago how syringe throwing maniacs were trying to infect women with the HIV virus. When after investigating, I had written about the unlikelihood of the stories being true, readers heaved a big sigh of relief and soon forgot about the whole episode.
In this case, too, I tried very hard to get to the root of the story but failed. I have not met anyone so far who can tell me of a person who personally knows any of the people said to be involved ––- the rapists, their families, the victim and her family. Everyone who comes out with the story says she heard it from either a friend or from a stranger in a group. Even those who identify the person who narrated the story can go no further because the narrator ends up by giving a vague source. Nothing from the horse’s mouth.
The other strange feature is that broadly speaking the story line -–– if one may describe it as such ––- is the same but the details vary. For instance, sometimes the scene of the crime is a school (different elitist ones are mentioned), sometimes it is a college (again two institutions have been named). Hence the age of the children involved varies. Their numbers also change ––- though the victim is always one. We have been hearing about this for the past two months and yet it is always said “it happened last week”. The fate of the girl and the boy also differs in every version.
What is one to make out of this? Personally, I think until the veracity of this episode is established conclusively by someone who actually knows the families involved and allows some investigation, this should be taken as an urban legend.
What is this new phrase which has gained currency of late? In the good old days we just called a story that had no basis as a “rumour”. Today it is termed an urban legend. In fact a film of that name was produced in 1998.
The Wikipedia defines it as “supposedly-true stories circulated primarily by word of mouth” and, in recent years, “distributed by email”. People frequently say such tales happened to a friend of a friend — so often, in fact, that FOAF has become a commonly used acronym to describe how such reports are rarely first-hand”.
Although the Wikipedia claims that such reports are sometimes repeated in news stories, that is generally not the case in the responsible media because there is no reliable source for them.
What is significant about urban legends is that they are readily believed by people ––- quite sensible and rational otherwise ––- who unwittingly pass them on by voicing their concerns about them. Invariably these legends touch those aspects of our lives in respect of which there is widespread fear and an intense sense of insecurity at a given point in time.
And what are our (especially women’s) present concerns which the urban legends are preying on? If one analyzes the present story being narrated again and again by FOAF the general fears and insecurities are pretty obvious. In a nutshell they are: * Women, even young girls, are not safe in this society. The fear of rape lurks in every woman’s mind, conscious or subconscious. Those with daughters fear for them, too.
* Corruption has seeped into every strata of society and one can pay a bribe and get anything good or evil ––- even the moon, if the bribe is big enough.
* If one is powerful and influential enough, one can cover up the most heinous of crimes and keep it out of the media.
One woman who was narrating this incident, which we don’t know if it actually happened, even brought up the Sui rape case and the president’s defence of the army captain. She said this was a message to other men with evil intentions ––- go ahead, you will be protected.
The more serious cause of concern is that women should be feeling so vulnerable in Pakistan. It is this aspect of the situation which needs to be addressed.
Source: Dawn
By Zubeida Mustafa
Any adolescent passing through what adults refer to as “that difficult phase of life” would jump at an invitation like the above. This is the need of the day when not only an individual but also society is in the process of change, writes Zubeida Mustafa
This is what a flyer given to me in Morocco on my recent visit there said (the original was in French and Arabic):
Youth Health Area
We listen to you and take care of you
What’s it about?
If you have a health problem;
If you have questions regarding a topic that’s worrying you;
If you need to confide in somebody;
Youth Health Area is at your service!
They are here for you;
A team of health professionals will give you a warm welcome, personal care, and will answer your questions while ensuring full confidentiality.
And on top of that – it’s free!!!
Here’s all the news!
To further your knowledge on a topic of your choice, you have access to our documentation and multimedia centre, where magazines, films, brochures, CDs and other information media are available for you!
A way to make intelligent use of your free time…
Any adolescent passing through what adults refer to as “that difficult phase of life” would jump at an invitation like the above. This is the need of the day when not only an individual but also society is in the process of change.
It makes sense that the changes — especially behavioural changes — are planned and follow a direction. It is foolish to try and block change because it will inevitably come over a period of time unless of course a society has fallen into a state of stagnation. But if the changes come at random driven by social circumstances and economic needs things can get quite chaotic.
Morocco, where I was at the invitation of the Population Institute, Washington, to visit some projects, believes that the process of change must be orderly to be long term and enduring. Its approach is to start re-orienting people at an early age. That is, catch ‘em young, as they say. I found that the Moroccans have adopted this strategy to great effect and it is working magnificently. The youth, who are the beneficiaries of many projects, are outgoing, dynamic and full of zeal.
