Daily Times

We all yearn for fair and
free elections this year, committed to change the course of history by exercising our right to vote. We are hoping the democratic process would then bring stability, progress and accountability in Pakistan. Realising its significance, the demand for fair elections has become tremendously popular, so powerful that for the first time in the subcontinent, it has challenged the popularity of our long-standing desire for a fair complexion, a wish that has always topped our priority list without any competition or exception.

There is no doubt that politicians rule the country, but the desire to be fair-skinned rules our hearts and minds. Frankly speaking, as superficial as it is, skin colour plays a dominant role in our lives, sometimes even more than our character. Not only does it determine our race, it helps to define our profession, our level of education, our appeal to the opposite gender, our religion and, many times, it even estimates our net wealth. Lighter toned young girls particularly benefit from it, since from the age of 13, they get lucrative marriage proposals from middle-aged men and if they are really blessed, a colleague of their father can step forward to take up the ‘responsibility’. For boys, the story is a little different. While the girls tend to like them, they cannot step forward to propose openly to them. As a result, these lads usually get ‘proposals’ from their own brothers for the first 15 years of their lives.

As a matter of great personal significance, every young woman and nearly every man has followed some expert advice in their lifetime to acquire a skin colour that is at least one shade lighter from their genetic predisposition. Understanding this urge, even when the economy is in ruins, business is booming for those who make the ‘ideal’ products to help people achieve their goals. Hundreds of such unregistered and illegal formulae are available in the market. From purely herbal (useless) to completely synthetic (harmful), and from partially helpful to absolutely toxic, every chemical has a customer. Then, there are numerous other family secrets, which are not shared with the general public, to erase the melanin from our bodies (without disturbing the darkness in our souls). These tips can range from over-hydrating the skin by washing the face up to ten times a day with cold water or Dettol (personal experience) to using poisonous compounds on it without any precaution, many times only to suffer a severe allergic reaction.

After working really hard and wasting an unusual amount of money, generally, we still fail to bring a meaningful change in our overall outlook and continue to live in the dark as before. In political terms, this struggle is almost as unfruitful as Tahirul Qadri’s endeavours to change the electoral process. I know any further comment combining the two of them can be counterproductive or even be personally dangerous, but the truth needs to be disclosed and that is: whether it is the complexion of skin or the strength of democratic institutions, fairness only belongs to the west.

We are confused as a nation about ourselves; that is what I used to think based on our Indian heritage, which supports up to 33 million gods, and our Islamic identity that strictly prohibits all except the One. But I realise now, it is not our religiosity that endangers us; instead, it is the segregation of people based on their skin colour that undermines our progress. A hierarchal world divided in six continents exists in our minds. On top are the Caucasians with the fairest skin tones; they are the masters who we wish to be our friends. Their tall slender women, with curly blonde hair and golden skin can easily replace our current choices in paradise. Arabs come next to whites with little darker complexions, but they carry an extra advantage of speaking the ‘divine’ language and being rich with petro-dollars. Then, the Indians or Pakistanis, people who would defend Islam in the end of days, followed by the Chinese, commonly known as the ‘Yajuj Majuj’, and at the bottom of the list, are the Blacks. Sometimes, they can also win some sports medals for the west in the Olympics; but their contributions to the history of human progress whatsoever remain underrated. A few years ago, when my dad visited me for the first time in the United States, I made the horrible mistake of expressing my opinion about a stunning black female star, Halle Berry, after we had watched her movie together. Appalled by my comments, my old man said, “Ugh! Almost all Pakistani women and even some Indians look better than her; she is so dark. It’s a simple waste of time to find beauty in black.”

Our discriminatory tendencies manifest in national politics too. All our leaders who at any point have carried large political support like Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Imran Khan and Mian Nawaz Sharif are lighter toned individuals, which is the ‘real’ reason for their success. Researching the opposite of this phenomenon can easily help us to understand the reasons for our disdain about certain (coloured and corrupt) politicians even when they make perfect sense. (I am not saying anything more than that; I wish to live longer.)

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com