So it is no wonder then that the US Supreme Court's recent ruling in favour of same-sex marriage has stirred up a bit of a storm among the users of social networking sites in Pakistan, despite the fact that the development is unlikely to benefit the country's LGBTQ community and at most, moral support is all that its members can derive from it.
But nevertheless, there has been an outpour of views on Pakistan's social networking sphere, most of them expressing resentment over the 'abominable' verdict while a few describing it as a major leap towards equality. In fact, a celebrity was so emotionally disturbed by a minuscule number of Pakistanis celebrating the US court's judgement with rainbow-filtered profile pictures that he passionately conveyed his disdain for it.
The opinions and debates are mostly focusing on the prohibition of same-sex union in religion.
However, the root cause of the problem goes deeper than that. There are several injunctions prescribed by religion that are simply ignored because they are incoherent with the modern way of life and the ones found 'feasible' are followed. The underlying issue is that behaviour, which transcends the norms of the society, deviates from the social structure that we are accustomed too, causes fear and we find it detestable. It pushes us out of our comfort zones.
A person who has been brought up in a conservative environment will find co-education, women in western attire, Valentine's Day etc shocking and offensive because they feel that such behaviour is a threat to the social structure they are part of. Thus, they deem it necessary to protect their way of life, especially for their coming generations.
Similarly, many Pakistanis, who consider themselves liberal in their views, too will have a hard time coming to terms with a notion that is too divergent from their set standards.
An example of the fear of that we do not understand or find too dissimilar is that many of us become uneasy when a hijra tries to interact with us; some are afraid of them, others ridicule them. In our society, hijras are considered too different than the rest to be accepted as equal human beings and that is why treated as outcasts.
But equality is only possible if we respect every individual's decision to choose the way of life they want to live as long as they're not hurting anyone or infringing upon others' rights.
The initial reaction to the struggles for the abolishment of slavery and equal rights for women and blacks too was that of contempt. But the perceptions of social structure change with the passage of time.
