“They hired a Pathan?! I thought it was for smart people”: Pakhtun stereotyping is not ‘just jokes’

A portion of the Pakhtun generalizations predominant in Pakistan are that of ignorance and religious radicalism. Delineation: JAMAL KHURSHID/EXPRESS TRIBUNE

I as of late moved to the United States for my alumni thinks about. At the Denver International Airport, an expansive publication of Malala Yousafzai invited me. I wished this would not be the main time I felt comfortable, yet I stayed distrustful. Recently had I perused a news article about the expansion in race and religion-based savagery in America. I chose to hold my judgment for some other time. Incidentally however, this brought back recollections of another movement I encountered three years prior.

On June 10, 2015, seven days before I moved on from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIK), I got an occupation offer from an eminent compost fabricating organization. I was blissful. In any case, a fast Google look uncovered that the area, Rahimyar Khan, was actually 1,000 kilometers from Malakand, the place where I grew up. Amid the strenuous transport venture, I continued thinking about whether I was set up for the one of a kind difficulties of the activity. Imagine a scenario in which my GPA was excessively low. Upon my landing in the plant's township, I understood that none of these elements were important. Truth be told, a completely disconnected part of my character would be the focal point of consideration – my race.

I was not new to racial stereotyping. Supremacist jokes have constantly discovered entertaining gratefulness from our way of life. However some way or another, in an organization of dear companions, jokes were "simply jokes". It was not until the point that I was encompassed solely by individuals of races not my own, at expert positions a lot higher than mine, that I understood how adverse "just jokes" could be. In the accompanying passages, I review a few occasions that feature my experience living as a Pakhtun in Punjab.

Enter the idiotic Pathan

I was contracted into the instrument and control (I&C) division, rumored for being the office with the most intelligent individuals. On my first day, I met a youthful architect who had been working at the plant for a long time. Provoked by my emphasize, he asked me where I was from.

"Malakand," I said.

"Gracious, they employed a Pathan in I&C! I thought it was for brilliant individuals," he commented.

Not at all like the general population around me who chuckled wildly, I attempted to locate the correct articulation. I endeavored to guarantee myself this would be a confined occurrence, however throughout the following over two years, I would hear several bigot slurs, jokes and request dependent on cliché thoughts going from fear mongering to homosexuality. Amazingly, the guilty parties did not originate from a solitary race or even age gathering. I was underestimated and taunted by kids as youthful as six, and division administrators as old as 56.

The jaahil/radical Pathan

Mind aside, another Pakhtun generalization predominant in Pakistan is that of absence of education and religious fanaticism. As somebody who has dependably represented interfaith agreement, I was the most distant from this generalization of all. This, in any case, did not prevent an elderly mechanical architect from trusting in me that he was a gigantic admirer of Omar sahab. Upon my affable request of who Omar was, the man of honor answered, "Mullah Omar". I gestured, imagining that on the off chance that he would categorize me into a crate, he ought to have in any event utilized the correct box.

Different episodes included inquiries regarding how much land my dad claimed to stand to send me to the GIK Institute. The push to take part in discussion about bias and generalizations did not engage me. An information of the way that my dad was a specialist and a writer of two books, would just lift me to the title of an "exemption". In any case, would that stop further stereotyping?

The gay Pathan

I am a straight man and hold nothing against gay individuals. In any case, the possibility that a whole race can be gay escapes me. Two Pakhtuns strolling together would be no not as much as Pakistan's own pride march, a scene to appreciate for both the youthful and the grown-ups. On the range of generalizations from positive to unbiased to negative, I didn't realize where to put this one.

The disarray did not end here. Fitting in with the generalization about Pakhtuns being confident and ground-breaking, I was relied upon to show manliness. By what method can I both be gay and masculine in the meantime? The generalizations were not by any means reliable, and it unsettled the faultfinder inside me.