The Uninformed Youth

By Syeda Zehra

University of Karachi is a hub of cultures as it enrolls more than 26 thousand students every year from different social and economic backgrounds. This diversity widens the exposure and chances of learning about various aspects of society from which we, the youth of Pakistan, are unfamiliar.

I have met many people from different social circles in the past two years of my university life and I have found them quite amusing. But sometimes their lack of knowledge and their crave for conspiracy theories annoys me. Most of them never bother to dig deep enough to uncover substantial facts.

The majority is either uninformed or ill-informed. The former are the ones who are simply not interested and they believe in cramming (read rattafication). The latter are the ones who are constantly fed by the so called independent media (read bay-lagaam media) which routinely provides them with an unhygienic diet of botched up conspiracy theories. These people have a tendency to argue over petty issues and they sometimes make mountain out of a molehill e.g.: issuing Fatwa’s (religious edicts) over dupattas and regarding the status of women in our society and the old age argument of calling music as forbidden in Islam.

Being a part of this ill-informed youth, I feel like a fish out of water sitting among some of my friends as I came across ideas which I have never heard or learned but they are associated to my religion and culture. At times “Ahadith” are quoted for senseless arguments. Some times the music I am listening to is labeled as sacrilegious and the content I m reading is regarded as blasphemous without any reason.

These amusing but pointless discussions are followed by a reminder that you can raise your voice at your own risk otherwise you will be given the status of an apostate (off with their heads).

Its high time for our youth to question their engraved thoughts and try to differentiate between the facts and the rooted ideas before its too late.