Fair and Lovely

Faiqah:-)
Is still remember that this was the first article I read on chowk and even now I am not commenting about it.

bekaaz it iz mye furst aartikal I red own choke!

Isn't still remembering it enough?

Hi! I know, I know...its too late, but anyways, a fantastic read. The thing is, the truth! You write it any time, and t will get noticed every time.! ;)

hiya...jus joined dis site n dis has been the first article to get my attention...showing my concerns for fairness maybe...lol..neways that was a wonderful point to be made...havn read the interacts for this as yet but i hope it educated the boys about their ``specifications of a dream girl`` as well.....

too true its the same case applies to the Middle East unfortunatley.. I dont believe that it stem just from a colnial past although maybe in South Asia it does. But inmho its a gender issue.. which women being the `fairer sex` if you will pardon the expression, have been playing with potions to beauty themselves ever since the Greco-Roman periods. Given that our notions of beauty stems from that, and the racism within our socities ots hardly surprising.... I have seen women who apply so much of this stuff pre marriage thta it really shows how women`s insecurities remain on trivia such as the colour of skin, eating disorders, and a general lack of confidence in them selves - education has in part a large role to play as do men!

Having a complex about the colour of one`s skin is a reminder of our colonial past....a legacy which has permeated in our society and something which cannot be cleared out that easily....

India started winning the beauty peagents i think from 1994-. Though there had been times when they have won it previously but post susmita/ashwaria scenario every year we have a winner from there. Has someone noted the not-so-conspicous (read blaring) surge of cosmetic companies in India and the increase in the number of beauty/fairness/bleach creams after that......

In fact the only parts of undivided India where a fair number of people can claim Arabic ancestry would be Sindh including the Seraiki belt. Similarly some people in the Northern areas of Pakistan including NWFP and Kashmir may be decendants of the Greek. The rest of the population Syed or otherwise are direct decendants of indigeneous Hindus or in some cases of Central Asians, having nothing to do with Arabs.

Hey Bina...amazing article!!
and as for what u may be doing wrong...there may be some problem with ISP that cant correspond with the chowk site

Thanks for your comments. I haven`t been able to Interact because there is some setting off in my PC that won`t allow me to sign in to the main Chowk page. Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong? I have cookies enabled etc.

- Bina.

re saminasha #55:

``a face that should be called ``beautiful`` is one that has marked by experience, intelligence, wit, suffering, pleasure and gasp! an inner life!``

Actually most female faces start developing these characteristics depending upon the amount of alcohol one has had............

later
-sac

AmericanExpress-
totally agree...not to sound like a complete racist junglee but goras` sweat is severely pungent as well. :)

sara

samina #55
When lineage/politics/religion is ascribed to the Arabian past and prejudices/skin color are ascribed to the Hindu past within the same individual, it makes for a strange combination, esp since Arabs look down on Hindus.

Goray Rang ka Zamana Kabhi ho ga na purana .......

Ras

Sadna,

It becomes color as familial lineage and religious/political identity, whatever that means...its been said a million times before, but I`ll say it again, every Pakistani can trace their ancestry back to Saudia Arabia and Prophet Muhammad, when CPI is the more accurate origin! :) So, wishful identification fills the vacuum that was left in excising our Indianess....

Its also interesting what happens when you take the desi out of the motherland and strangers mistake you for every ethnicity except your own. I begin to wonder, what constructions do communities make of race and ethnicity?

Sac,

Currently I dont know whether to be amused or indignant at Nicole Kidman`s prosthetic nose in The Hours. Kidman, slip nosed glamor puss and accomplished actress has to putty on a honker that an American critic described as big as a hood ornament to play Virginia Woolf. I`d say that hood ornament would be par for the course for many of us Pakistani women...on one hand paying someone to break your face, cut it open, carve out bony parts, etc. sounds really unnatural and brutal. Some of us have told ourselves as the poet Marge Piercy writes, a face that should be called ``beautiful`` is one that has marked by experience, intelligence, wit, suffering, pleasure and gasp! an inner life!
On the other hand, what is up with Venezuela and South Korea, capitals of plastic surgery? I dont think I`ve ever met a Korean woman with hood ornament for a nose....

