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Getty Images, file
All of these things have been banned in Pakistan at one time or another. Clockwise from top left: Long-haired musicians, 'The Da Vinci Code,' kite-flying, Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses,' India (usually in the form of its newspapers and TV channels) and alcohol.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Last month, it was cellphones. Before that, it was motorcycles, shawls and jackets. Earlier this year, it was the BBC, Twitter and YouTube. In 2011, it was porn websites. In 2010, it was Facebook. In the 1990s, it was Indian television and musicians with long hair. In the 1980s, it was Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses." And in the 1970s, it was booze.
All banned. In Pakistan. By Pakistan.
Through the decades. Pakistan's state and non-state actors have found a way to regulate, boycott, ban or completely outlaw technology, information, literature, media and even entire communities.
The result? The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, once imagined as a secular, democratic haven for India's minority Muslim population, may well have become the land of "Banistan."
Babar Sattar, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is one of "Zia's Children" — the generation who grew up during the 1970s and 1980s when the culture of forbiddance took root through ironclad legislation passed by the country's Islamist dictator of the time, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
"The proclivity to ban is the continuing manifestation of expanding religion-driven morality at the expense of personal liberty," Sattar told NBC News. "We don't even recognize that there exists a need not to allow collective outrage or shame to pillage individual rights."
Here's an A to Z of what's been curtailed in "Banistan."
Alcohol: Pakistan was a pretty wet place until the late premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto banned alcohol — days before he was removed by an Islamist general in a coup in 1977. Though a heavy drinker himself, Bhutto's ban was meant to move him closer to the religious margins of the country. The political strategizing didn't work for him (he was executed), but prohibition in Pakistan stuck. Still, booze is available for the connected and the rich.
The only brewery in Pakistan is a 150-year-old tradition. Business is booming despite strict prohibition laws. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports.
BlackBerry services: Pakistan's blasphemy laws are regarded as the toughest in the Muslim world. But when hundreds of websites were banned in May 2010 for "blasphemous content'" that was appearing on social networks, Pakistan decided to do away with BlackBerry services, too.
Cellphones: This year saw Pakistan's interior minister slam a blanket ban on cellphone services across the country to prevent handsets being used to detonate suicide bombs. On at least two religious occasions in 2012, Eid and Ashura, when terrorist attacks were expected, almost 120 million Pakistanis couldn't use their cellphones, even in case of emergency.
Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images, file
Pakistani Christians shout slogans as they protest against the movie 'The Da Vinci Code' in Lahore on June 3, 2006. The screen adaptation for the bestselling book by the same name -- starring Tom Hanks as the professor who comes across the Jesus Christ/Mary Magdalene union imagined by author Dan Brown -- was banned in 2004.
'Da Vinci Code, The': The screen adaptation for the bestselling "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks as the professor who comes across the Jesus Christ/Mary Magdalene union imagined by author Dan Brown, was banned in 2004.
In Pakistan's largest city, 'Old Glory' is flammable and profitable
Erotica: In 2011, the country's Internet regulator placed a blanket ban on thousands of pornography sites. Meanwhile, print and DVD/CD formats of porn are available across the country, and the country manages to maintain an underground porn industry.
Food [& Beverages]: As in much of the Muslim world, pork products are banned in Pakistan. But 2012 saw even some "Halal" products boycotted by a lawyers' association in Lahore as well the campus of a major university because they were made by Shezan foods, a brand owned by Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect. (Ahmadis don't think that Mohammad is Islam's final prophet and have been persecuted by successive Pakistani governments for such ideas.) Other products, including Pepsi, were also boycotted for being "Jewish."
Gambling: Once legal, gambling is now banned (thanks in large part to late prime minister Bhutto's attempts to appease the religious right in the late 1970s). However, Pakistan is a joint capital (with India) of the lucrative illegal cricket betting industry in which millions bet billions, especially when archrivals India and Pakistan play.
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images, file
Ali Azmat and Salman Ahmad of the rock band Junoon perform in Mumbai, India, in December 2003. The popular band and all musicians with long hair were banned in the 1990s.
