Born in Columbia, then having moved to Pakistan and finally to Canada, Sidra is a citizen of the globe. She firmly believes in going green, which is a hot issue in Ontario with the Liberal government about to introduce a “carbon tax.”
As a teenager she came to Canada and adapted to the culture, however, she quite cynically says that “it is the same standard of living, the same culture” in Toronto as in Islamabad where she was raised. She believes “assimilation is a Pakistani parent’s nightmare, when people change a child to fit into the prevalent atmosphere, but adaptation is being comfortable with your identity.”
Having an identity is important, Sidra feels. “In the States, it’s a melting pot. My values are totally different from some other Pakistanis. To be a Canadian, you can’t only be Canadian, you have some other heritage.”
She was quite candid on the story of Aqsa whose high school she has gone to: “which immigrant kid doesn’t go to school and change the way they dress, so I’m not surprised by what she did. It was shocking because there was a lot of violence in that story. That school is an amazingly supportive school for immigrants and has amazing diversity.”
The peer pressure, she feels, is not bad. “The friends I hang out with, I don’t dress like them. It’s easier to be accepted if you’re acting in a certain way, so there’s no peer pressure. It’s adults who impose terms so that they can’t be held irresponsible.”
Sidra is a third-year student of the University of Toronto and lives in an apartment. About living all by herself as a college student, she says laughingly: “hey, people will be horrified [not only in Pakistan] that a girl is living all by herself. It’s not something everyone supports obviously.”
Another thing noticeable among South Asian youth raised in the West is that they like to make their own choices. Sidra is no different and is supported by her parents on this. Her provincial level millennium scholarship pays for her college tuition and her job helps her make enough to sustain herself. She knows 90 per cent of the students who are taking loans and are in debt for their studies.
Many South Asian youth wish to come out of the box of associating with South Asians only. Sidra is one of them. She feels that “you make friends on the basis of common interests rather than just being Pakistanis.”
She is taking environment as a minor in college. She rides a bike to visit her parents in Mississauga. She says “it’s healthy, and there is no need to have a car in the city, parking is hard and everything is so close by.” She was not affected by the TTC strike “just because she bikes.” She has environmental concerns.
Sidra believes that the environment is directly linked to politics because it has to do with agricultural practices, food supply, how people live geographically and how resources are spent. She volunteers quite a bit, like on “Food not Bombs,” with a cancer society and has been awarded by the Mississauga mayor for her services.
Interested in politics, she would “deport Stephen Harper because an additional $30 billion is not for the purpose of peace keeping, and his lack of commenting on environment and social justice issues.”
Voting for Green Party federally and NDP locally, she has often walked into MP Olivia Chow’s office, expressing her concerns. She just walks into her office, and conversations are like:
“Hey Olivia”
“Hey Sidra”
“I don’t like them doing this in my campus. I want you to do something about it.”
She writes letters to Green Party to join hands with the NDP so that the Liberals and Conservatives could be countered. She would like to see Jack Layton as Prime Minister. She is highly critical of Prime Minister Harper’s neo conservative policies.
“I’ve a little more faith in provincial level politics,” she says. She has organized protests and firmly believes in the right of women to make a choice about abortion. She wants to do away with religious schools because the public education system is great. Post graduate education should be more accessible and cheap for kids. She is critical of MP Ruby Dhalla who she believes brings glamour to politics, which is probably not genuine.
She describes religion as “politics of faith and a very, very personal matter.” Canadian society is “reasonably secular. The legal system has elements of a particular faith. And this legal system disenfranchises poor people.”
Not remembering much about Islamabad, she feels that city would be much better off if there wasn’t so much “militarization.” A lot of people ask her questions about Pakistani politics. However the desi friends she has are not much interested in talking about Pakistani politics “because that’s what they hear about at home, so they’re like let’s not talk about it.” She feels that Venezuela is “an example of democracy.”
“I wanted to punch Musharraf on the face” because he didn’t allow Mukhtaran Mai to leave the country when BBC invited her. She feels that cases like Mukhtaran Mai’s make “Pakistan look good because it tells people that Pakistan is empowering women.” Personally she refuses to be just another woman who is not as respected as male politicians are.
A debate has been initiated by a group of South Asian youth here, which is not on sex before marriage but on how to be safe if in a relationship. Sidra belongs to this school of thought and is fully supported by her parents on this issue. “It’s a complicated issue. Parents are just too concerned about relationships. I think the focus should not be that immigrant girls shouldn’t do this or that, but the focus should be…hey…if you’re in a relationship make sure you are not abused, it’s healthy and safe and you are emotionally committed.” Her father sitting next to her agrees. He adds, “if you’re not in a relationship at 20, people ask why are you not in a relationship when you’re 28 years of age. You can’t force or avoid relationships, so you have to take it as it comes.” And he feels that “having a daughter or son doesn’t change a thing.”
She doesn’t feel that a lot of relationships are intended to end in marriage; there are young people out there who don’t intend to marry until very late in life but remain in a relationship for 15 or 20 years, which Sidra thinks is better than a “marriage of convenience.”
She wants to be a researcher all her life in the field of developmental politics. She doesn’t see herself married even at 30 and believes that “30 is the new seventeen and I never want to have kids because there is a population crisis and we don’t have enough to feed the population that is already there.”