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hamidm2 #50
Well, coincidentally many of one of my nieces` friends are Pakistani(including the hijab wearing ones), she finds the Indians generally too forward:).

And you hamidm2, don`t blame your prejudices on the hindoos or the Papua New Guineans so I didn`t mean you.

sadna .........

......... if it makes you feel any better, almost half of my daughter`s high school friends are indians (horrible hindoos to bat) and we always have those horrid veggie burger around just in case some of them are still sticking to their silly dietary idiosyncracies .............

sac--
nope...not fair at all. have always been known as the saveli one... so much for your theory. :P

shah-
why do people always feel so brilliant for stating the obvious? ofcourse my parents are desi but my point was that until coming into contact with NON-RELATED desis, I never heard anyone making an issue of skin color.
Also prejudices aside, parents` bias aside, if you knew my mom...you would know that she doesn`t mince her opinions...whether to her offsprings or otherwise.

re saminasha #46:

The politically correct ``blank slate`` theory of human nature discounts the playmates our genes choose to play with. If color is such an abhorrent factor in human likes and dislikes, let evolution take care of it.

This so-called bias has no logical end. Fat people, short people, people with crooked teeth, bald people....the list of the disadvantaged will get longer and longer. How about telling everyone, be happy with what the roll of the genetic dice produced for you and if you are not visit the nearest plastic surgeon and see if he/she can help.

later
-sac

i honestly thought sadna was off on another of her ... till I read furhter and hang the color - `` and you look like an indian`` - is considered to be the the ultimate insult??? How does a child pick up on these prejudices unless it is propagated by the adults?? Honestly pakistanis are as disgusting as Indians in their prejudices.

On the one hand Pakistanis feel a sense of racial superiority, on the other they want that this sense of racial superiority be both Hindu AND Arab/Persian/Afghan/Greek/Scythian in origin. When this superiority is displayed wrt Hindus, well thats the foundation of every Pakistanis sense of selfworth and cannot be compromised, but when this same sense of superiority is shown to be small minded, well then its the Hindus and the caste system which are responsible for it.

I wonder in which century schizo Pakistanis will begin to take responsibility for their own skin preferences and their own derogatory utterances about others physical appearance.

Well, next time a Pakistani makes rude remarks about the appearance of Indians, I know as a Hindu I and my caste system are to blame for his/her boorishness. I might say that look what the heck is TNT all about then and just why are so many still being killed over this deep civilisational divide if so, but I know even if in some remote corner of Pakistan, someone sneezes and forgets to feed his poor camel, Hindus and the caste system in India are responsible.

Sac,

Does it matter?

Hobbes Sahib,

Welcome back! Hope you stay on...

Didn`t ever imagine I`d be writing this - Thank you, Bina.

This is a topic that deserves far greater attention that it gets in Pakistan, or among Pakistanis. Such a filthy, foul consciousness as that of color, of varna - it ought to allow Pakistanis and especially Muslims to reexamine, to re-evaluate their attitudes in this regard - uncomfortable in one`s own skin?

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so let me guess...................SaraJ is fair and Saminasha is........ummm....wheatish??

later
-sac

This argument is almost as old as time. My mom`s kashmiri and totally light-skinned....my dad`s behari and totally dark-skinned....I grew up with so much unconditional love and support from them that I never gave much thought to my own skin color until coming into contact with desi people. I agree with hamidm2 that most cultures do favor light skin...and this argument is very similar to how most cultures also favor skinny girls and muscle-bound boys. For all the arguments that this causes, in all honestly, most of the people proclaiming loudly about the injustices in this wouldn`t marry an obese/fat/chubby/whatever person either if they could get out of it. Same goes for wanting to marry a dark-skinned bengali person.... it`s not nice nor is it fair but it`s the general preference of most societies.

Hamidbhai,

Perhaps your daughters have been reading your interacts on Chowk, hmmm?

saminashah

...... thanks for your advice .........

