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Tuesday March 19, 2024

‘Our sufferings will cease to exist if we become tolerant’

By Our Correspondent
November 18, 2018

In connection with International Day for Tolerance that was observed on Friday, a group of various human rights organisations held an event at Koohi Goth Hospital in Malir on Saturday to stress the need for promoting tolerance in the country.

The event featured theatrical performances as well as speeches of rights activists and youths in which they called for building a society where all individuals and groups enjoyed respect.

Speaking on the occasion, Sheema Kermani of Tehrik-e-Niswan decried the rise of intolerance in society, stating that people were leaning towards destructive attitudes instead of creating new ideas.

“I feel it is important to celebrate diversity instead of criticising it. It’s natural to have arguments but having difference of opinions should not translate into violence against other groups. If people hurt and kill others over differences, it’s a sign that the society desperately needs tolerance,” Kermani stated.

A young girl, Molly Sarwar, quoted Socrates to emphasise the importance of patience. A country can never prosper if its people are reluctant to say greetings to others, she said.

Representatives from Aanchal performed a tableau on the song, ‘Meri Pukar Sun Lay’. The tableau depicted a teacher who was giving a message to people of different identities that all religions preached respecting others.

An Ibrahim Hyderi resident, Haider Baloch of Azm-e-Naujawan, was of the view that respecting humanity was one of the basic tenets of every faith as all religions called for togetherness and love. “Humans should take a lesson from raindrops which fall on thorns and flowers alike,” he said.

Nuzhat Shireen, chairperson of the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, referred to the recent decision on the Asia Bibi case, stating that it was alarming how intolerant society became when the Supreme Court declared Asia innocent. “I felt very helpless after seeing her daughters who were being asked about the fate of their mother,” she said.

According to Shireen, almost all of our sufferings would cease to exist if we got tolerant and refrained from imposing our values on others.

Portraying how intolerance could gnaw peace of any society, Tehrik-e-Niswan staged a theatre performance which depicted a society where people of various ethnicities and religions coexisted in harmony until two strangers, named extremism and intolerance, joined it with an intention of setting up a business of spectacles.

The intruders abducted tolerance and hid her away, which caused a boost to their business and resulted in people wearing their spectacles to engage in scuffles and violent arguments.

Later, one of the community members realised the fault with the glasses and informed others. Upon taking the spectacles off, people realised that there were inscriptions of various words such as ‘bias’, ‘extremism’ and ‘narrow mindedness’ on the spectacles. Soon, the people were able to retrieve tolerance and took off the glasses from the eyes of strangers, causing peaceful coexistence again.

The play addressed the issue of blinkers which rendered individuals wearing them unable to view the world from a different perspective and give room to difference of opinions.

Ramchand Faqir, a Sufi singer from rural areas, performed songs preaching the message of love, equality and respect for all.

The organisations which collaborated with Tehrik-e-Niswan for the event included the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Women Development Foundation Pakistan, Aanchal Social Welfare Organisation Sindh, Peace and Development Organisation, Mehrdar Art Production, Hum Awaz, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and others.