by HINA HUSAIN
Hoodbhoy argues that the “lure of adventure and libidinal frustration” is why young men are desperate to reach the EU
The migrant boat tragedy that claimed the lives of hundreds off the coast of Greece this past June has not deterred Pakistanis from attempting to make the journey in the hopes of securing a future for themselves in Europe. As details emerge about who exactly was on the doomed trawler, the choice to undertake the perilous trip by dozens of young Pakistani men has brought into focus the crippling aftermath of Pakistan’s economic and political meltdown over the last year.
One contrarian hot take on why Pakistanis continue to try to make it to Europe elicited quite an outrage on Twitter in the days after the tragedy. In his op-ed for Dawn, prominent Pakistani physicist and intellectual Pervez Hoodbhoy offers up the possibility that young men are desperate to reach the shores of the EU because of the “lure of adventure and libidinal frustration”, i.e. in search of sexual pleasures not easily accessible in a conservative society like Pakistan.
The Pakistani Twitterati, a preferred moniker for the liberal elites who tend to be the platform’s heaviest users, were up in arms over Hoodbhoy insinuating that “the boat tragedy victims were just horny savages,” his views derided as “classist and borderline racist,” and also Islamophobic. His liberal credentials and past activism remain as a prime example of “the majority of Pakistan’s foreign-educated academia/elite: they’ll pontificate upon what’s wrong with Pakistan by demeaning and ridiculing the underprivileged and, in doing so, reveal their pettiness”.
Hoodbhoy did not seem phased by the criticism. During my Skype conversation with him, I read out a few of the tweets in question, to which he replied:
“They’re not challenging any of my facts. Are they? I’d be worried if they did that because one must be on very solid ground now,” he continued. “I think it’s probably to everybody’s knowledge how frustrated young Pakistani men are and how no woman feels secure being with them.”
Consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for women, Pakistani women face not just sexual threats from unknown men but also high rates of violence from spouses and other male relatives.
Hoodbhoy’s claims aren’t without merit. He leans on the evidence presented in researcher Ali Nobil Ahmad’s 2011 book titled ‘Masculinity, Sexuality, and Illegal Immigration: Human Smuggling from Pakistan to Europe’ to argue that young men are “risking life and limb… to (reach) a faraway world (that) beckons wherein pleasures of the flesh are tauntingly visible through advertising and general openness”.
In his book, Ahmad rejects the simplistic view that most Pakistani men decide to make the illegal journey to Europe solely due to economic pressures or a desire to reunite with family. Through in-depth interviews with Pakistani migrants in London, Italy and Pakistan, Ahmad surmises that “hedonism can be a factor in many young men’s decision-making…that the oppressive regime of conservative religious, social and moral control of individual behaviour in Pakistan itself makes it impossible for young men in villages to indulge in the kinds of pleasures that are routine for teenagers in the West”.
Illegal labour migration in the working and lower middle classes of Pakistan can thus be a form of youthful rebellion that highlight tensions between the “overt piety of elders who espouse high ‘Islamic’ ideals and a more subversive, sensuous South Asian youth sub-culture that seeks to carve out spaces of fun, celebrating the body and various sorts of transgressions”. As one interviewee in Lahore put it:
“They have no access to women, to sex. No access to upper-class women. They just play cricket and video games. Marriage is the only way for them to have sex. Because upward mobility for them is blocked, they feel a terrible frustration, especially those who want to see more of the world and experience what they see plastered on TVs.”
Too much free time, not enough job prospects, and access to pornography through smartphones have also warped many of these young men’s ideas about what kind of adventures and possibilities may await them in liberal European societies, Hoodbhoy states. In his view, there is nothing wrong with young men seeking a better life for themselves abroad. The issue arises when large swathes of young men travel to western societies with “unassimilable conservative values” and a knowledge deficit that sees them employed in low-wage jobs and unable to move into middle-class lifestyles in their chosen countries of residence.
The Express Tribune for more