..........but i do think this discussion is a little misplaced ........ i do agree that there is a general bias in favor of fair people but i don`t think that in most cases it translates into racism or inferiority complex or anything more complicated than simple aesthetics .......... there are certain things that are pleasing to the eye and others that arn`t ........ ugly things, like shrek, can be appealing and endearing once you get past the color of skin .........but snow white has a definite advantage ............ call it social conditioning or whatever ............we grow up with our prejudices

..........my younger daughter, who happens to be my spoilt rotten favourite, is a little on the sanwali side ........ the other day the older one, on the verge of loosing yet another argument, called her ``kali churail`` .......... the younger one, not to be outdone, calmly retorted with the ultimate insult, `` and you look like an indian`` .............. i wonder whether they will grow out of their prejudices ..............

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Hamid Sahib,

Dont dignify third rate functionaries with responses...

I think Last paragraph is a play on the word ``Fair``

According to Dictionary Fair Means:
Having or exhibiting a disposition that is free of favoritism or bias; impartial: a fair mediator.
Of light complexion: fair skin.
Free of clouds or storms; clear and sunny: fair skies.
Free of blemishes or stains; clean and pure: one`s fair name.


Dictionary on What Dark Means:
Lacking enlightenment, knowledge, or culture.
Lacking brightness: a dark day.
Having a complexion that is not fair; SWARTHY
Exhibiting or stemming from evil characteristics or forces; sinister
Absence of cheer.


NOw if dark girls, cant be cheerful, have no enlightment, and they also want to do sinister things, while doing partnership with Evil, how we can appreciate them?? Not me, I want to hang out with a Non Swarthy, fair bubbly girl free of bias, without blemishes, some one sunny and full of cheer on a day free from clouds and dark storms.

I need to look out for myself.

12 head,

Clearly Arabs are as color struck as we are; I dont know how to break it to you, but Latinos, Africans, Asians and African Americans also have the problems of internalized racism for a variety of diferent reasons. Obviously the caste system has its burden of unexcusable class and race bigotry, but if I remember, before you started shooting off miles away from the topic into your own special little world, this article was about Pakistanis and how supposedly Muslims are supposed to be non discriminatory.

#32 Hamidm2

[........ on the other hand there is gz whose only criteria is that she should be a muslima - doesn`t matter if she is cockeyed ad bandy legged]
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jaan-e Ghalib

Is it astaghfar-Allah or Subhan-Allah that I should utter. Yaa akhee never before this, and by anyone have , I been placed in this quandry.

Knowing my perversions for the kinky and the absurd am I supposed to drool at the fantasy of a cock-eyed girl? I am trying my best to imagine a girl who has one eye phallus-shaped. What is her other eye like? You are silent about that. Now If you really mean a girl who has already eyed, even once, a cock and therefore must be unhalaal for me you are totally off your rocker. Remember this , in Islamic sex, every kaafir, zindeeque, murtid, and near-muslim is HALAAL. In such matters Islam strictly advises to go by THEIR rules...and it is not without the concealed wisdom that Allah aqueisces to such vagrancies by the Ummah.

OTOH, I am terribly firightened. Can you suggest an equivalent word in the english language which is like fatal-attraction. I mean a combo of love & fear? like making it out with the black-widow? Philo-Phobia-amour.
The inadequacy of this farangi lingo can only be understood by those a little brilliant.

Please not that I keep a copy each of `the protocols of the elders of Zion` and `kamasutra` on the same shelf & in the same category...OBSOLETE, and this I did before I obtained my driving license!

Agreeing with you a whole lot please tell me why centre-spreads and strip-show girls or hookers do not post their IQ`s or ESL or TOEFL results to cover their tits & asses. After violating & penetrating an innumberable ( amnesia for numbers..I`m of low IQ) mistresses of their domains I can issue certificates that none of them volunteered for removing the digits from their decimal places or objecting to the use of the whitener on miss-takes (sic).

{PS: wrote in a rush. must heed the resident tyrant.

Hamidm,

Are you implying that I`m a liberal? Bhaijan, it pains me to have to remind you that I was a liberal when I was three....I have long since developed into an unapologetic progressive. Ask Mrs. Hamidji or your daughters for further clarification :).