Hair: In his own bid to transform what was left of secular Pakistan after the Islamist Zia regime, the 1990s saw prime minister Nawaz Sharif (tipped to be the next premier in upcoming elections) try to implement selective Shariah law by banning popular rock band, Junoon, and all musicians with long hair. The ban on Junoon was politically inspired, as it had campaigned for the financial accountability of those in elected office. But it all proved to be rather cosmetic. Rock and roll continued to flourish in Pakistan, and the shutdown only helped Junoon polish off their bad-boy image until they broke up. Meanwhile, Sharif got a hair transplant. The 2000s, however, saw a more complicated and violent hair ban, this time implemented in Pakistan's northwest by Taliban militants, who even bombed and fined barber shops for shaving men.
Pakistan's Generation Y battles to shape country's future
India: The world's largest democracy enjoys a special place in the Islamic Republic's banning regime. Some bans look to be permanent, including all Indian news channels, certain news websites and books, and all printed newspapers and magazines (India reciprocates most of these bans).
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
Jokes: Forwarding a joke via text message, email or blog can result in a 14-year prison sentence. But only if it targets the country's leadership.
Rumors of plot to sterilize Muslims with polio vaccine sparks killings
Kites: The centuries-old spring festival of kite flying, Basant, based out of Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore, was also banned by the Supreme Court in 2005 when petitions were filed highlighting the dangerous after-effects of kite flying, including death by strangulation. The Supreme Court reversed the ban earlier this year.
Carl De Souza / AFP/Getty Images
A boy flies a kite on a hill overlooking a large relief camp run by The National Rural Support Program in September 2010.
LGBT rights: Rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are curbed by social taboos in the Islamic Republic, but Pakistan's laws don't help either. The colonial-era Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, designed by the British, imposes a prison sentence for sodomy. But while lesbians have been low-profile in their run-ins with the law of the land, Pakistani transgenders made history in 2012 by successfully lobbying for a landmark Supreme Court judgment in their favor that allows them to both identify themselves and vote as a third sex -- transgender, and not male or female, as they were forced to in the past.
Minorities: First legally pronounced to be non-Muslims in the 1970s, the persecuted Ahmadi sect was further limited in its actions and exercise of religious freedoms by several laws in the 1980s. They were not allowed to say the Muslim greeting aloud, nor call their houses of worship mosques. Ahmadis continue to be targets of notorious blasphemy laws, under which other religious minorities, particularly Christians, are also targeted.
Nipples: Customs agents usually redact images of female nipples from foreign publications available on local newsstands. Bottoms usually are overlooked, but full-frontal nudity is not.
Osama: As the embarrassment of Operation Neptune Spear set in after May 2011, Pakistani authorities first cordoned off Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, then forbade foreigners in Abbottabad, then forbade non-Abottabadis in Abbotabad, then forbade all and sundry from visiting the location. Finally, they just razed the building.
One year after Osama bin Laden's death, questions remain about his life at the heavily guarded compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. NBC'S Amna Nawaz reports.
Parties: According to the regulators of the largest housing authority in Pakistan's largest city, "Marriages Ceremony," "Dance Party," and "Musical Evenings" are not allowed for citizens inside their own homes. However, "Birthday Party" and "Quran Khwani / Dars" (Quran recitals and religious lectures) are.
Quran burning: Pakistan's blasphemy laws, considered the toughest in the Islamic world, carry a potential death sentence for anyone insulting Islam. When a Christian teenage girl with limited learning abilities was accused of burning and desecrating the Quran, riots and controversy followed as the case of young Rimsha, initially charged with blasphemy, developed into a complicated legal battle. But it soon became became evident that an imam, who wanted Christians like Rimsha out of his neighborhood, had planted evidence on her.
For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones'
Raymond Davis (along with other intelligence contractors and diplomats): When CIA contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two petty criminals in broad daylight in Lahore in January 2011, the anti-American uproar was so severe that the United States had to dispatch its best diplomats, including John Kerry, to negotiate his release. And although Davis was let go only through the traditional Islamic method of payment of blood money to the victims' relatives, Pakistan subsequently clamped down on the movement and deployment of all Western diplomats, officials and contractors. Today, if you work for the U.S., or the Argentinian, or the Jamaican embassy, you will have to obtain a "No Objection Certificate" to attend a dinner if it's even one town over from where you are stationed.
Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was charged with fatally shooting two men in Pakistan, has been released from prison after relatives of the victims agreed to a deal. NBC's Carol Grisanti reports.
