IT is interesting to scroll down your Facebook newsfeed and scan through the multiplicity of views people hold. On the one hand, you will see liberal extremists who party in New York, shop in Dubai, holiday in Europe but import their underpaid domestic staff from villages of Pakistan; who are quick to latch onto any passing ‘liberal’ bandwagon.

On the other hand, you have fundamentalists who believe that Pakistan’s in the grip of a conspiracy of gigantic proportions, where life and honour of every woman and child is at stake. About the vast in-betweens, they just post pictures of regular everyday stuff oblivious to all that’s happening around them.

The interesting thing is that all three categories would love to emigrate to the West even while some of them shout slogans of ‘Go America, Go!’ or burn tyres to protest against the Malala shooting.

As an educated and independent girl living and working alone in the Middle East, I like to believe I am fairly broad-minded and an obvious staunch supporter of women’s rights to education and all that comes with it.

Why then am I made to feel uncomfortable when I do not regard the US as the flag-bearer of freedom and democracy, where my definition of ethics stems from my religion and where I believe public sentiment should be the basis of policy-making.

Unfortunately, it’s not considered very chic to question American policies at least in so-called educated circles. If you do, you are quickly labelled as a gun-wielding, women-hating Taliban!

Perhaps for this reason the talented Chinoys of Pakistan make documentaries on acid attack victims. Had Sharmeen made a documentary on the victims of drone attacks whose bodies get completely charred, would the West have given her the recognition she rightly deserved?

What I fail to understand is where people get their ideas of American liberalism and freedom from. Six multinational conglomerates control 90 per cent of media outlets in the US, presidential debates are controlled by a private corporation, and political campaigning is just one big spending extravaganza. When a man sets himself ablaze on the streets of Tunisia, President Obama calls on the Arab world to overthrow the mantle of tyrannical rule but simultaneously sends his Joint Chiefs of Staff to reassure the rulers of Bahrain.

Making a cartoon of the Holy Prophet is regarded as an expression of freedom while wearing the head scarf is not an expression of your individuality. Calling drone victims collateral damage is acceptable but suggesting that those who died on Sept 11 might be regarded as collateral damage in a war undertaken to end the centuries of Muslim pain and suffering is not. A globalised world order oiled by petro-dollars thrives on repression and criminalisation of free thought and free speech. Fundamental human rights are safeguarded to the extent that they are fundamental to furthering the new world order.

AYESHA ARIF BAWANY Dubai, UAE