It may come down to personal preferences, but Bina brings up an excellent point when she asks us to question our preferences. I`m sure that no one on this board would have any trouble marrying Rekha, etc. But what does it mean to value physical beauty above intelligence, personality, talent, physical strength, etc.? And as Bina pointed out, how does it subtly affect gender/social interactions? How is this tied to Pakistan`s besottedness with everything Arab, including the fairer complexions of some Arab people, who believe me, are not better looking than desi folk? And, how does color relate to class?

I understand that in the long wrong, some of this may mean absolutely nothing, but I have heard stories of daughter in laws and grandchildren girls whose complexions are viewed with some concern, and this from the older Pakistani khandans! Have we forgotten that we are South Asian? A few of the interactors made a good point in advising us to automatically challenge this older racism whenenver we come across it, until it becomes clear that we dont agree with these prejudices.

saminashah

...... i know i can sometimes stretch a point, but in this case i am quite serious about the generally accepted standards of beauty (gasb)......... sometimes the liberals go a little overboard in trying to be politically correct ....... of course, if the this bias against homely people leads to discrmination in employment or housing, then it is bad and should be condemned ......... however, you can`t blame us for being a little picky in who we want to go to bed with ............

........ on the other hand there is gz whose only criteria is that she should be a muslima - doesn`t matter if she is cockeyed ad bandy legged ............

Ally,

No one disagrees with this stupendously earthshattering revelation...even Hamid who takes his role as the Devil`s advocate quite seriously. And let me add that GZ is really going out on a limb here in being against racism...(being sarcastic here)

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ghalib mian,

``It is those who think that knowing english & behaving westernish is a sure-fire sign of intelligence, learning, and being modern``

......... when you start writing on the chowk in arabic and discard your pants for a night-shirt and when the saudis start treating you as an equal, then we will accept your tall claims about the ummah and other such nonsense ........we might even believe your theories about the 4000 missing jews......... till then, we will continue to assume that ``westernish`` behaviour is a sign of good personal hygiene, modernity and sanity ........

In all fairness Saminasha, GZ does have a point. In that as Muslims or Hindus or whatever we shouldn`t look down on others or discriminate due to colour, as is the case with South Asian people now...

Loved the article Bina, its very true, also love your style of writing, take care... Ally A

Re: 26

In other words, AlephNull kicked GZ`s post all around the board which sent GZ into a spasm of uncontrollable jihadijerkswithallhissadlittlewordsspspspspilllingout....

The top illiterate & ignorants among Indi-Pakis are not the 90% or more of the populace. It is those who think that knowing english & behaving westernish is a sure-fire sign of intelligence, learning, and being modern.
They obtain `honours` in this kind of corrupt behaviour when they gloat that they have `forgotten` their mother tongues.That they always have a feeling that they are always getting misplaced by Destiny.

It is good news that the numbers of such johnnywalkers and jennytalkers is reaching extinction level. Pretty soon they will be geography, of another piece of earth. Projects to hasten their early demise must be continued. Make their associations with respected muslim groups, where they let others assume their muslimness, as uncomfortable, painful, and traumatic as possible. Hookers & Leftists, pimps and atheists should never ever be allowed to steal any respectability even by osmosis.
____________________________________________________________
ISLAM AGAINST RACISM AND PREJUDICE
Islam`s manifesto of Universal brotherhood of human beings
Quran and Sunnah about racism and prejudice

From the Quran

``O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you`` (49:13).

Explanation: There are several principles, which this verse presents:

