One of my CHEP co-workers was outraged when I relaid the pink flower emoji on her post one evening. She differed that I don’t prefer buds now. I put forward that Meta permits users to exhibit their faces in symbols. Anyway, I undid my action and removed the pink flower-based Emoji. I still don’t understand her discretions behind the appeal. However, it is doubtless that we got trapped in an inoperable debate. Correspondingly, a bundle of issues is vibrating in our society, like the ill-perceived mode of observing the holy month of Ramadan at PU.
As a graduate student at PU, this is my third Ramadan at Punjab University. In light of my observation, there is a dire need to re-navigate the way of beholding this month. I located that a few factors are sabotaging the true spirit of this month.
First, it is crucial to consider the Ehtaram-e-Ramadan (Respect for Ramadan) ordinance of 1981 before analyzing the pretext of the campus. This law’s origin can be traced back to Pakistan’s dictatorial era under Gen. Zial ul Haq. It was a time when an engineering operation was underway to deliver Pakistan a new identity based on religion. Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, argues in his book, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, that Zia tried to import Islam as a doctrine by manipulating the structures of state institutions. The inducement was nothing but to defend his legitimacy over illegal control.
In 1981, Zia forced the people of Pakistan to respect the one fundamental organ of their faith, fasting, by orienting the Respect for Ramadan Ordinance 1981. The trade sector, particularly edible places, was compelled to shut down all workouts. It obligated lunchrooms, cafes, and drink shops not to sell edible commodities publicly. Interestingly, the law framed that enforcement should not affect patients, passengers, or places at travel crossroads, like airports and railway stations.
The logic of the ordinance is defective. Is it possible to examine a person drinking water on the highway, patient or not? How can we signify for the person walking through the roadways is a passenger or not? In 2017, when the worst heat wave hit Lahore, personnel from a particular community dismantled the cool water tanks instituted by the municipality’s local government. On May 12, 2017, a cue published in the Daily Times declared it a “naked breach of fundamental human rights.”
In the context of PU, this law infringes on the residency rights of minority students. On campus, scholars from religions other than Islam are studying. They can’t obtain any food by-products on campus because of the formal closure of the eateries, stores, and tea kiosks. Consequently, they compel individuals to adhere to the fasting regimen, i.e., the sehri and iftar timings. Because if they don’t get up in the sehri time (before dawn), they will remain to starve for the whole day.
The law’s definition has been perceived poorly at PU since its inception. As per the main clause of the document, it will be subject to the “Muslim” identity of the citizen. So, there is a space for non-Muslims or others in our religion. Ammar Anwar writes for the Daily Times that the Respect for Ramadan Ordinance 1981 (the revised and more strict version of 2017) is a banal violation of the right to free choice. Realistically, if we don’t shield the fundamental liberties of minority pupils at PU, how can we solicit the rights of Pakistani students at global north institutes?
Economically, the closure of all eateries is tearing at the fabric of society. A dining hall owner at PU boardinghouse canteens told me in a discussion that our current income has halved and does not meet the essential requirements. This month, we are coping with the worst payment crisis in the daily salary system. Those who served us for eleven months can’t fire for a month. “Ironically, we are paying them out of our profit,” he counted.
Critically, this ordinance concerning Ramadan forces us to recollect the bitter memories of the colonial era. Readers who have read the Sashi Tharoor book (An Era of Darkness) would acknowledge that colonial masters inflicted the religious identity of a particular sect to fulfill their ill mindset based on a divide-and-rule policy.
When a state apparatus executes the religious identity of a particular sect in a polarized society, it promotes division and leads to sectarian violence. Worryingly, it tracked in the post-colonial regime in Pakistan. Historically, the Hindu community in Pakistan has protested against this law. They declared that Ordinance 1981 would shrink the basis for fundamental rights for all the masses. In the wake of globalization, there is a dire need to secularize the state and promote the composition of a more inclusive environment.
To conclude, there is a blurred sign of any inclusive change in this contour in the rare future. Visibly, the rise of fanaticism, followed by engineered Islamization, is the hurdle. Hopefully, I wish that at least we should bring these societal debates to the coffee table instead of sticking to meaningless WhatsApp chit-chat among offended fellows regarding flower emoji concerns.
