"They're primitive and you can't teach a wild people to live like we do." (creation, experience)

[Djamila]

THE WILD PEOPLE

I find these sorts of stories to be embarrassing, frustrating, and, at the same time, very interesting.

To offer some background, there is an entire culture in this country that exists high in the mountains, in isolated villages. These people have been isolated from the general population for a millenia and the differences between the average Muslim on the streets, and the average Muslim from these mountains, is strong.

It's difficult for most to even understand the ancient dialect of our language they speak and when they move down into the valleys, to modern settlements, it can be very difficult. Here are a few quotes from one woman's story from Muslim Voice.

Safika Hasan in 2004 (left) and 2006 (right)

"I have so many memories that a woman my age doesn't normally have. I remember the first time I saw a busy, rush hour street. I remember all sorts of things! The first time I saw a lightbulb, the first time... I flushed a toilet."

"When I started school in the city, the other girls were vicious to me. I went to an adult education program because I'd never been to school, but it was on a university campus so there were a lot of smart girls there. They used to yell at me and say things like, "Oh look at what just crawled out of the woods!" and other hurtful things. I never... that was the first time I experienced something like that in my life. People weren't mean to each other where I came from. We were good to others."

"People imagine we were cave people living in caves or something but we had houses, with walls and and a roof... *laughter* It is a beautiful way of life. Whenever I go home I can't wait to take off these painful, pointy shoes and sit on the floor for coffee with my parents and my sisters and my brothers. Most don't know much there, but what we do know is how to be good company."

Typical "Highlander" village

"The hardest thing was trying to understand why people were so angry with me. I saw that polician on the news saying they shouldn't be wasting money paying for the education of people who didn't pay taxes their whole lives. He said "They're primitive and you can't teach a wild people to live like we do.". I couldn't understand why anyone would say something like that about us. We never hurt anybody, ever."

"It's very different... *laughter* When I was in school, a boy asked me to go on a date and I didn't understand what it meant. He explained it to me and I said I was afraid, we don't do that where I'm from and he laughed at me. And money, my honor, money. That took forever, it all looks the same to me, the papers. I sent some of the coins home for my parents and they cut holes in them and used them for the women's hat *laugher*"

"I felt lost, yes. I look back now and can't believe I survived that first year, really I can't. I don't understand how I managed not to kill myself with a fold-away chair, or a coffee maker, or an elevator. I really don't know. I hurt myself a few times! Once a girl in my apartment building came with a vacuum cleaner, and she told me it was making your hair shiny. I put it by my head and she turned it on, and she laughed at me while I was crying and trying to get it off."

"My favorite thing is the cigarettes. We make our own home, and they fall apart and you have to hold them special but the factory ones are tidy and indestructible. You can drop them and everything... *laughter*"

"Well there's a support group of other Highlanders who came down from home. They helped me a lot. They kind of take you on tours and explain what everything is and they don't try to hurt you so that's a nice difference... *laughter*. That's how I got a last name. We don't have them, but they told me I should just use my father's name so that's what I did. And they helped me with getting identification, you understand? All the proof that I was born and I exist... *laughter*"

"Oh people can still tell. They don't guess anymore that I'm a highlander but they sense my accent is strange and they always ask me if I'm Slovenian... *laugher* I don't mind it. When I say I'm a Highlander, they're always amazed! It's as though they don't expect you can walk and talk and think."

*****

It's frustrating to me that such people have to deal with so much cruelty and prejudice. Why do you think people are mean in those circumstances? She's Muslim too, there's no religious or racial reason to hate her, but people are just evil for no reason!

It's interesting because we all know how the Highlanders are but we rarely get to hear them talk about themselves. And it's especially unusual to hear a Highlander whose lived among the rest of us and can speak sort of from both sides.

Anyhow, here's the debate...

What should we do with this situation? Should they all be moved to the valleys, educated, and all of that? Should they be left alone? Should we try to protect the isolation of the places where they live, instead of building "highways to nowhere" to connect them to us, even though neither side really wants to be connected to the other?

[wizanda]

Having been beaten and bullied for most of my childhood, for looking just as scruff as your photos do, then it is the ways of Babylon!
cities are Babylon; country dwells are less stressed, by living in a big city people start expecting more and bully each other more, as they are bullied.
This is where those of God can step in, as it takes a person of more quality to look beyond outside appearance of someone.
so though i learned to become non scruffy during school, as to not be bullied so much...now i have learned that Babylon requiring me to be something, is not as important as being able to approach anyone.

[Victor]

I think we should beat city people with a stick for doing that. I'm country by heart, no doubt about it. I love the warmth and coziness of the village life. But peopl wanna have their ipods, computers, and starbucks coffee. Which is all fine and danddy but if you refuse to, they think you're a caveman. So why not prove them right and beat them with a stick? Or a tuna for that matter... .

Let people live in isolation if they so wish to. Let people live in the city if they so wish to. But eradicate the prejudice and nonsense.

[astarath]

Judging by the community that she is coming from where love and caring are dominant, I would say that we should be sending our people into the hills in order to see what the love of Allah truly is and what true compassion fro one another can feel like

[Victor]

Originally Posted by astarath

Judging by the community that she is coming from where love and caring are dominant, I would say that we should be sending our people into the hills in order to see what the love of Allah truly is and what true compassion fro one another can feel like

Or we can beat them with a stick? Option B?

[Djamila]

Originally Posted by Victor

Or we can beat them with a stick? Option B?

Now what happened to diplomacy?

Well, I think I agree with both of you. We should just leave well enough alone. I just wish there was enough of a connection that people would realize they're not savages, through association with them, and the prejudice would dry up.

[astarath]

too often society likes to sit back and gloat at all that we have accomplished and too rarely do we sit back and appreciate that God created us and so in turn created all we are capable of. Truly his greatest creation was love... for nothing else can compare...there is nothing quite like love

[Djamila]

A few more pictures of where these people come from, that demonstrate how kind they are. These are photos of a group of Highlander children, and a group of tourists sharing coffee with Highlander villagers:

A photo of another village:

And a bathroom!

[Victor]

Originally Posted by Djamila

Now what happened to diplomacy?

Well, I think I agree with both of you. We should just leave well enough alone. I just wish there was enough of a connection that people would realize they're not savages, through association with them, and the prejudice would dry up.

Diplomacy is option A..... .