Page 10 - Pakistan Link - June 25, 2021

P10 – PAKISTAN LINK – JUNE 25, 2021 OPINION
n By Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy Cost of Enforced Modesty repression drove internet porno-
Islamabad, Pakistan graphic traffic from Pakistan so
high that PTA finally blocked porn
mplementation of the PTI’s sites. Until November 2011 internet
Single National Curriculum cafes were principal porn dispens-
Ihas started in Islamabad’s ers and these promptly collapsed
schools and for students the hu- after the ban, ruining their owners.
man body is to One hears, however, that paths to
become a dark proscribed materials have simply
mystery, darker shifted elsewhere. Who knows?
than ever before. Sharm-o-haya makes protect-
Religious schol- ing children from sexual predators
ars appointed as much more difficult. Sometime
members of the ago, the PTI minister for human
SNC Commit- rights, Dr Shireen Mazari, declared
tee are supervising the content at the launch of the Child Protec-
of schoolbooks in all subjects in- tion Campaign that ‘Pakistan was
cluding science. In the name of Is- ranked as the country with the larg-
lamic morality they have warned est numbers of child pornography
textbook publishers not to print viewers’. She suggested that cam-
any diagram or sketch in biology paigns should be launched at the
textbooks that show human fig- school level to sensitize students to
ures “sans clothes”. the menace.
For the teaching of biology this Mazari is, of course, very cor-
surpasses existing de facto prohi- rect. Her proposal would work far
bitions on teaching evolution, the better at protecting children than
foundational principle of biological having child killers and rapists
sciences. Illustrations are crucial to nostic devices that can look inside to medical college by their parents non-functioning organization in swing from lamp posts, a popu-
explain the digestive system (with women’s bodies because, “We think but mostly to become trophy brides each province. lar demand. But such educational
both entrance and exit points) and that men could derive sexual plea- who never practice their profes- Called the Population Welfare campaigns require making children
human reproduction, as well as sure from women’s bodies while sion. Nevertheless, this begs the Department, the replacement was aware of basic biological facts so
the mammary gland. Diagrams, conducting ECG or ultrasound”. question: can females become real named to suit our ‘cultural sensi- that they can tell between proper
sketches and human skeletal forms Claiming that women would lure doctors with their restricted medi- tivities’. The name implicitly sug- and improper behavior. How can
cannot be draped. Excluding these men under the pretext of medical cal knowledge? Would they ever be gests welfare for Pakistanis is pos- that possibly square with Imran
from schoolbooks reduces the procedures, the maulana’s party permitted to study the whole body, sible irrespective of how many of us Khan’s and Shafqat Mehmood’s
teaching of biology to a farce. banned ECG and ultrasound for including the male anatomy? Or are there are. PWD websites have fancy clerically supervised SNC?
Inhibitions about the human women by male technicians and women doctors only to treat sore graphics but no content because The guardians of sharm-o-haya
body, of course, have been around doctors when in power in KP. throats or become midwives? ways to limit conception would find undraped diagrams shameful.
for much longer than SNC. It’s just Trained females, however, were not Over time the clerically super- violate sharm-o-haya. How the hu- Yet, to protect their own kind, they
that henceforth there will be still to be found. suppress every scandal that might
more. I have looked at a few biology While sharm-o-haya applies With such deep social inhibitions, should women become implicate them. Earlier last week,
textbooks published in past years to all, females bear the brunt. Cul- doctors? This appears an odd question. Presently, about 70 unchallengeable video evidence
by the Punjab and Sindh Textbook turally, ‘breast’ is a taboo word and per cent of medical students in Pakistan are female. Our emerged of a mufti’s sexual wrong-
Boards and could not find mean- so breast cancer cannot easily be brightest girls get sent to medical college by their parents doing with a madressah lad. While
ingful accounts of mammalian or- called ‘breast cancer’. This makes but mostly to become trophy brides who never practice he was stripped of his madressah
gans and processes needed to sus- early detection hugely difficult teaching post after investigation,
tain life on earth. and accounts for Pakistan’s rate of their profession. Nevertheless, this begs the question: can no cleric suggested Sharia punish-
In one book from 1996 I did breast cancer being the highest in females become real doctors with their restricted medical ment and all religious parties stayed
find a diagrammatized rabbit. But South Asia. Most women feel em- knowledge? Would they ever be permitted to study the whole mum.
