Perception

I wonder at the inability of certain people to accept me as a part of them.

I am reminded, almost every day, how irrationally it is that we’re sometimes judged.

My friend once shared with me a similar experience, when she went to attend a seminar on Human Resource Development at LUMS a few years ago. In her words, more or less, While they waited for the lecture to begin she noticed an oddly out of place , shalwar above the ankles, very plain looking, bearded man, walking about the stage and wondered what he was doing among the intellectually high end crowd. She refocused her attention thinking he was most probably there to fix up the mikes etc, only to be utterly amazed when that same person was announced as the key speaker. The auditorium remained dead silent throughout his talk, his words gripping, his ideas scholarly and his theme completely worldly. Later, my friend confessed that she would never have thought him capable of such wondrous wisdom had he not spoken. “It’s just that,” she said, “when you see a veiled woman or a bearded man, you can’t help but think that they’d have a brain the size of a pea.”

It all comes down to perception really. We all do it. We form preconceived ideas of people we’ve hardly met. A hippy looking guy with a pony tail, I assure you, would always pass off as an ‘artist’ and a chap who talks feminine, we think, must belong to the fashion industry.

So, I hardly blame those who, in my presence, feel intellectually superior. As I sit there, clad in my hijab, I don’t frown, but I smile at their dim ignorance… ironic! Isn’t it?