Islamabad

Islamabad – Friday Prayers

June 2, 2006 Most mosques are not for women I am staying in a friend’s house, whose father is quite a renowned religious leader in the country. Syed Asmat Gilani had been in Danmark and other parts of Europe in last few years, and his modern teaching of the religion had converted thousands of people to grab Islam. Today is Friday, the most important day in the week for the Muslims. Mr Asmat was invited to give speech in a mosque nearby, and he also invited me to attend the prayers. The speech was delivered in Urdu. Even not all parts of the speech that I understood, I could grab little bit of the teaching. The speech was about the soul of religion (mazhab ki ruh), that is feeling the existance of God in your heart. Religion should be from the heart. There are three phases of the religion, that are shariat (religion), tarekat (spiritual), and hakikat (truth). Somehow the teaching resembles what we learnt in Taoism, that the Truth, what they call here as Hakikat, is to be found in [read more]

June 2, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – Theft

April 11, 2006 Sebuah keluarga terpandang dan religius Saya tinggal di sebuah keluarga di Islamabad. Keluarga ini cukup terpandang dan mempunyai bisnis keluarga yang cukup besar. Secara religius pun sangat dihormati, karena mempunyai nama keluarga Syed, yang berarti keturunan langsung dari Nabi Muhammad. Keluarga Syed Ijaz tinggal di sebuah real estate besar di kawasan orang kaya Islamabad. Islamabad memang dipenuhi oleh orang-orang kaya dengan rumah-rumah raksasa macam istana, macam kompleks Galaxy atau Dharmo di Surabaya. Walaupun modern dan kaya, keluarga Ijaz amatlah sangat religius. Dalam keluarganya, ruang tamu dipisahkan sehelai kelambu, sehingga tamu laki-laki tak bisa melihat penghuni rumah yang perempuan. Hingga beberapa hari tinggal di rumah ini, aku pun tak pernah tahu ada siapa saja perempuan di sana. Yang jelas banyak sekali, namun selain anak-anak dan bari amma, tak satu pun yang pernah aku lihat secara langsung. Aku merasa aman tinggal di rumah ini. Aku disediakan [read more]

April 11, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – Wedding in the Capital (2)

April 9, 2006 Membaca Qur’an di rumah dulha Hari ini hari ketiga pernikahan, setelah mehndi kemarin. Acaranya, yang semula kata Ijaz dimulai pukul 12, ternyata terlambat lagi (seperti biasa di Pakistan) hingga pukul 2. Ijaz, sebagai teman terdekat mempelai pria, mengiringi mempelai pria dalam mobilnya. Arak-arakan mobil panjang berjalan dari Islamabad menuju Rawalpindi. Di dalam mobil ada yang bertanya tentang asalku. Aku jawab Pakistani. Mereka manggut-manggut, “Gilgit ya…”, dengan sok tahunya menambahkan, “memang orang Gilgit wajahnya mirip orang Cina ya…” Sebagaimana acara pernikahan lainnya di Pakistan, di sini juga acara mempelai pria menjemput mempelai wanita, istilahnya dulha menjemput dulen. Namun karena ini di kota, acara bukan lagi di rumah masing-masing mempelai, melainkan di sebuah Wedding Hall di pusat kota Rawalpindi, tepatnya di Liaquat Chowk. Wedding hall, bukanlah seperti halnya gedung pernikahan di Indonesia di mana piring-piring [read more]

April 9, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – A Wedding in the Capital

Dancing to celebrate April 8, 2006 Today was supposed to be my last day in Kashmir. Syed Ijaz Gillani offered me to go together to Islamabad where I could stay in his family house. He said that there would be a wedding ceremony that I probably interested to attend. He said that he would pick me very early in that morning, at 8, to go together to Islamabad. But not until 1 pm that he came. This kind of little bit delay of appointment is quite common in Pakistan. Some of my friends in Muzaffarabad would like to meet me for the last time. They came at 8 in the morning. Ali insisted to take me to his house to have breakfast. I refused as I was worrying Ijaz would came early. Ali, the 16 year old boy, said that he knew his countrymen much better than me. And he was right. Waiting, waiting, and waiting. They look so bored The morning was full of waiting. Those little boys of 16-20 years old were also enjoying the sexy gabshab (conversation). One scene I was so surprised to spot, that one [read more]