Social media: With almost 20 million Internet connections that reach even deep inside the volatile tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities have tried in vain to regulate social media. And although Facebook recently shut down a page used for recruiting by the Pakistani Taliban, the government has never directly acted to disconnect those who support terror via social networks.
Demonstrators shout slogans and wave placards as they protest against Facebook in Lahore in May 2010.
Shawls: In what was dubbed by the national press as the most desperate of recently taken security measures, a district in Pakistan's northwest actually banned coats and shawls, even in the dead of winter, under British colonial-era law designed for maintaining public discipline and security. The reason: their possible use to hide suicide jackets under the bulky clothing during a sensitive religious holiday.
Can social media propel 'rock star' politician Imran Khan to power in Pakistan?
Urinating: The absence of public toilets across the country, as well as the spread and social acceptance of a rural 'go anywhere' culture has created a messy challenge for government after government in Pakistan: how to stop millions from answering the call of nature when and where they please. The answer? A national ban, with threat of prosecution.
Vaccinations: Days before 161,000 children were about to inoculated for polio this summer, the Taliban banned the vaccination campaign. Even though Pakistan remains one of the three countries in the world that still carries the debilitating virus, militants continue to target and kill anti-polio campaigners, claiming that the program is a U.S. cover for espionage, similar to the CIA using a Pakistani physician to help locate Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad last year.
It's been a tough year for Pakistan U.S. relations. Crucial NATO supply routes have been shuttered since November, there is tension over drone strikes and now the countries are at odds over the treason conviction of the Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. locate Osama Bin Laden.
Weddings: Forget the five-course wedding dinner. Pakistan -- once the land of extravagant, multi-event weddings -- has a law that doesn't allow for more than one entrée at a wedding feast. The policy has been in place for several years but is only now being implemented earnestly by a provincial government that is focused on battling food wastage.
More Pakistan coverage from NBC News
XXX: As porn is outlawed in Pakistan, "Tripple" is the code word nationally accepted for under-the-counter DVD and magazine purchases that are naughtier than usual.
YouTube: YouTube is the only social networking site that continues to be blanket-banned in Pakistan since its owner, Google Inc., refused to block an anti-Islamic video last September. But Vimeo, YouTube's competitor network that offers similarly "blasphemous" material, remains rather functional and legal in Pakistani cyberspace.
'Zero Dark Thirty': Though the new Kathryn Bigelow thriller is out, it probably won't be seen in a cinema near you in Pakistan. No theater has promoted the film, no television channel is carrying its trailers, and, so far, no DVD shops are selling even its pirated versions. The reason? Well, one guess. ... "Zero Dark Thirty" is military speak for 12.30 a.m., the time the Abbotabad raid targeting bin Laden commenced in May 2011.
The Oscar-winning team of director/producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer/producer Mark Boal, along with cast members Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke, talk about the film based on the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden, which already has critics buzzing and is stirring up controversy.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Body of India rape victim cremated in New Delhi
- Pakistan militants kill 40 in mass execution, attack on Shiites
- Statue of Hitler praying is displayed in former Warsaw ghetto to controversy
- Putin signs law banning American adoptions
- Video: Elephants play soccer at Nepal festival
- US sailors sue Japan's TEPCO for post-quake radiation exposure
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
How can people from countries outside the radical muslim sphere not feel threatened by Islam? Pakistan, for example, exemplifies the worst of human conditions. Poor personal hygiene, virtually no education except Quran training from a hate-filled imam, guaranteed poverty for the average person are all traits of these radical Islamic areas. History has shown that these kinds of societies must be conquered by more tolerant nations. The problem is overthrowing their corrupted belief system.
think wallmart and dell will take their call centers out? na lol
This is where we are headed here in America! As soon as they disarm us they will be banning everything and anything. Including kites because there is a chance you might strangle yourself so "NO KITE FLYING!"
