A Young Pakistani Girl's View on Things
The next day we were invited to an English class celebration by the river bank. We met many young men keen to practise their English (some even more keen to try practising it on me). The group included a very mature and bright 13yr old girl, the only woman there, and amazing in her bravery. I wouldn’t have done it at that age, especially as she shyly hid behind her dupatta to tell me she hated it when all the men of Gilgit looked at her. She spoke to me about a car accident they had had a couple of days previously on the cliff edge when their car had stalled, and said that Allah forgave them for it so it was not bad. I asked her favourite subject and she said Islamic Studies, where they are taught the stories from the Koran in Urdu. (They did not learn Arabic, meaning they learnt the Koran’s prayers by rote.) I asked her for a story from her Islamic Studies class, and she told me of Fahuveen. Fahuveen was a young man of who...