Remember when Bangladesh wrote ‘do not urinate here’ in Arabic just to deter public urination and people mistook it as something holy? Well, a similar and really sad incident happened in Lahore yesterday.
For most of the mainly-Muslim countries, Arabic is considered sacred because it is the language written in the Holy Quran.
The incident
In a recent incident that occurred in Lahore’s Ichra area, a woman wore an Arabic calligraphy embroidery dress. This was enough to outrage people present there and she was soon assaulted by a violent mob.
However, the staff member shut down the restaurant’s shutters in an attempt to save the woman and give time for the police to come and rescue her.
The incident was captured on multiple videos, rapidly circulating online and making many users question what actually was written on her dress that ignited such outrage and controversy.
Dress and calligraphy
This may come as a surprise for many users and viewers but the digital dress the woman was wearing had a simple Arabic calligraphy on it, and her name ‘which literally translates words ‘halwa’ in Urdu.
Apart from that word, the other fonts indicated that these were nothing but simple fonts written in Arabic just like our Pakistani ‘ا’ and ‘ب’.
Pakistanis and blasphemy
When it comes to calligraphy or Arabic on a dress, or wall or included in fashion, Pakistanis often link it to blasphemy, stirring huge mob attacks or outrage among people.
