A foreigner’s experience living in Pakistan is 10 times different from that of a common Pakistani
ISLAMABAD: This is in response to the article titled ‘Goodbye to all that’ written by Matt Vaughan, the author of critically acclaimed book Notes From a Sacred Land. While there is no doubt that Matt would have had a very positive living experience in Pakistan, which he has also detailed in his column published on April 27th and in his book, but holding his experience as the true image of the country is myopic and detracts from the real problems that plague the country.
As a country that spent most years of its existence fighting its deteriorating image globally, we are head over heels when a foreigner praises his or her time spent here. We are happy without realising that a foreigner’s experience living in Pakistan is 10 times different from that of a common Pakistani. Our colonial mindset makes us look up to white people and makes us go out of our way to make their experience a wonderful one. Besides these foreigners more often than not live in gated communities and are provided with the privilege the common man of the country often lack. So there is rarely any chance for them to have had bad experiences in the country. And have we ever noticed why a foreigner, who isn’t white, almost never writes books or columns on his ‘positive’ experience of the country? Because he/she rarely has any, unless they are members of the privileged elite class in the country.
So while gloating in joy because a foreigner wrote about Pakistan in a positive light, we shouldn’t forget the ground realities and the experiences of its nationals, particularly the marginalised segments of the country.
Minahil Rehman
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2018.
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