This message is not just for Muslims only because Allah is addressing all of humanity. While Muslims are one brotherhood, this is part of a larger brotherhood of humanity.
Allah is telling us that He has created us. Therefore He knows the best about us.
He says that He created us from one man and one woman meaning then that we are all the same.
It also means that all human beings are created through the same process, not in a manner in which some are created with a better mechanism than others.
Allah is the One who made human beings into different groups and people.
These differences are not wrong, rather a sign from Allah (``And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colors. Verily, in that are indeed signs for those who know`` [Quran 30:22]).
Note that no word equivalent to race is used in this ayah or any other verse of the Quran.
Islam, however, limits the purpose of these distinctions to differentiation and knowing each other. This is not meant to be a source of beating each other down with an attitude of ‘my group is better than your group` or false pride as is the case with tribalism, nationalism, colonialism, and racism.
The only source of preference or greatness among human beings is not on a national or group level, but it is at the individual level.
One individual who is (higher in Taqwa), more conscious of his Creator and is staying away from the bad and doing the good is better, no matter what nation, country or caste he is part of. Individual piety is the only thing that makes a person better and greater than the other one.
However, the only criterion of preference, Taqwa, is not measurable by human beings. Indeed Allah is the One Who knows and is aware of everything so we should leave even this criterion to Allah to decide instead of human beings judging each other.
These are the deeply embedded ideals of Islam which still bring people to this way of life even though Muslims are not on the best level of Iman today. This is what changed the heart of a racist Malcolm X when he performed Hajj in Makkah. This is the power that brought Muhammad Ali to Islam. This is what still attracts the Untouchables of India towards Islam. This is the theory which convinced noted historian Professor A.J. Toynbee in 1948 to say that: ``The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue.``

Let`s ask ourselves if the Muslim Ummah today, in its individual and collective behavior is striving to adopt and promote these Islamic ideals?

From the Sunnah

1. Prophet`s response to racist comments:

A man once visited the Prophet`s mosque in Madinah. There he saw a group of people sitting and discussing their faith together. Among them were Salman (who came from Persia), Suhayb who grew up in the Eastern Roman empire and was regarded as a Greek, and Bilal who was an African. The man then said:

``If the (Madinan) tribes of Aws and Khazraj support Muhammad, they are his people (that is, Arabs like him). But what are these people doing here?``

The Prophet became very angry when this was reported to him. Straightaway, he went to the mosque and summoned people to a Salat. He then addressed them saying:

``O people, know that the Lord and Sustainer is One. Your ancestor is one, your faith is one. The Arabism of anyone of you is not from your mother or father. It is no more than a tongue (language). Whoever speaks Arabic is an Arab.`` (As quoted in Islam The Natural Way by Abdul Wahid Hamid p. 125)

2. Statement of the universal brotherhood in the last Sermon:

O people, Remember that your Lord is One. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a black has no superiority over white, nor a white has any superiority over black, except by piety and good action (Taqwa). Indeed the best among you is the one with the best character (Taqwa). Listen to me. Did I convey this to you properly? People responded, Yes. O messenger of Allah, The Prophet then said, then each one of you who is there must convey this to everyone not present. (Excerpt from the Prophet`s Last Sermon as in Baihiqi)

3. Don`t take pride in ancestry:

The Prophet said: Let people stop boasting about their ancestors. One is only a pious believer or a miserable sinner. All men are sons of Adam, and Adam came from dust (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi).

4. Looking down upon other people will stop you from entering the Jannah:

The Prophet said: Whoever has pride in his heart equal to the weight of an atom shall not enter Paradise. A man inquired about a person who likes to wear beautiful clothes and fine shoes, and he answered: Allah is beautiful and likes beauty. Then he explained pride means rejecting the truth because of self-esteem and looking down on other people (Muslim).

5. The Prophet condemnation of Arab racial pride:

There are many hadith, which repeatedly strike on the Arab pride of jahiliyyah. Arabs before Islam used to look down upon others specially blacks. The Prophet repeatedly contrasted the believing Africans versus non-believing Arab nobles.

The Prophet said: You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian slave whose head looked like a raisin (Bukhari).

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Hamid Sahib,

Asian eyes are gorgeous, they make our eyes look boring in comparision. Sometimes I think of all the Chinese, Japanese and Korean folk running around looking at each other underneath that heartbreaking fold of lid-no wonder they find each other so attractive. I`m also partial to desis with Asian folds and I cant put my finger on why. Are there any desis out there with ``asian`` eyes? Can you answer a few questions like, do you feel you are treated as a more beautiful person because of your eyes? And also, does that fold interfere in your vision at all?
Other thing South Asians are gorgeous in all skin tones, esp. deep brown women...they make their sisters look, whats that phrase? as if they were pulled out of the oven unbaked....

............ and what about double eyelids? ........ one out of three korean and japanese women get their eyes widened to meet GASB ( generally accepted standard of beauty) and, if i may say so, they look beautiful ........ and anyone who says that slits for eyes are okay needs to have his head examined ........ sure, god made us all - but he made mistakes, okay?..........

