Is Pervez Hoodbhoy right? Are Pakistani men migrating to Europe for "adventures"?

Hoodbhoy argues that the "lure of adventure and libidinal frustration" is why young men are desperate to reach the EU

The migrant boat tragedy that claimed the lives of hundreds off the coast of Greece this past June has not deterred Pakistanis from attempting to make the journey in the hopes of securing a future for themselves in Europe. As details emerge about who exactly was on the doomed trawler, the choice to undertake the perilous trip by dozens of young Pakistani men has brought into focus the crippling aftermath of Pakistan's economic and political meltdown over the last year.

One contrarian hot take on why Pakistanis continue to try to make it to Europe elicited quite an outrage on Twitter in the days after the tragedy. In his op-ed for Dawn, prominent Pakistani physicist and intellectual Pervez Hoodbhoy offers up the possibility that young men are desperate to reach the shores of the EU because of the “lure of adventure and libidinal frustration”, i.e. in search of sexual pleasures not easily accessible in a conservative society like Pakistan.

The Pakistani Twitterati, a preferred moniker for the liberal elites who tend to be the platform's heaviest users, were up in arms over Hoodbhoy insinuating that “the boat tragedy victims were just horny savages,” his views derided as “classist and borderline racist,” and also Islamophobic. His liberal credentials and past activism remain as a prime example of “the majority of Pakistan's foreign-educated academia/elite: they'll pontificate upon what's wrong with Pakistan by demeaning and ridiculing the underprivileged and, in doing so, reveal their pettiness”.

Hoodbhoy did not seem phased by the criticism. During my Skype conversation with him, I read out a few of the tweets in question, to which he replied:

“They're not challenging any of my facts. Are they? I'd be worried if they did that because one must be on very solid ground now,” he continued. “I think it's probably to everybody's knowledge how frustrated young Pakistani men are and how no woman feels secure being with them.”

Consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for women, Pakistani women face not just sexual threats from unknown men but also high rates of violence from spouses and other male relatives.

Hoodbhoy's claims aren't without merit. He leans on the evidence presented in researcher Ali Nobil Ahmad's 2011 book titled ‘Masculinity, Sexuality, and Illegal Immigration: Human Smuggling from Pakistan to Europe’ to argue that young men are “risking life and limb… to (reach) a faraway world (that) beckons wherein pleasures of the flesh are tauntingly visible through advertising and general openness”.

In his book, Ahmad rejects the simplistic view that most Pakistani men decide to make the illegal journey to Europe solely due to economic pressures or a desire to reunite with family. Through in-depth interviews with Pakistani migrants in London, Italy and Pakistan, Ahmad surmises that “hedonism can be a factor in many young men's decision-making…that the oppressive regime of conservative religious, social and moral control of individual behaviour in Pakistan itself makes it impossible for young men in villages to indulge in the kinds of pleasures that are routine for teenagers in the West”.

Illegal labour migration in the working and lower middle classes of Pakistan can thus be a form of youthful rebellion that highlight tensions between the “overt piety of elders who espouse high ‘Islamic’ ideals and a more subversive, sensuous South Asian youth sub-culture that seeks to carve out spaces of fun, celebrating the body and various sorts of transgressions”. As one interviewee in Lahore put it:

“They have no access to women, to sex. No access to upper-class women. They just play cricket and video games. Marriage is the only way for them to have sex. Because upward mobility for them is blocked, they feel a terrible frustration, especially those who want to see more of the world and experience what they see plastered on TVs.”

Too much free time, not enough job prospects, and access to pornography through smartphones have also warped many of these young men's ideas about what kind of adventures and possibilities may await them in liberal European societies, Hoodbhoy states. In his view, there is nothing wrong with young men seeking a better life for themselves abroad. The issue arises when large swathes of young men travel to western societies with “unassimilable conservative values” and a knowledge deficit that sees them employed in low-wage jobs and unable to move into middle-class lifestyles in their chosen countries of residence.

This is the heart of Hoodbhoy's argument. Many of his critics didn't pick up on how Pakistan's crumbling education system doesn't equip its young people with the skills and resources they need to succeed, whether in Pakistan or abroad. Add in a conservative strain of Islam that seems to be getting more extreme as time goes by; these young men risking their lives to build a future in Europe are programmed to reject the values and customs of the new world they see around them.

Hoodbhoy explains:

“This is reflected in how the Pakistani community lives in places like Bradford and Birmingham and East London, and even in Manhattan or the Bronx. You do see much greater introversion. You see the emphasis being on religion. Less open-mindedness, less curiosity about the world around them. Less absorption into mainstream culture.”

This issue is not confined to just the Pakistani community in the West, Hoodbhoy argues.

“It's with Muslims practically everywhere. From Morocco and Algeria to Singapore and Australia, the Muslims stand out, they are instantly identifiable. You see the hijab and the burqa, but more so the hijab. I think it's an assertion of identity.

But why do Muslims worldwide feel such a strong need to assert their Muslim-ness when they move elsewhere? Why don't we see this in Hindus, Jews or Christians?

According to Hoodbhoy:

“It's probably failure because Muslims really have very little to show in terms of achievements in science, technology and ideas. Even in terms of films, except for Iran. And in Iran, the films are all outside of the mainstream of Iranian culture, so there's this collective sense of failure that then transforms into cultural conservatism.”

Such a viewpoint would surely get Hoodbhoy cancelled if he shared it on one of his regular lecture tours at elite universities across the US. After all, many forms of art flourished during the Islamic Golden Age from the 8^th to 13^th century when Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages. Islamic scholars made great strides in algebra, chemistry, medicine and astronomy. It was a time of burgeoning economic and cultural advancements, as seen in ceramics, metalwork, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, woodwork, and calligraphy from that era. This proves that Muslims today have a rich history to refer back to and be proud of, even though this Renaissance ended more than 800 years ago, in part due to the Mongols' invasions.

“So Islam ran out of steam basically after the 13^th century, and since then, it's been coasting along,” Hoodbhoy sums up.

With so much cultural and religious baggage weighing on their souls, what does all this mean for the adventure-starved, porn-addicted young men making their way to the shores of Europe in droves? As a Bavarian politician pointed out,

“When Muslim teenage boys go to open-air swimming pools, they are overwhelmed when they see girls in bikinis. These boys, who come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked skin, will follow girls and bother them without their realising it. Naturally, this generates fear.”

It seems that our elites would rather have young women live in fear of being sexually assaulted or raped rather than have people, such as Hoodbhoy, give us an honest assessment of the overlooked push and pull factors that drive young men to pay smugglers thousands of dollars for their shot to live out their repressed teenage fantasies in Europe.