Read on Twitter
There's this Granta collection of Pakistani stories. There are two essays there about the change in Pakistani culture from the 70s. Apparently before that time women used to wear Jeans and crop tops, go to concerts and scream at boy bands
The writer said there was one prime minister candidate who was running for elections and needed the support of a party that was deeply religious ( he himself didn't care for religion), so he played to their tune, won election and started electing officials from that party
They first made certain dressing styles illegal with punishment and in a few years the way women and men dressed changed drastically in Pakistan. They also banned all of that pop and boy band music
So the country went from Secular to a Religious state in less than 10 years and today if you grew up in the 2000s watching the country from afar, you would never believe women used to wear crop tops and fangirl at band boys
This is the story I tell my religious friends whenever they cite verses as the reasons certain things must be illegalised. I say it's cool and you have the power to do it, it benefits your beliefs but what happens when you're not in power anymore and there's a chance for revenge?
When I initially posted this, I vaguely remembered the story I read in Granta. I've just found it and apparently there was a coup and not an election. Crazy still https://granta.com/when-we-returned-to-pakistan/
