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.