Sitting in a restaurant in Kabul, I was introduced to an American journalist. As usual, the first thing I asked him was whether it was his first time in this part of the world. Unsurprisingly, his answer was very derogatory. "No, I have been to a couple Badistans before," he answered, referring to the countries whose names ending with -istan. Unfortunately the western media has given such a bad image of Afghanistan and other Badistans that it is difficult for most of the westerners to imagine that there is a good Afghan or Badistani in this world. If Westerners always consider us evil how can they expect us to respect them? There is an old saying among Afghans: "You pay respect, you get respect."
If today, Afghans or Pakistanis or any other Badistanis are fundamentalists, extremists, and terrorists it is because the West wanted them to be that way so that they can be easily used against the communist forces during the occupation of Afghanistan by Soviets. I can't find the right words to explain my feelings when I read comments of the readership of some of the American newspapers. You call us cockroaches, crooks, savage, uncivilized, and so on. But have you ever asked yourself what caused the Badistanis to be bad and savage, or why we are uncivilized?
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