In the school we visited on the outskirts of Marrakesh, we were introduced to Saadia, a young girl in her teens who is an active member of the school health club that has been organized in this “lycee” with 1,200 students on its roll. Saadia briefed us about the club that has been functioning since September 2003. With 40 members, the club focuses on six key issues which are regarded as posing the most serious potential health hazard to the young people of Morocco. These are smoking, Aids, pollution, drug addiction, prostitution and diabetes.
The idea is to create awareness among the youth in order to bring about a change in their attitudes. The children are encouraged to do research on these subjects under the guidance of their teachers and prepare charts and graphics to project their findings. They have been provided computers to enable them to look up information on the web. In this exploratory process the young minds are imbibing healthy habits and changing their lifestyle for the better.
Saadia demonstrated her club’s charts and told us with great confidence about the dangers of smoking. It is unlikely that Saadia after having worked on those drawings of blackened lungs juxtaposed with pink and healthy respiratory organs, will ever touch a cigarette in her lifetime. And this message is not for Saadia alone. She would obviously pass on the anti-smoking message subtly to her peers and siblings, not just in school but also outside before they reach the age when they are likely to experiment with cigarettes.
A common mode of transmission of information is through the cultural activities the club organizes. For instance plays and cultural weeks have a social content which disseminates health education far and wide.
Even more significant is the project Fatema and Kazi, two teachers of the Marrakesh School, have introduced in their institution. Mindful of the mental health of the youngsters and the stresses and strains they are subjected to in their adolescence, these teachers are acting as counsellors to the students.
“The youth are encouraged to come and talk to any of us about any problem that is upsetting them. We have also given them a telephone number where they can call if they need to talk to someone urgently. The students are assured of confidentiality and a sympathetic hearing. They may be having problems with their parents, teachers or colleagues. They may be just in need of a patient ear to hear them out to bring some sanity to their lives. This facility which we have provided is appreciated by the parents,” Mr Kazi told me.
A society which is youth-centred and cares for its children can produce wonders. Aren’t they the citizens of tomorrow? What they learn today they will practise tomorrow. If they learn to love, care, shun violence, live in peace and cherish good health, hygiene and cleanliness, they will lead society in that direction within a few years when they enter adulthood.
Morocco has learnt this lesson fast. Most of its programmes have a strong pro-youth orientation. The family planning association office we visited in Fez had a long queue of women waiting to be served. They had come for contraceptive services. But the IEC (information, education and communication) side of the programme was managed preponderantly by young men and women. They performed a small skit for us in the office to demonstrate their strategies. Normally they go out and perform it as a street theatre. It was all about Aids and its prevention.
While they sing and dance and make merry, these children learn about a deadly disease, which is fast emerging as a major threat to the life of the youth all over the world. They get knowledge about safe sex, the need to space babies, and other such topical issues which they would never learn about in normal course.
In Rabat we visit the Yousoufia Adolescents Health Centre which has been set up by the government. (The flyer from where the passage is quoted above was given to us at Yousoufia.) In fact eight major cities of Morocco have similar centres. They have been set up after careful planning. Nearly a quarter of the population of Morocco is under 15 years of age. “We selected the site after a study was done on the age profile of the population in the area and its interest in health. It has evolved as a community centre where the youth come to enjoy themselves,” says Benouin Aziz, the director of the Yousoufia Centre.
Aziz proudly points out the psychological support, health information and youth activities the centre facilitates. The focus is on anti-smoking drives, campaigns against drug addiction and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
Has all this made any difference to the youth of Morocco? One expects it would have. I looked up the UNDP’s Human Development Report to ascertain if there had been an impact. The statistics were reassuring. In the last decade the youth literacy rate has jumped up from 55 per cent to 69.5 per cent. Nearly 35 per cent of male adults and two per cent women are smokers but this rate should go down as the youth exposed to the anti-smoking messages in school enter adulthood. I could not lay my hands on the figures for crime and mental health but it seems unlikely that with such good care given to the youth there should be a high incidence of deliquency and crime.
Source: Dawn
By Zubeida Mustafa
Conventional wisdom has it that “behind every successful man in a woman”. In Abdus Sattar Edhi’s case, the woman is not behind him. She is there right beside him and now she is equally well-known. Today Bilquis Edhi has a public stature in her own right and not simply as the wife of Pakistan’s greatest social worker and humanist.
It would appear paradoxical that in a milieu where the female presence is virtually non-existent, a woman should have carved an exalted niche for herself. Mithadar, the downtown neighbourhood of Karachi from where the Edhis operate, is predominantly a male preserve. You hardly ever see a woman treading its narrow and unpaved lanes. Yet this is Bilquis Edhi’s kingdom. For more than 30 years, she has worked quietly without any fuss looking after distressed women and children while her husband collected the accolades. Continue reading Soul companion: Bilquis Edhi