I was buying chai for $4 (more than most Pakistani workers get as a daily wage) and trying to decide whether to buy chocolate cake. The Marriot Hotel is no home for terrorists, even the American Embassy allowed its employees to go there.
Pakistan was labeled “the most dangerous country in the world”, on the October, 2007 cover of Newsweek magazine and then on the cover of The Economist a few months later. I was saddened by the label and a little curious, but also a bit frightened.
Not because I had felt fear that some fanatic would endanger my life if I was in Pakistan—frankly, it is much more frightening to drive through traffic in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, or Lahore. I felt the label demonized a whole nation and gave no face to the experience of the “average” Pakistani.
The label is indicative of typical media coverage of Pakistan that leads people to commonly ask me, “Do women wear veils in Pakistan? Do they speak English in Pakistan?” Sometimes they even make unconscious jokes about “jihadis.” This is not the Pakistan that I know.
The Pakistan that I know is like the America I know, in some ways: students who are curious and interested in the world, lawyers who are willing risk their security to stand up for what they know is right, workers struggling to earn a living, mothers who want their children to receive an education.
The reality is that Pakistan was a non-entity in the average American’s mind before the war in Iraq and 9/11. Since then, it has become a country of jihadis and madrassas in many people’s mind. Beyond that, my impression is that people do not know much else.
I have been to sites where other suicide bombings have taken place over the last two years—Aabpara market, Melody market and Luna Caprese. I was even at the spot where suicide bombers took the lives of at least 24 people, many of them police officers, outside the High Court in Lahore. We asked the driver of our car to stop so that we could get a picture of the red brick High Court building, but, a police officer stopped us and said we could only take pictures from outside the gated wall. But for a turn of fate, he could have been one of the police officers killed during that attack.
What makes the incident at the Marriot so different? Perhaps it’s that being at the Marriot reminded me of the American way of life. Or perhaps it’s because my sister, who lives 20 miles outside of Islamabad, said she heard the Marriot bomb.
At the heart of it could be fear that this is a sign that the violence is only going to get worse, and give the current administration ammunition to permanently label Pakistan as the most dangerous country in the world.
Unfortunately labels don’t have the power, especially damning labels like “the most dangerous in the world” to educate. The label does not help people who are not Pakistanis get a bigger picture of the people of Pakistan and what they live with day in and day out. Such a label certainly cannot convey the hopes and dreams of Pakistanis for themselves as individuals, or as a nation.
It would be foolish to deny that there is increasing political turmoil and violence within Pakistan and along its northwest border, which puts Pakistanis and foreigners in harm’s way. But there could be something more dangerous in the long term for Pakistanis than political turmoil and violence.
A label like “most dangerous country in the world” has the power to polarize, at best. At worst it can make the heartbeats of the Pakistani people invisible, creating a faceless, impersonal demon that we can attack.
As Americans, as global citizens, we have the responsibility to raise awareness, encourage dialogue, and build relationships. As media, we have an opportunity to give people a chance to truly see each other’s humanity.
What if instead of every bombing in Pakistan, we were to hear about every act of courage and rationality there? What if we were given the chance to see the face of decent people and get to know Pakistanis, as the warm-hearted and hospitable people they are?
