ET: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”
— Muhammad Ali Jinnah
A few weeks ago, while I was visiting a friend, I went into her kitchen to pick up a plate. As I reached out to pick up one lying next to the sink, her cook grabbed it from my hand. When I asked him what was wrong with the plate, he said it was used by the Christian maid. When I asked why she needed a separate plate, he said none of the staff — plus the begum sahib of the house — wanted to share plates, glasses or even cutlery with her.
Recently, I wished my viewers “Merry Christmas” on my morning show. Within minutes, there were comments on the show’s Facebook page saying that wishing Merry Christmas is blasphemous and that it makes me a non-Muslim. Apparently, I should not even say the words “Merry Christmas”. Instead, if I ‘insist’ on saying something to the Christians of Pakistan, I should only say “Happy Christmas”. That makes no sense to me. All my life, I’ve been wished ‘Eid Mubarak’ by Christians, Hindus and Jews alike.
My make-up artist and stylist, Irfan, asked me if I would help him register for his Matric. When I asked him how come he hadn’t finished his education, he told me he had dropped out. When he was in seventh grade, the school changed his last name (along with that of all the other Christian students) in the school……
Categories: Asia