The main reason they banned kite flying was that it was associated with an ancient colorful, fun, Hindu festival. As the theme of the article goes, Pakistan can't have anything that is fun, colorful and non-muslim...such losers.
like i have stated manymany times over the years,, all muslims and islam should be eradicated, they wouldnt like me i burn a quran a week, and have a spare one in the bath room as spare toilet paper,they are horrible miserable people if you can call them people, always wantign to ban something or behead someone,, all muslims are terrorists, like it or not they say if you dont belive as them? then you should be killed, horrible bunch, killing kids for flying a kite? sick bunch,but we here in america have our own islamic nut case,, obama, he is wanting to ban everything also and be supreme leader, hahah he wont make it, some one will end the treason he is commiting on a daily hourly basis,
I'm reminded of the Cold War, and the U.S.S.R.
What a lousy article. Why aren't we seeing articles criticizing other US assails like India, England, Israel etc?
Because they don't cater to stupid people.
Any "stan" other than Stan Laurel is ridiculous! Man oh man, what a swarm of ridiculous muzzies!!!
The main reason they banned kite flying was that it was associated with an ancient colorful, fun, Hindu festival. As the theme of the article goes, Pakistan can't have anything that is fun, colorful and non-muslim.
Pakistan is a festering sewer of human dregs, perfectly content to live out their stupid and meaningless lives, and being told exactly how to do so by their imams, mullahs, and assorted other bogus "clerics". As a nation, they have eradicated or attempted to eradicate everything that has even the remotest possibility of providing any kind of enjoyment, and their populace is such a bunch of toothless, slack-jawed, brain-dead bipeds that calling them members of the human race is and insult to anyone who has still retained the ability to think critically. If you ever needed to look for a scientific basis for proof of devolution, look no farther than Pakistan. At their current rate, they should return their country to a border to border sea of primordial ooze by 2050.
To understand a culture and its people we first need to understand the history of those people...this is where we have failed...not in trying to protect peoples rights to freedom! Freedom is the best for all of humankind!
Man things going from bad to worse. Is there a law about breathing and existing?
Really, we're close to being like Pakistan? Advancing from bad to worse.
Another dysfunctional fanatical State with NUKES. Baton down the hatches, as its going to be a very interesting decade ahead. This backward uneducated country is only getting worse by the day. I certainly hope that our government has a contingency plan to take out their nukes, when the time comes, and believe me, the time will come......
Oddly, I have worked with numerous very educated Packis, Iranians, Iraqis. The educated ones seem like me, open, peaceful, kind and understanding. Sadly, in their home countries, many act as rabid dogs. What is tragic is that many Muslims have less intelligence than a Berkshire hog! And they abhor swine! An Iranian who worked under me, was a good guy, married to an LA girl. Nice home. Then the "Shah" fell from power. His mom, dad came to California, LA, USA and took over his house, Much of the familial/tribal customs still reign! I have been in churches, temples, synagogues and other silly religious seats. I've stood, sat, knelt quietly (and daydreamed) Religion is the invention of man! I wouldn't step on a bug without reason, a religion which states kill the "others" can just kiss my ass! I hope I am clear.
Yawn...old news, really, not really en enlightening article. However, some points were rather interesting bits of exaggeration/lies that must be commented upon:
"the country manages to maintain an underground porn industry."
Really? where? in your dreams, perhaps? i wonder if Mr. Wajahat actually ever lived in Pakistan, and if he did/does, has he ever ventured outside of his room?
"Nipples: Customs agents usually redact images of female nipples from foreign publications available on local newsstands. Bottoms usually are overlooked, but full-frontal nudity is not."
Now this one is wrong on so many levels...nudity of ALL kinds is censored, so why not label this point as NUDITY, instead of NIPPLES? It's not as if nipples are blacked out and pubic hair or genitalia is left in. And what's this nonsense about 'bottoms' being overlooked? If, as I assume, you meant 'buttocks', let me reassure you: bare buttocks are also redacted. Male nipples, however are allowed.
And this isn't just in the print media. All TV broadcasts, including films and TV serials, documentaries, and ads, are censored in similar fashion. Kissing, cleavage, bikinis and short skirts were all banned at one time (till Zia was alive, and much afterwards), but have gradually been allowed off and on in the last decade or so (though not on state-run channel PTV).
You might have also mentioned that kissing/petting and other public displays of affection are also punishable under law, and young couples are regularly harassed by the police (and at times, by the public). Also, not sure if they are actually outlawed, but skirts, bikinis, and other revealing dresses for women are also looked down upon, generally, in public. In private of course, we have regular fashion shows, with even lingerie now being modeled on the ramps/runways, as Pakistan has a thriving fashion industry.