with essential parts fuzzed out, it barrassed in coming forward; only Saudi Arabia and the GCC
is difficult to figure out whether it when the pain becomes unbearable body, including the male anatomy? Or are women doctors countries used to be the world’s
was male or female or the equip- and when the cancer metastasizes only to treat sore throats or become midwives? most stoutly conservative countries
ment that rabbits need to reproduce does a woman finally confide in while Pakistan was counted among
themselves. That someone should someone. By that time, it is too late. vised PTI school curriculum will man species propagates appears to the more open, relaxed ones. This
think an un-fuzzed diagram of this Ovaries? Thousands of Pakistani magnify body-related taboos. Even be a dark national secret that must has changed. Presently, Pakistan is
little animal would titillate students women die yearly of ovarian and today no one in government dares be kept under wraps. Presumably, not just in reverse gear, it is hell-
or stimulate promiscuous behavior cervical cancer but ‘ovaries’ and talk openly about population plan- the morals of Pakistani society will bent upon moving backward as fast
stumps me. ‘cervix’ are words too delicate to ning or contraceptives except with be wrecked if we discover how ba- as possible. The kind of mixed-up,
When enforced, clerical inter- ever mention. bated breath and only after look- bies are made. Somehow it’s okay confused and ignorant generations
pretations of modesty — translated With such deep social inhibi- ing over their shoulder. Although to breed like rabbits but not okay to PTI’s curriculum changes will pro-
as sharm-o-haya — cause people to tions, should women become doc- Pakistan produces as many people know how rabbits breed. duce in times ahead is absolutely
suffer grievously. For example, ex- tors? This appears an odd ques- as the state of Israel every two Denying basic anatomical terrifying.
senator Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, tion. Presently, about 70 per cent years, yet it abolished the ministry knowledge keeps minds clean, say
former provincial secretary of the of medical students in Pakistan are for population planning long ago. our clerics. This could not be more (The writer is an Islamabad-
MMA, roundly condemned diag- female. Our brightest girls get sent It was replaced with some obscure, false. Unsated curiosity and sexual based physicist and author)
n By Dr Gary Scott Smith Revisiting the Atlantic Charter choose their own form of government.
PA The meeting, however, did not produce
the principal results either Churchill or Roo-
hen he became prime minister in sevelt desired. Churchill’s primary goal was to
May 1940, Winston Churchill was convince the United States to enter the war. At
Wconvinced that Britain could not the very least, he hoped that the United States
defeat the Axis Powers without the active would provide more military aid to Great Brit-
participation of the United ain and warn Japan to refrain from aggressive
States. He worked long and actions in the Pacific. Roosevelt hoped that
hard to persuade President adopting the Charter would help persuade the
Franklin Roosevelt to join the American people to support joining the Allies,
conflict to defeat Germany, Ja- but most citizens strongly opposed this policy
pan, and Italy. In March 1941, until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
the United States passed the December 7, 1941.
Lend Lease Act to provide Both leaders realized, however, that their
material support for the beleaguered Brit- joint declaration was the most they could
ish. By the summer of 1941, Germany had achieve during the conference. Although the
conquered much of Europe, had invaded United States refused to join the Allied cause,
the Soviet Union, and threatened Northern the declaration bound the United States more
Africa. Although the British had staved off a closely to Great Britain and helped raise the
Nazi invasion of their homeland, their situ- morale of the British people when their situ-
ation appeared dire. ation seemed bleak.
One step in Churchill’s campaign to en- At a meeting on January 1, 1942, rep-
list America’s aid was the formulation of the resentatives of 26 Allied nations pledged to
Atlantic Charter to set forth their nations’ Released on August 14, their joint decla- trade, ensure freedom of the seas, and improve support the Atlantic Charter’s principles. The
shared goals for the postwar world. From Au- ration listed eight “common principles” that international economic and welfare standards. charter publicly proclaimed the mutual desire
gust 9–12, 1941 Churchill and Roosevelt met the United States and Great Britain pledged to Most significantly, both the United States and of the United States and Great Britain to stop
aboard the HMS Prince of Wales, anchored promote in the postwar world. Both nations Great Britain agreed to help restore self-gov- Axis aggression. It expressed Churchill’s and
off the coast of Newfoundland, to hammer out promised not to seek territorial expansion and ernment for all nations the Axis Powers occu- Roosevelt’s goal of creating a postwar world
this charter. to work to ease restrictions on international pied during the war and assist their citizens to CHARTER, P24
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