In all walks of life, education is decreed to be an element of civilization. From third world countries to the developed big guns, the religious minded populations to the atheists and from the communists to the socialists; each faction walking on this planet believes it to be so. And it’s only natural that the institutes in charge of the spread and continuation of education will be similarly revered. At every corner of this world, in all the times past and now, educational institutes symbolize ethics, knowledge, broader frames of reference and of course civility –it is the same for Pakistan too.
Yet, there lies in them an aspect as dark as the darkness can be.
Not that ragging is always as obscene, immoral and low as we are hearing –but it certainly has gone to extents that crossed the line. I know, most of the readers might consider this as exaggeration; but having witnessed real life stories that usually aren’t spoken of publicly, I beg to differ. It is one thing to pull a prank on a fresher during his initial days –older students often find the need to boast of their seniority, but it is a totally different thing if people start taking the prank thing a bit too seriously. Taking the fun part out and converting it into purely personal assault has become a hidden norm in some of our top notch universities.
Just so you know what I am talking about here; only recently I read articles and talked to a few acquaintances that unfortunately had to go through all the atrocities themselves. It might be “just a joke gone too far” for some people, but from an unbiased eye, it was purely sexual harassment. Let me recall what went on with Mr. Umer Muhammad who was bold enough to write about his experiences. The poor soul left home for the first time to live in the hostels of a top notch university of Pakistan, but what he didn’t know was that he had landed himself into his worst nightmare. His days started with frequent insulting events that were labeled as ragging but things got worse for him as the days went on. He was literally abused by his seniors who forced him into meeting them alone in their hostel rooms where he was left alone and helpless. Making a person take off his clothes, be touched or be asked to touch others in the private parts when the poor kid was in the lurch was simply too far from a joke. The most heinous part was that all the apparent raggers didn’t show any signs of accepting what they were trying to do to satisfy their homosexual needs under the cloak of mocking.
Some of us might want to say that the person was exaggerating the story, or that this could not have happened under the roof of an educational institute in Pakistan. But look around; don’t we see these hideous criminals in one form or another in our society? People who tend to hide behind the masks of a male dominant society? Yes, this happens around our universities too, and it is a pity that the authorities always turn a blind eye to these events, simply to avoid negative sentiments being raised about their university.
Most of us, even those who go through all this tend to avoid mentioning it because it would hurt their male ego to either accept that this has happened to them. Others cover it up under the curtain of loyalty to the society they live in –how would you expect a male from a male dominant society to accept that we are living among such people because it will hurt their pride too! Though it is a rare case, but that doesn’t change the fact that even one incident of this nature if faced by a weak minded kid can damage his life psychologically. Allowing that to happen is sheer atrocity, and we would be a part of it if we cannot do our part in unmasking the foul. Being a writer I am doing my part by bringing it to the public eyes and the authorities in question –the rest is up to them.
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