......... i know people get defensive about looks - usually it is ugly people who can`t accept the fact that maybe god put them on earth for some other reason - like creating microsoft or coming up with the theory of relativity ............ leave the beautiful people alone - they look beautiful and that`s all they have to do .......... there is enough ugliness in the world to go around and then some ............so when mrs hamidm suggested she might need a little botox i was more than happy to oblige, and if my daughter wants a nose-job to keep up with nicole kidman, sure why not ............ beauty is a wonderous thing even if it is skin deep...........

Nice article, Bina. Reminded me of Saad Shafqat`s ``The Overlooked Problem of Pakistani Racism``.

{So when DID this `advanced` stupidity creep in among muslims?}

A question, forsooth!

{When this stupidity started. I think near abouts 1857 may not be a bad idea... when the muslims started emulating the english.}

I supect rather earlier.

More likely it began:

when - these Indigenes - and mestizos with, oh, the merest sprinkling of Central Asian ancestry - began giving themselves the airs of a martial uber-race of Persian and Turkic and Arab conquistadors.

when - they began to say, of those OTHER Indigenes - the `Hunood` - THEIR men have no valour - THEIR women no honour - THEIR flowers no perfume

when - they began to say: `the Indoo should never rise above his appointed servile station of docile, law-abiding employee`

Learn to look into your own Heart of Darkness.

P.S. As for Qaloopatraa, if this is Cleopatra, who dallied with Caesar and suckled the asp, she was not black, recent revisionist historiography notwithstanding. She was the last ruler of an intentionally incestuously inbred dynastic line of Ptolemies, founded by one of Alexander of Macedon`s generals. So Cleopatra`s ancestry was in all likelihood just as Greek as her name, or Macedonian at a pinch.

Bina,
Well done! There are unmistakable flashes of humor and brilliance in here...I think Minhaj`s post identified one of them :)

We are color struck...and this also happens among East Asians....anyone have an idea of why that is? In the past, in the West, fairness meant money, not having to work and now the principle is the same with getting tanned-leisure time to lie in the sun...when I taught ESL, a met alot of Japanese young people who made an effort to be tanned..in this case, it was a cultural appearance thing and homage to Blackness and hiphop...one of the brightest and sweetest students I knew dressed in fly girl gear and was deeply brown....are the younger generations negotiating race in another way? Happily, it seems so....but, we all need to constantly confront color struckness whenever it rears its bleached little head....

I realised how futile it was to argue with the gora school the day someone in my family chastised me for goglling over a photo of Maliaka Arora in Bombay Times... ``how can you call her beautiful---she`s so daaaaaark``

On the other hand, there IS something about a peaches-n-cream comp. that takes the breath away.... like HamidM says it`s an accepted standard of beauty... one of the ticking points, so to speak. So why grumble?

But I`ll go for Indian gora over firang gora anyday! Can`t stand those yuckky freckles.

In the end of course, ``wheatish`` rocks :))

waisay have u all noticed kay the West is also into gora rang what with the loreal whitening creams and wonder pearls that promise chittapann???

or are these products specifically designed for South Asian markets where light skin is the order of the day?...i swear every where u look there`s this revolutionary new `imported` cream that`ll make u fair....

any ideas?

This reaaly is the biggest dillema for the Indi-Pakis. The only racists, in the world who avoid the black population anywhere, as if their dormant melanin would somehow ooze out.

This most wretched and vile bunch on earth is somehow bent upon `correcting` their genes by any means fair or ugly. They claim that somehow they have been able to master the Amreeekan `accent`, gotten themselves hambugarised & frenchfried themselves ad nauseum, and revealed their wheatish (mexi-pak variety) skin to the desired englo-oglers.... But this damn Desi-pun just go away. ..what to do?

The third rate Bollywood (now Mollywood?---- oh how shamelessly they want to revert to their colonial keepers), with its low-class `english-knowing` nautankee-valee & valaas have suddenly become someone which might be confused with those who still take pride in their class & culture...which no money or `decent`-exposure can ever emulate or act-out.