Men can walk around topless in public, though. And children can go nude, no worries.
Another glaring omission in this 'article' was the ban on sheesha (a fancy and flavored form of hukka/hooka, that the young and 'hip' crowd had taken a fancy to in the past few years) which was up until recently allowed in restaurants.
A bit more research would have made this a much better article.
It's easy to poke fun at Islamic idiots in Moronastan but while we are laughing at them we forget that there is an element of equally stupid and dangerous religious freaks here in America. These are extremely dangerous people with the intent of taking over the country and turning it into their version of a theocratic state just like Pakistan. They already dominate my old Republican party. Just listen to the insane crap that GOP presidential candidates spewed just to pander to the religious right. While we're smugly laughing at other countries and cultures we are blind to our own stupidity.
They should ban breathing.
1. The First World War 17 million dead (caused by non-Muslims)
2. The Second World War 50-55 million dead (caused by non-Muslims)
3. Nagasaki atomic bombs 200,000 dead (caused by non-Muslims)
4. The war in Vietnam over 5 million dead (caused by non-Muslims)
5. The war in Bosnia / Kosovo over 500,000 dead (caused non-Muslims)
6. War in Iraq (so far) 1,200,000 deaths (caused non-Muslims)
7. Afghanistan, Burma etc. (caused by Non-Muslims)
You still think that Islam is the problem?!
And when it is said to them, "Do not cause corruption on the earth," they say, "We are but reformers." Quran
Prophet Mohammad said "Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to mankind"
“Whoever kills a person . . . it is as though he has killed all mankind.” Quran 5: 32
Dear World what Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world bans is entirely their own right , so please just stay focused on your own. Stay blessed
So leave us alone. Most Americans do not want to be over there.
So, why again are we there and giving Billions to support the Pakistan government?
Maybe we could balance OUR budget if we just stopped wasting money and lives there. If terrorists are training there, just send a drone and kill everything within 5 miles. That might reduce popular support for the bad guys.
I just heard that California passed over 800 laws to further erode the freedoms in that state. Also, Al Gore just sold his TV station to Al Jazeera, so now they can spew their anti-American rhetoric directly into the living rooms our living rooms. Meanwhile, the recently reelected president of the U.S., whose early childhood was influenced by the Muslim faith while living in Indonesia, makes concessions & excuses for their bad behavior.
Do the math & connect the dots for yourself & realize that big government & religious zealots are of the same ilk by imposing their will on everybody else. Both of these religions (civil religion & Muslims) are the antithesis of the already limited freedoms that we still manage to hold onto here in the United States.
The author of this article "Waj S. Khan" got the Raymond Davis story absolutely wrong, this shows his pro-America agenda. America such a filthy country, that the crimes of the C.I.A. and F.B.I. even against it's own people are ignored, though they are on record, including experimenting on and even poisoning and killing civilians and even employees of the F.B.I. and C.I.A. The author of this article is wrong about the Raymond Davis case being about the killing of "two petty criminals," for the fact that they were actually ISI agents whom were working with Raymond Davis according to the family members of the two ISI agents he killed. Also this article ignores the fact that Raymond Davis and his entourage in his vehicle shot fires randomly at people while they left the crime scene, and their vehicle uncovered material that showed they were running illegal secret torture prisons in Pakistan, and ALSO the camera of Raymond Davis was shown to contain pictures of potential American bombing sites, such as bridges and Pakistani government and military installations near the border with India. If "Waj S. Khan" is a Pakistani, he is a traitor for not doing his fact-finding before making a judgment on the Raymond Davis case and offering his biased subjective views as professional journalism. Thomas Jefferson said that it is better for people to know nothing, than to be misled by reading the lies in newspapers.
Boy, those people are nutz. We never try to ban stuff here in America.
They are animals (those who support all of these laws). Just let them kill/eat each other.
After all that has gone on and everything THE WORLD has done for them, there is no moral imperitive do so ANYTHING for these aholes any more.
Pakistan is one of a few countries that is sincerely trying to legislate itself back to the dark ages.
Even so, the upper echelon get to do whatever they want because the rules don't apply to them. They are hypocrites just like every other country, including us.
They have not banned having children. Also the air they breath! Tourists? Western Aid?