I had been holding my breath whilst watching the recent royal visit to Pakistan. Having spent two wonderfully enlightening years living there in my late teens, during which time English cricketer Ian Botham famously branded it “the kind of place to send your mother-in-law for a month, all expenses paid”, and having listened to the narrative over the years from some parts of the media that Pakistan was a rogue state, supporting terrorism and religious fanaticism, I waited for the negative comments from the usual suspects.
But their Twitter streams were eerily quiet on the subject. The wheels seemed to have come off the sniping bandwagon, and oh how pleasing that was for this Scottish-born, woman of Pakistani heritage. Could it be, that, after all the Trumpian chat of “s***holes” and “crime-infested countries”, we’re all getting a bit tired of xenophobia? Could it be, that our “fear of the unfamiliar” was somehow quashed by the sight of the familiar - Kate and William - embracing the unfamiliar by thoughtfully, consistently and comfortably engaging with the culture, customs and even, fashions of Pakistan? Had the carefully stage-managed events, offering the Cambridges a slightly sanitised but, nonetheless, diverse insight into the deep complexity of a country like Pakistan, encouraged those who cling to incorrect stereotypes, to reassess? Whether you’re a royalist or not, a wee bit of education has got to be worth a few of our taxpayers pounds.
Okay, maybe it’s wishful thinking regarding xenophobia but what the Cambridges’ visit did bring was a sense of nuance; of light and shade. From the glittering reception in Islamabad to the visit to the SOS Village Orphanage and the trip to the shrinking Chiatibo glacier, we saw glimpses of a Pakistan that is not normally on show. Our news media report on the bad stuff, that’s their job, but friends in Pakistan often say to me “we’re more than all that, we are 212 million souls who work, who suffer, who celebrate, who pray, who look after elderly relatives, who laugh and who love as you do. We have our problems - poverty, and yes, pockets of extremism - but are we alone in those frailties?”
So, well done to the Cambridges, but it shouldn’t take Prince William in a sherwani or Kate Middleton playfully laughing in a kurta during a quick game of cricket to get us to rethink our stereotyping of countries. We just need to reflect on the rich texture, complexity and strains within our own country to know that that is not wise.
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