So when DID this `advanced` stupidity creep in among muslims? Hindus must be excused for obvious reasons.

Laila was black as night , so much so that now her real name is history. Laila means dark-night. MajnouN ( Quias) was crazy for her.

Razia Sultana married Yaqoot, her negro military trainer.

Maria Qubtia ( Maria the coptic) was known for her beauty... All muslims know her

Qaloopatraa was black, negro

Queen Sheba , malkaa-e Sabaa of Yemen was black.

( & none of them are exceptions or newsworthy in history for color reasons. When this stupidity started. I think near abouts 1857 may not be a bad idea... when the muslims started emulating the english. It may shock someone to know today but even the black madrasee baboos put white talcum powder & cream on their faces and even light-red lipstick as late as early-fifties(dominion-days).

Is there any other country ( except these blighted ones) where Stillman`s & EU-cream and other such `` Aa tujhhay bughair goray baap kay goraa bunaadooN`` culture exists.

THe title should have been: Fair & Lusty.
What has LOVE got to do with it?

Dont blame the Fair and Lovely wallahs. The wedding photographers have started creating hollywood class beauties by paling and airbrushing the brides so that even their husbands do not recognize them the day after...and wonder, ahem, have they been cheated!

umermurdasa,

yeah man.....it sucks ;)

i`ll take some pics and send them to u

......... honestly, i don`t know what everyone is complaining about ...... there are certain accepted standards of beauty in every society and then there are some absolute standards that are quite universal ........... ethiopian and somalian women with perfectly symetrical features can be very attractive to anyone ....... on the other hand, i am sure only bushmen lust for four foot tall bush women with flared nostrils even as they dream of nubian goddesses to the north ............. and even chinamen find michele pfeifer attractive ........... wrong?

............ so we prefer gora rang ........ personally, i am okay with a sanwali saloni mehbooba, but most women from multan/dg khan can be quite frightening .......... as for women from way down south in kerala, what can i say ......... once in a while you see a real beauty inspite of the dark complexion, but generally speaking, it is probably safer staying this side of the jehlum .......... and this is not a sexist thing .... it is true for the men folk as well ........ after all hanuman did go south to procreate ..........

........ but look on the bright side ......... natural selection has a way of fixing things in the long run ......... since all of us prefer gora rang, over the long run all our descendants will be white, or at least wheatish ............

The obsession with `gora` rung is more in the minds of the boy`s mothers than the boys.Unfortunately, girls in our society have also fallen prey to the universal standard of beauty which starts with ``white`` colour, ``hour-glass`` figure followed by social status, education, Biradri etc etc. Sad to say, most of the problems faced by the gori or not-so-gori daughters- in- law are created/generated by the women and sometimes their UKP sons.Ironic but true.

Aw Scout,

What`s wrong? No one sending Rishtas your way. Bua ha ha ha ha haaaarrrr :)

Umer M.

PS. Send me your works. You promised!

can someone translate this into urdu and give it to all those desi aunties looking for a `gori chitti` for their ukp sons

i think the older generation is in desperate need of this enlightenment....no matter how educated they get, for them a gori`s a better `catch.`

oh and `wheatish` is j-lo, or salma hayek

It` an enlightening essay exposing the shallowness of our society.

Funny that people dont realize the importance of sunscreens.... boys included.

Any articles on female obsession with hair removal ? And how it makes them look darker.
EU cream, Silk-e-pil ...etc.

Time to shave my chest & go to the beach (with sunscreen protection).

Bina u have a very candid way of writing...love it...:)

on a `lighter` note (or is it darker??)...there`s this new magic potion in town...a mixture of a gazillion bazillion creams....apparently most of the half ass dermatologists recommend it to all women desperate to become chitti...i know stillman`s cream bleach is one of the things that goes into that infernal concoction....anyways so u mix all the creams and apply it to your shakal before going to bed at night...results guaranteed...i know of people whove become chitti within a week using it...there`s a catch however...(isn`t there always?)....once u stop using the foul-smelling(?) shit it gives u pimples, horrendously dark facial hair and *drumz roll* skin cancer ladies and gentlemen....but pagal ass friends of mine still continue to apply generous quantities on their munh, haath and paon...

my attempts to chastise them are met with udunhavetobesocattyjustcuzthestorkaccidentallydroppeduinableachcreamkifactory kinda jawab.