April 8, 2006 // 0 Comments

Gilgit – The Story of My Visa

Some tricks are needed to get a new visa extension March 9, 2006 Sorry for being snobby about visa, but I dont know why I have to be the poorest creature to be created to always have tragedies with visa, especially in this trip. From the Indian visa in Nepal, Pakistan visa in India, and now, Pakistan visa extension. As what I was believing, Pakistan visa was easy to extend, as the country is promoting tourism now. My visa was about a week left when I was in Muzaffarabad, and Rashid, the guy from our NGO, said that if that possible, than it would be very easy to extend. He just came back from Islamabad Monday 6th, and on Tuesday we started our ‘visa extension struggle’. First of all, instead of directly went to the DC Office where the extension and passport paperworks are done, we visited the Muzaffarabad SSP (I dont know what this stand for), the man with highest position in police department in Muzaffarabad. U know, in Pakistan you can go anywhere with connection. Knowing [read more]

March 9, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – Do Nambar

Women are rare on Pakistan streets. But when they are, mostly they are totally covered February 21, 2006 I have written many stories of examples of male to male sexual harrassments in Pakistan (personal experiences) and it’s unfair if I dont write the sexual harassments that happen to women, which are far more common. I was in a crowded bus today, heading to Islamabad. When I entered the bus, the seats next to the drivers (supposed to be seats for ladies, and it is really pronounced as LADIES instead of ‘aurat’ in Urdu) was occupied by some men also. The ticket men allowed me to sit in front seat also, maybe because I was foreigner. Then there were about five seats left for the ‘ladies’. But as there was only one woman passengers, the seats were again occupied by male passengers. Then everytime coming a female passenger, those male passengers have to move away and give the seats to the women so that no women will sit next to unrelative males. Something [read more]

February 21, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – Peak Hours

Commuting in Pakistan can somehow be crazy. Almost no women are visible, by the way February 4, 2006 The intercity buses connecting the twin cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi (the two totally different twins) are such important like blood and heartbeat in a human body. In the peak hours, many of Rawalpindi dwellers going to Islamabad for education and works, that getting a bus could be very difficult (women especially, due to the rules of seats). Waiting for lift is difficult, that everyone has to fight to be lifted, and in the little sized Toyota, standing up without seat means that you have to forget that you have backbones for a while. Squeezed. I felt relieved I got a seat, which was incredebly a luck. The standing quota for passengers is usually two people, but our Toyota took more people. Actually the passengers were also happy as they got lifted, even though the Toyota was overloading. But the policemen didnt. Our Toyota was stopped by the police, the driver got annoyed, [read more]

February 4, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – Earthquake Relief

Margala Tower, destroyed by the earthquake February 4, 2006 As trusted before, my visit to Pakistan is to be a volunteer for the earthquake relief. But due to the sickness I got, I still havent started any single movement. I felt guilty myself, when my friends asked start asking, hey, when you go to the earthquake areas, or you look like also a tourists. Nobody to blame, but being late is always better than nothing. I got several contacts of NGOs working in earthquake areas since my arrival in Pakistan. And today I just got the first chance to visit Dannish Muslim Aid, which was happily received me to be a volunteer and go to Muzaffarabad. The manager, Mr Syed Abid Gilani is just a friendly and helpful man, showed me the pictures of the victims of the earthquake and the work they are doing. The happening was quite similar to that in Indonesia, the tsunami in Aceh, but the terrain here is much more difficult as it happened in the mountainous areas, while Aceh terrain is much more [read more]

February 4, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – The Capital of Pakistan

The modern Faisal Mosque, named after the king of Saudi Arabia February 3, 2006 The capital of Pakistan, Islamabad- the name means the city of Islam, is a new city created just few decades ago. The designer of the city was a European, and it was designated to be a modern city. The roads are long, straight, with blocks of commercial regions, residential regions, and government offices. The names of the blocks and the roads are even in number, like F-7 for ths Jinnah Supermarket, or G-7 for the block opossite F-7 separated by the main road called ‘blue area’. The using of letter and number is not quite user-friendly. But it seems how it also goes in the West. Nevertheless Islamabad is a new city, the roads are wide, but the population is not that much. The buildings looks more modern and clean than the nearby Rawalpindi, with obvious reason that the strata and level status of the inhabitants are higher, but the feeling of the city is totally empty. Not so much live, [read more]

February 3, 2006 // 0 Comments