The events of the recent past have suddenly sparked a war on social media. The discussion on whether or not same-sex marriage should be allowed has divided us into three groups; the so called ‘Liberals’ who support it, the ‘Keyboard Mujaahideen’ who speak against it and the ones who’ll just do anything to follow ‘Amreeca’.
What I am about to write might hurt some of us but unfortunately, it’s true. Nobody in America gives a damn about what we, the Pakistanis, have to say. They don’t care if we’re speaking in favor of an issue or we’re going against it. They might as well just laugh at the fact that we don’t have anything better to do than interfere in other people’s matters and enforce our own opinion.
They are not the ones to be blamed for this. We are the ones responsible for our own doings and undoing. The status we have adopted worldwide is really disappointing. We have badly failed to convey our opinions on the international stage. And conveying them unprofessionally on social media doesn’t help Pakistan's cause.
The rainbow colored Display Pictures and the 'LoveWins' hashtags only show how crazy we are in following blindly whatever the 'Goras' have to say. I bet only a handful of us actually followed the whole trial and only a few of us know the name of the judge who gave the ruling in favor of same-sex marriages. We, too, didn't give a damn in all of this but what we really wanted to do was celebrate. We celebrated the 'Pride Day' in our own way; by arguing what's right and what's wrong and by discussing about the pros and cons of gay marriage.
It is very disheartening to see that in a country where turmoil has struck recently in the form of a heat wave that killed thousands of innocent people, all we care about is whether or not men should have the right to marry me. Who are we to comment in their matter, when we ourselves, are facing numerous problems? Even after 68 long years, we have not been able to get over the Sunni-Shia or the Barelvi-Wahabi conflicts. We live in a country where a Sunni is not allowed to marry a Shia, a Barelvi is not allowed to marry a Wahabi, a Rajput cannot marry a Syed and a member from the so called ‘elite class’ cannot marry a girl from the lower class. Clearly, we have to break these shackles before we can comment in the matters of others.
The liberals of our country should be protesting for the rights of the minorities who have been denied proper education and job opportunities. The ones who are giving lectures of what is right and what is wrong should really know that actions speak louder than words and if they were to act out what they say, their message would be spread more efficiently and widely without any issue. Lastly, our people should learn to follow their own heroes and role models rather than looking up to the people of the west.
The issue of gay marriage has divided us all and what we need in this time of confusion and controversy is to ignore the issues of the world around us, re-unite and be selfish for once. We should fight for issues that could actually bear fruitful results for Pakistan because interfering in other people’s matters will only divide us further and no good can come from such disunity.