have a problem and the problem is how we
define community normal textbook
definitions of the word community often
define it as a following people living
together in an area peacefully now
there’s a few problems because a hundred
years ago two hundred years ago if I’d
even three hundred years ago this might
have been the it might have been a
possibility but in a 21st century
society
this definition failed to talk about
diversity what I would like to define
community as is individuals that are
part of different identity groups living
together peacefully now I want to ask
you guys a question we all come from
diverse backgrounds and we live in
different communities and I want to ask
you and raise your hands if you agreed
that the minority is living within your
communities are having issues standing
out because of the social institution
that are in place so raise your hands if
you believe that okay so we have a lot
of hands up now I come from Pakistan and
we feature on the news a lot mostly
negative things mostly about terrorism
mostly about negativity so I want to
pose another question and please please
raise your hands for me if you are an
avid reader of the news read the news
two three times a day so raise your
hands for me okay significantly less but
so for those who do read the news I’m
pretty sure you’d have no problem
telling me why Pakistan was in the news
last week right so raise your hands who
knows fact why Pakistan was in the news
last week very few Pakistan was in the
news last week because an 18 year old
boy was attacked by a mob at a
university because of his ethnicity two
weeks ago a seven year old girl was
raped and murdered three weeks ago and a
polio administration officer was killed
trying to give polio drops to kids in
rural areas what is the common theme
you see in these incidences it is the
theme of identity Pakistan is going
through a struggle where we do not know
what being Pakistani really means and as
a Pakistani growing up in society I
never really thought about these issues
because one we would never really taught
to think about them what we learnt about
was how it’s important to grow rice in
winter or how our biggest enemy is India
but we never really learned why
something happened we learned that the
Taliban were bad because they kill
people but why did they kill people we
learned that the government was corrupt
but why was the government corrupt you
see their loopholes in this education
system that we offered to kids
that basically offer no explanation as
to why things happen and that’s why I
went to you I went to a school in the
Netherlands under the banner of United
World College uwc now living in Pakistan
as a sixteen-year-old I saw these things
come to light these social issues women
not being paid the same amount as men
doing the same job my friends living in
gated communities of religious
minorities because the government
couldn’t provide them accurate security
our people with LGBTQ identities
completely being neglected from society
these issues are very complex and the
compress complexity lies within one
thing colonialism but colonialism is not
the problem it is part of the problem
the lack of change of mentality is a
problem the mentality mentality that
women are inferior to men the mentality
that LGBTQ identities or minority
identities are an abomination to society
they have no place in the 21st century
in any society and the second thing it
does is it undermines the work of your
own people your own culture so instead
of learning about allama iqbal the
national poet of pakistan we learn about
Robert Frost or instead of learning
about quaid-e-azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
the founder of our great country we
learn about Winston Churchill and his
services to the United Kingdom these
loopholes leave
loopholes in education simply offer us
no explanation of what it means to apply
education within our own context and
that’s why I offer to you a solution and
how I went about my solution so in my
one of my econ classes we discussed
about an economic historian by the name
of Karl Polanyi and his country
movements now Palani describes
globalization by two ways the pace of
globalization as well as the direction
of globalization he argues that people
can reject globalization simply because
because of the pace
so if globalization is going too quickly
people can turn back and start country
movements through globalization
reclaiming what’s yours and often that
is seen as a negative thing but we
should not be thinking like that we
should be thinking that country
movements are the way to bring back
society and bring unity into society and
that’s why I’m going to offer you what I
did as a counter movement so after I
graduated my high school I came back to
my society asking pondering questions to
my people interacting new peoples I
would I would never usually interact
with and ask them things like will we
ever see a second female prime minister
in our country or will we ever see LGBTQ
parliamentarians mostly negative results
but again progress takes time regardless
of what the answers were I am met an
individual who who was part of the LGBTQ
a community in Pakistan and for me that
was a whirlwind of emotions because I
had never really met someone who was
part of an LGBTQ identity in a very
conservative concept there’s one thing
learning about your queer theories in a
in a Western concept your emancipation
of gay rights but in a very conservative
concept you have this plethora of
questions which I had which I asked this
individual and I wouldn’t want to share
them on stage but one thing I would like
to tell you is what I took away from
that conversation and what I took away
was the fact that we need to build up
tolerance by and large people in
Pakistan minorities specifically I left
left to deal with themselves there is no
assistance for them they’re often left
out of society and that needs to change
so I kept meeting with this individual
quite a few times and I was introduced
to a larger group of the LGBTQ community
and I wanted to use my position ality my
privilege in a Pakistani context to
positively affect and move these
minority identities up the ladder in
terms of society and in community make
them more engaged in the community make
them more accepted in community so I
proposed of an idea of writing a book a
book that encapsulate the experiences of
a 16 year old boy in Pakistan Cooper who
is part of the LGBTQ community the book
itself is fictional but serves to
encapsulate the examples and the stories
and the experiences that were told to me
by the individuals of the LGBTQ
community in Pakistan
all of the good all of the bad and all
of the ugly now I understand the book
itself would be very critically taken it
will not be accepted because of the fact
that this is a very taboo subject in my
community we don’t talk about things
like this because you were never really
taught out to think outside the box and
there’s partly it is to blame the
education system is to blame for that
but also we are to blame for that
because we never challenge the
educational system I never challenged my
educational system until after my high
school we never challenged what we
learned because what we learn in class
we always often take as Bible as the
truth and that’s the wrong idea
education is about expanding your
horizons but also critically questioning
why what we learn and why is it
applicable in our societies and that is
the reason I’m writing the book I want
to challenge these dominant structures
within my society that limit the
progression of the minority groups in my
country particularly there’ll be LGBTQ I
do accept that there will be criticism
there will be threats because I don’t
feel as if today tomorrow or maybe even
the next year is a right time to
introduce the subject but one will be
the right time to introduce up subjects
all I hope is that people take away what
the main message behind the book is it
is not to attract people towards liking
these people it is not to make sure you
join the gage and uh but the point I’m
trying to make is we need to build
tolerance no matter where you’re from
where you come from who’s your daddy
like all of those things it’s all about
tolerance accepting who people are now
my TED talk serves to talk about one
thing and one thing alone not my project
not what I did
not what my movement is but what you can
do I want you people to leave this talk
inspired and to think about the ways you
can affect your communities positively
and how you can help minorities within
your societies within your communities
positively so my parting question for
you is what will you do about it thank
you [Applause]