An angry mob in Pakistan accused a woman who wore a dress adorned with Arabic calligraphy of blasphemy, after mistaking them for Quran verses.
She was saved by police who escorted her to safety after hundreds gathered. She later gave a public apology.
The dress has the word “Halwa” printed in Arabic letters on it, meaning beautiful in Arabic.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Some people have been lynched even before their cases go on trial.
Also re: “educating the population” about how to participate in a democracy - as someone who spent the last 3 years doing housing rights activism in the inner city, I can attest that people who are less economically privileged and ostensibly less “educated” tend to vote at higher rates than the middle and upper class, and participate actively in local politics because even incremental progress in e.g. public welfare programs or improving local infrastructure has a big impact on them. This also holds true for the rural working class.
So I don’t think it is a matter of education. I know several highly educated boomers who e.g. were very supportive of the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf from 2000 - 2008. Incidentally the US was also highly supportive of his regime because of his role in the war on terror.
Education in this case is not about formal education, but understanding how politics work and what are the alternatives. I know ppl that never pass the fourth grade that are decent political/local leaders and middle class ppl with PHD supporting fascism.
Yeah, but this is equally a problem in European and North American countries, too. So they are in no position to “educate” our populations on how to do democracy. They just need to stop supporting anti-democratic forces and engage with our countries based on their professed democratic principles rather than geopolitical interests.
We didn´t disagree, ppl is being demobilized by the destruction of public debate spaces like unions, this happened, and still happens in some places, with countries in development by force and now is happening in developed countries by propaganda. I feel you think I’m talking about some kind of professoral propaganda like another brick in the wall when I talk about education, but I’m actually talking about Paulo Freire kind of education. I wasn’t in any point trying to say that ppl should be teached about democracy and how they should vote but that they should been given the tools to create their own debates and their own way to experience democracy.
I guess my disagreement is that Western countries are in no position to give these tools because they have not undergone that process themselves. The master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house, etc
But my first comment was actually criticizing westerns that think they know better how any development country should work.
True but it also suggested that democracy cannot work in these countries at all.
To which I replied that it is not trying to institute democracy that causes this, but rather supporting dictatorships and anti-democratic actors, which is what western powers have been doing.
But good to know there is little we disagree about on this topic besides phrasing and perhaps our degree of optimism about the democratic process, or lack thereof.
You are right, I was trying to say that I think democracy in the western way would not work in the current institutional situation, not that would not work at all. I phrased it badly.