The Pakistani Spectator

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Mother in Burqa — Daughter in Jeans, T Shirt

By Amna Gilani • Mar 1st, 2010 • Category: Features • 50 Comments

Just go to any market or roadside in any major city or town of the country, and a common spectacle is a women doing shopping or window shopping. Many of these groups include a very sharp contrast. More often than not, the older women who are mothers or grand mothers remain clad in burqa or long rida, and they are accompanied by daughters or grand daughters clad in jeans or T Shirt or both, sometimes with dupatta and sometimes not.

This scene depicts the confusion, double standards and the changing social scenario in Pakistan. This newly in vogue dress code in Pakistan hasn’t caught on by the majority, but this trend is on the rise and now almost all the garments shops and boutiques are selling girls jeans and girls tight shirts.

How older women attired in conservative dress allow their girls to be in ultra modern dress?


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50 Responses »

  1. awful truths we meet in our daily life, not just this one.i have been thinking on such problems in our society , been depressed for many years due to ignorance of our muslim brothers and sisters, and was ofcourse one of them.
    i have found a way out now of these depressing situations and worries, the way is sticking to Islam not just part of it but embracing it up to its full lenght.
    the mothers in burqa are wearing burqa not because of religious minds,but because of social and environmental limits she has seen in her past life when she was young , her faith is weak, and now she is giving a different environment to her daughters, the story will repeat for her daughter, nothing will change ideologically but only physically.
    (the mother and daughter are having same thinking ,that is adopt to your environment or become modern, they never use their intellect, we all are like them, just thank Allah , we were born in muslim families, if it was for non-muslim families, we would still be a non-muslim because the only reason we are following islam is just because our parents told us and we have seen them following it,not because we love ALLAh and care for life after death)
    remeber me prayers , jazakaALLAh

  2. hello Amna, why should you be concerned about that ?….are there no other issues left ???

  3. Dear Amna

    Do u have any idea how STUPID you sound???

    You wrote:
    “How older women attired in conservative dress allow their girls to be in ultra modern dress?”

    Its is the girls who will decide what to wear……..and what NOT to wear.

    Not their moms. Not amna gilani.

    Just like ONLY AMNA GILANI will decide what she wears.

  4. You represent a typical confused middle class south asian girl.

    You want to FIGHT for women’s rights…….

    You want to see better treatment of women by society………..

    But……ur many views work AGAINST the interests of women.

    For example , dress. Its a woman’s personal independent choice.Not yours or their moms.

  5. Imp: Indian Gays link was not working above.

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Indian+Gays&search_type=&aq=f

  6. My Dear Mustafa,
    Good try in satire.

    You wrote:
    “A female can come out of the house in an underwear only, a male can wear only a brazer as well”.

    When i said…”independence to choose” what to wear is the personal decision of every individual…….the first thing that came to ur mind is “underwear”!!……..shows what u are thinking!!!!!

    Secondly , 99.999% of women will NOT do any such thing.

    So , whats the problem?????

  7. Amna asks:
    “How older women attired in conservative dress allow their girls to be in ultra modern dress?”

    Re-phrase the question:

    How younder women attired in modern dress allow their moms/aunts to be in ultra conservative dress?

  8. Amna i love you.

  9. BL

    I do not understand why do you think I have a problem with anything. Its good that it’s currently only coming to my mind, when you see naturists coming on the roads this scene will come in front of your eyes and I do not know what you will be doing having such ‘wonderful’ opportunities in front of you (if you are a real man) :)

    You said, 99.999 % women will not do any such thing. My question to you, if 100 % - 99.999% women (roughly 10000 women in India) come out in this attire what should be your response. I put my question in a more precise manner, what if the your family comes in this bracket? My apologies if I have offended you, but this is the only way I can make my question simple.

    Please do not think that I am against your thoughts. I am just figuring out the limits (what’s acceptable and what’s not).

