ANJUM IBRAHIM

A sexist comment?

“You have to give high marks to our name givers.”

“Excuse me? Name Givers? Oh you mean nine times out of ten the names we give our children have a meaning while the names given in the West do not always have any meaning or a history or….”

“Right besides there are many of us who contact pirs (spiritual guides - male) or pirnis (spiritual guides females) to evaluate a name that they are considering…”

“You waste your energy on words so much don’t you!? Couldn’t you have just said pirs and that to my mind would have been gender neutral and…”

“I take strong exception to that! I mean this profession….”

“It’s not a profession, it’s a calling.”

“OK sorry this calling is not gender neutral and need I add the number of pirnis is rather limited compared to the number of pirs…”

“I reckon that’s because women are kind of more honest than men, I mean I never heard of a fake pirni but I have heard of fake pirs and…”

“Oh that’s a sexist comment if I ever heard one.”

“But true.”

“That’s the beauty of a biased view – the one biased always insists it’s the truth.”

“I give in, anyway let’s not get side tracked; when I said name givers be given high marks I was referring to the names being given to these new committees and task forces galore that are the hallmark of The Khan’s administration, I mean Nawaz Sharif would go off to his Murree house and leave the naming to Dar who let’s be honest couldn’t give the name National Command and Control Centre cause the Prime Minister was not an attendee and…”

“You being facetious!?”

“A tad and Zardari sahib never involved himself with name giving - he has been the victim of name calling and so desisted from name giving…”

“Ha ha that’s true.”