Peace Spirit Foundation held 31st “Knowing Nations” session on Pakistan on 7 February, hosting Ms. Leila Abdi Khojasteh, who has Ph.D. of Urdu language and literature from Sindh University, Hyderabad, Pakistan.

 

 

She started her speech by explaining about spring in Pakistan that is very short but amazing. Pakistani people in this period which will take about 2 or 3 weeks, celebrate “Baharan”, flying colorful kites, reflecting the diversity of color in the spring in this country. Then she defined the states of Pakistan as four: Kheibar Pashtunkhah, Punjab, Baluchistan, and Sindh. “Islam Abad is the capital, home to embassies, and the city has an official atmosphere; the amazing point about the city is that was there is no square and Rickshaws, common in Pakistan, are not used in the city,” she noted.

 

 

About the educational system she acknowledged that Pakistani people send their children to school in their early 3 or 4. The educational and health care system, thanks to the local NGOs around the states, are doing pretty well in Pakistan. For example, Punjabi people are considered as the most educated people in Pakistan and Sir Seyed Ahmad khan called them “light-hearted” Punjabis.

 

 

Around Pakistan there is a major thought that people really emphasize is the “Apna” and “Paraya” which is the same concept of “us” and “others”. “In Pakistani culture the most important part of social connections is based on tribes and its inner interests. It’s really obvious in their deeds; ethnicity is the basis for most of social behavior and the discrimination between the ethnic groups are high,” Ms. Khojasteh underlined, adding “yet Pakistani people enjoy from a powerful solidarity and unity abroad; they form a united community everywhere they go for living and studying.”

 

“Paki people are very kind and they are grateful to life; this makes living easy and pleasant there; I have been in Pakistan for 9 years and it was a precious experience,” she commended.