  10. reading all the comments,, the fact of a matter is to wear tight jeans and top in south asian coutries will attract wrong attention but girl still do it,,
    alot of mother allow it simply because they didnt do it, so i think they allow it as they know the daughter will get married sooner or later,,
    in india they were conservative at one time but with time they have lost their root and follow the western world,
    now that influance has come 2 pak,,
    we live in a very evil world where media tell you wat to wear ,, especially they prey on young ppl
    and the effects are obvious,
    repent and follow islam the truth

  11. on second thought, this looks like a typical Hindu-Zionist-American propaganda to keep us Muslims away from our religion….the write should first of all shun writing in English….moreover, she should replace her pen with a big club and start wielding her club at the people who wear western clothes…..i should also advise the writer to look up this useful website http://www.taliban.com, as she will get some useful information on how to impose her will on others by chopping some heads off and make good muslims out of us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    repent and follow islam the truth

  12. Dear Mustafa
    i got your point.

    Listen….obviously limits must be maintained to dress and behaviour.
    For example , even in USA….u cannot dress anyway u like all the time.

    But dress in ordinary circumstances must be the individual’s choice.
    i fully OPPOSE the ban on burkha in France for example…….it violates the very idea of “FREEDOM AND LIBERTY”.

    The point is…….first THEY will tell YOU what to wear……then they will tell YOU what to read…….then they tell YOU what to think…then they tell YOU what to say…and one by one ….they will tell YOU everything that u need to do!!!!

    This will continue until ur life is totally controlled by “them”.

    You see , this “they” can be anyone…..government , mullahs etc.

    Even this is against Islam…….which says……“there is no compulsion in religion”…..similarly there should be “no compulsion in life”!!!!

  13. Hi Amna,
    It is the figure Amna!!!!!!!!!. In India also these girls will wear jeans during college days. They shift to saree when they get a child to hide the bulges. Saree and Burqa does the same thing
    regarding the ideology. It is like Imran Khan playing around all his younger days and now it is question of time before he sports a beard and follow Prof hafez Saeed. A sort of hypocrysiy

  14. i agree with BL

    lets move on to the 21st century, what clothes we where has nothing to do with progress,
    this is a womans decision, and if our society can not allow such freedom then we have to impose the same set of restrictions on male counterparts.

    why are we following one law for the males and one for the females?

    secondly, even if the girls are wearing jeans and tight t shirts, then let them, its the downgraded perverted mentality of our chauvinistic males, which focus the contours of everyone else’s body.
    if you have such a big problem with what women wear and you feel this is the EPITOME of our backwardness then all you have to do is look the other way, how about that?
    but thats JUST what you cant do.

  15. thanks for talking about islam @ Mustafa :), it was giving me feel of talking with non-muslims. and people pointing at amna gilani, wait wait wait if you say its women choice what to wear then by your logic its women choice what to say, so she just said that, why you are scolding her.

  16. not scolding at all, just disagreeing to the nth degree
    and how do you know your NOT talking to non muslims? or just very liberal muslims?

  17. jut go through each comment above, and tell me a muslim say that its his/her or man/woman’s own choice to waer anyhting or its ALLAh’s choice.

  18. Our society as a whole is stricken deeply by confusion and they are aimlessly in the search of the identity, though they have got it near to them. We are indecisive as whether to speak Urdu or English, for instance,and as a result we have now a lingo, which is a bizzare blend of both. That is what happening to the dress and that is why I am alarmed.

  19. @21 Oh Yes: Have you ever heard “Ponchi Waheen Pay Khak Jehan Ka Khameer Tha” — In simple English “An OBJECT is reached at its ORIGIN”

    This is LOGICAL anyhow & any manner you are bound to adopt & return at your own NATURAL appealing OBJECTS whether this is living or non living object. Once a Sr. Lawyer who is my Spiritual Teacher also categorically stated: “Whether Male or Female Between at the age of 15 to 35 he or she may become horrible victim of pre-set Social Values so get confused terribly but right after at the age of 40 he or she finally decides what is his or her final destination.

    I personally think our final destination is:

    “Kee Muhammad Ss Say Wafa Tu Nay Tu Hum Teray Hein-
    Yeh Jehan Chis Hay Kiya ————– Loh-o-Qalam Teray Hein-”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUttKLcyW1E&feature=player_embedded#

  20. hey “BL” you are not alone in this world and one must be aware that what his/her ALLAH wants from him/her. Its Allah who decides that what a woman ar a man can wear not the man or woman himself/herself. So think before you speak and secondly your mother has the right on you to tell you and force you to wear the clothes you want or not. Its a serious apollogy to all of you that keep attached with your ALLAH and keep on trying to know that what ALLAH wants from us. JAZAKALLAH

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