Dun u just lurrrrrrrrrvvvvvve being a chitti? *grin*

In response to Umer, who wrote in #6:

``Personally, I think this dark-light stuff will go away when women get a little more independence so their beauty becomes a secondary issue. ``

Hmmm...I dunno if this desire to go/stay fair, or image consciousness in general, is a function of female independence.

Anyhow, fair skin is beautiful...or so Pakistani`s are taught...where does this attitude come from? Age old Pakistani/Indian attitudes? Our colonial past? Inferiority complex created in part by beamed-in images from the west? Pakistani`s racist nature? Something else? I can`t figure it out...but I have my suspicions...

Umer also wrote:

``There is, of course, the other side to the story where pale skinned people want darker shades of skin. Maybe we should extend this article to people not being happy with what they have and wanting more: Dark skins want to be lighter, light skins want to be whiter, boob jobs, cosmetic surgeries etc. etc...``

Well...I have this nagging feeling that Pakistanis want fair skin to be more ``gora``-like, where Caucasians subscribe to a more internalized beauty myth.

Bina,

The only way I can describe wheatish to you is to get about 100 fire matches, decapitate them and stick them, side by side, on a piece of wood. Voila! That is wheat!

As for the whole colour thing, yeah, during my surgery days, a lot of black people used to ask for Hydrocortison creams which peeled off their upper skins and made them look red like a tomato or as I would say, a baboon`s azz. There`s a great little advert I sometimes see: Dark and Lovely.

In the late 80s, there was a Black singer called Yazz who went completely white (and boys and girls, it was a lil scare watching a black who looked like a fearsome albino) but it was sad to know that she did so cos she felt she was being abused for her original skin.

Personally, I think this dark-light stuff will go away when women get a little more independence so their beauty becomes a secondary issue.

There is, of course, the other side to the story where pale skinned people want darker shades of skin. Maybe we should extend this article to people not being happy with what they have and wanting more: Dark skins want to be lighter, light skins want to be whiter, boob jobs, cosmetic surgeries etc. etc...

Umer M.

Easy to read, funny ..Loved it. The ending is GOOD:


``Because everyone knows that God only admits the fair to heaven, doesn’t He? The rest of us, the ones a little on the dark side, belong somewhere else``

At this stage it does not matter what the author intended when she wrote these last lines. This is impossible to pull of I think for a person, to write some thing open to interpretation but also make it entertaining at literal level. Frankly these kind of lines just come to the mind from ``somewhere`` they can not be constructed. I think Its a feeling that shows up on the monitor. Unfortunatey it does not happen all the time. But when it happens the writer can identify ``it`` and quikly click on save.

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{Once upon a time there was a girl called Aliya. She lived in a city in Pakistan, and she had everything she could have ever wanted. Except, that is, for a fair complexion.}


...impossible...romair uncle told us that unlike indians, pakistanis are fair...:)

bina...very pitta hoa topic but i like the way u went about it..okay i got a confession to make..i use fair n lovely very very liberally on my feet..iv been doing so for almost 2 years now...the looks i get from shopkeepers when i ask for a barra tube is most amusing... its part smirking and part unbelieving..when i initially started off at university, the long walks at the campus caused my previously very pretty feet to turn into ugly orange and black striped claws..wearing chappals became an azaab as the pattis would be replicated on my skin and at the end of the first month at university, my feet loooked truly horrendous..so when a girl with very very pretty feet in chappals hanging outta the same point bus as me told me one fine sunny afternoon `fair n lovely lagao..bohat tight sunblock hae` i got a tube on way home and tried it..in exactly 2 weeks my zebra looking feet were transformed to their former glory...
smirk not those reading *dramatic eye blink* u can stand in the sun for two hours in slinky kolapuris, still, fair n lovely will protect you- not one mark, not ONE i swear...every other sun block i tried failed, no banana shanana boat, body wody shop worked...and now iv got some 15 to 20 girls in my class hooked onto the same..hang me :0)