My Life My Struggle
The
Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a country of 170 million people and full of
natural resources. It has gained independence in 1947 after the war with India.
Pakistan and India fought in order to have separate home land for Muslims and
Hindus. However Pakistan has had many problems after independence such as place
for refugees and high rate illiteracy. In addition, as Pakistan is an Islamic country,
girls don’t have as much freedom as boys have in their life in every field. Therefore,
many girls face all kinds of issues and hardships in life. Many dreams they had
in their childhood, can’t be fulfilled. It leaves negative effect on their
lives. I grew up in Pakistan, so I had to face all those problems which every
Pakistani girl is facing now. The issues
I had to face when I was in Pakistan are the poor infrastructure, economic instability
and radical Islam.
The infrastructure of Pakistan was well established after
independence but gradually started to decline. One effect of this situation is
that when I was growing up in my own city, Quetta, we usually did not have
electricity for five hours a day. Sometimes, in small villages they didn’t have
light for eight to nine hours a day. This affected my education because I had
to do my studies during the day time. I also had to iron my clothes and clean
entire house hold work when there was electricity. I was always in hurry and in
tension. In the summer it was so difficult, because the weather was very hot
and there was no light, so my father bought a generator so that we could study
properly and do our work. Moreover, since the whole area didn’t have light at
night, so there was chance of robbery. My home main door was always locked. My
family and I had to be very vigilant that nobody would jump in the house.
Therefore, my parents never left me alone at night if we did not have light. Moreover
we had little water so bathing was another problem. We could only get water for
two hours daily, so we had to make underground tank to reserve water.
Another and more
serious effect of the political unrest is daily bomb blasts. There are
terrorist groups in the northern side of the country that are destroying the
country’s economy and having negative impact on new generation. Most of this
due to is due to infighting between Muslim they are fighting in Pakistan the Shia
and Suni. These bomb blasts makes everyone in afraid. As soon as person
finishes their work, they go home. Markets, parks, mosques and even hospitals are
not safe for people. When we were living in Pakistan I hardly went anywhere except
school and to my relative’s home. I always thought I would die on a bomb blast but
we had to carry on with our lives
.
Besides these, the most dreadful
situation is against modernization. Some Muslim do not value baby girl. If a baby
girl was born in the family, so the head of the family used to kill or burry
that baby girl alive. These days the dreadful situation going in Pakistan is, a
group of people throw acid on girls face those who were not in parad (hijab) or
were not dressed in traditional Islamic way. When I used to go with my family,
I always used to keep the cars window closed. Whenever I used to go shopping
with my mother, I used to cover my face and hands because I feel safe and
protected. Acid throwing assault has being mainly carried out against woman and
are usually motivated by revenge in Pakistan. Even though Pakistan is an Islamic
country and girls should have almost equal rights, still this isn’t true. In fact,Non
Muslims are also suffering a lot because of radical Islam rules.
Muslims and non-Muslims
should have equal rights, but because of radical Islam everyone is suffering.
Even though many Muslim themselves are all tired from all day incident of killing
and bomb blast. The poor infrastructure and religious fanaticism eventually led
us to leave Pakistan. It was not easy for my family to leave Pakistan but my
parents sacrificed everything for my siblings and me so that we could have
better future. It’s my new life and new
start coming to the United States. I really miss my country. When I came here,
I knew I would have more opportunities and I can learn something from America
and I could bring forth my hidden talents. I want to fulfill my father’s wish
to become a doctor and to help girls, grow up to lead healthy lives.