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NEWS
| December 4, 2003
Surviving through Knowledge
When Shiraz’s father died,
he and his brother were expected to make ends meet
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| The Shorthorn: Awais Ikram |
| Accounting junior Shiraz Khan and his
brother prepare to provide for their mother and sisters
since their father’s death. Shiraz says he enjoys
the ability to befriend anyone he likes here, regardless
of differences. |
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By Chris
Piper
Contributor to The Shorthorn
Shiraz Khan stood silent at a mosque in
Chicago, staring at the body of his father wrapped in a kafun of
white cloth, the traditional Muslim death shroud.
While most 15-year-olds preoccupy themselves with learning to drive,
he grieved and, somewhere in the back of his mind, weighed the daunting
responsibilities that lay ahead.
In the absence of the only breadwinner the family has known, Shiraz,
now 18, and his older brother must support their mother, Shama,
and two younger sisters, Mahreen and Maha. They have no real income
other than savings, and those will eventually run out.
Shiraz had never heard of UTA until after his father’s death.
A friend of the family suggested the university as an inexpensive
alternative to more prominent schools in the Midwest and Northeast.
The questions and looming responsibilities that weighed on Shiraz
led him here, he said, to an institution that is a great many things
to its nearly 25,000 students. To him, the university is a chance
to get a degree — quick and cheap.
It was cancer that killed Abdul Aziz Khan — a tumor on the
stomach. The patriarch kept the disease a secret for months.
“Since he was a doctor, I think he tried to cure himself by
taking his own medicine,” Shiraz said.
Aziz practiced homeopathics, an attempt to stimulate the body to
heal itself primarily through plant-derived remedies.
By the time Aziz visited a hospital, the
tumor had grown in and around the veins and arteries of his stomach.
He died in the spring of 2000 — not a year after bringing
his family to the United States.
The business owner, whom Shiraz described as semi-wealthy, was importing
rice into North America from the Middle East. Aziz had moved his
family from Pakistan for a better life.
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| The Shorthorn: Awais Ikram |
| Shiraz Khan explains his point of view
to his roommate Hammad Chaudry, a computer science engineering
junior, during one of the discussions the two have during
any given day. “These sessions turn into heated
arguments, but we have never lost the respect for each
other,” Khan said. |
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After his father’s death, Shiraz said
his dream to become a doctor was “no longer realistic.”
It was too expensive and too time consuming.
“Everything came to a halt,” he said. “(Father)
was the only hand earning money at the time. ... It took me a long
time to decide what to do after my father’s death.”
Shiraz decided on accounting and on UTA and enrolled in spring 2001.
The same family friend who recommended the university also suggested
a means to get here. Shiraz took the ACT and earned a scholarship
based on his scores — a key to his enrollment at the university,
he said.
He came to the states well prepared for college, or at least the
academic side of things. His parents had enrolled him in O-levels
back in Pakistan, the country’s equivalent to private high
school and a legacy of British rule. Most families can’t afford
this kind of education, however, and young Pakistanis typically
enroll in cheaper public schools if they enroll at all.
Only half the country’s population can read, although literacy
rates vary among regions, according to a United Nations study.
Shiraz and his brother both attend stateside colleges. Shoaib Khan
trades stocks to earn additional money. Neither can work off-campus
because of their international status, although the rest of the
family members are now U.S. citizens.
Shiraz works in The Market, located on the
first floor of the University Center. It’s a pit stop for
students hunting for a quick snack or emergency school supplies.
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| The Shorthorn: Awais Ikram |
| Khan reads verses from the Quran at
the local mosque. “I am supposed to pray five times
a day, but I usually end up missing the one at sunrise
or the one at night,” Khan said after he finished
his second prayer of the day. |
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The Sunni Muslim roomed with a Shiite for
the better part of a year while the two attended UTA, something
that wouldn’t have happened in his native country.
In Pakistan’s mostly Muslim population of about 140 million,
approximately 21 million are Shiite. Most of the rest are Sunni.
There has been a long-running feud between the two sects.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Shiraz said, but
he understands how big it would be back home. “If I told someone
in Pakistan that I was friends with a Shiite ... they’d ask
me if I was crazy. Here, it hasn’t been an issue. We don’t
really even talk about it.”
Here, Shiraz likes the fact that he can make friends with whomever
he chooses. He strikes up conversations with the regulars who frequent
The Market. The accounting junior is unimposing but not shy and
noticeably well-mannered. Above all, he’s glad to be here.
“Back home, if you tell someone you studied in the states,
they give you a certain level of respect,” he said proudly
and with a barely detectable tinge of his native tongue, Urdu.
That respect is mostly directed at the quality of education, but
not necessarily at the Americans who provide it. Despite the relative
calm of a university setting, Shiraz is aware of the growing rift
between the Muslim world and the United States.
U.S. support of Israel and recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq
fuel resentment toward the United States. In some cases, that resentment
is also directed toward a U.S.-friendly Pakistani government, Shiraz
said.
He by no means agrees with all U.S. foreign policy, although he
steers away from talking about his problems with the Federal government,
but he adamantly disagrees with the tactics some Islamic radicals
use to impose their ideology.
“If Osama bin Laden is the savior of Islam, why doesn’t
he use his wealth to help Islamic countries get out of debt instead
of using it to blow people up?” he said.
“The word jihad is more defensive than offensive. Jihad literally
means ‘struggle.’ If I’m abstaining from consuming
alcohol, that would be a jihad for me, but it only serves to strengthen
my faith.”
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| The Shorthorn: Awais Ikram |
| Khan laughs at his friend Harris Siddiqui,
a linguistics and electrical engineering junior as he
shows off his break dancing moves at Khan’s apartment. |
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Shiraz hasn’t been immune to discrimination
based on his race, although he said he understands why some might
target him.
On a flight from Chicago, he was singled out for a thorough security
search because, he said, he was the only “brown” person
in line.
“In airports, it’s a bit of a humiliation. People stare,”
he said. “But I suppose I might feel the same way if I was
an American.”
He suffers some, he said, in a fast food environment where college
students save time by eating super-sized combo meals. Islamic law
prohibits the consumption of meat not prepared under strict guidelines.
He is a devoted Muslim but vehemently disagrees with the way some
religious leaders teach Islamic youth.
“When clerics talk about Islam, they often ignore the importance
of learning,” he said. “Some religious leaders have
created basically two entities: Muslims and the rest of the world.
Because of that, a lot of Pakistanis don’t want to depend
on the U.S. for help. I think that the only way to accomplish that
is to educate the population.”
The only way Pakistanis will ever be independent from the United
States and its monetary support, Shiraz added, is if the country’s
economy is strong enough to support itself without foreign aid.
But for right now, this young man is more intent on becoming the
man of his house than on changing the world.
He goes to Chicago when he can, mostly during the summers, and looks
forward to “the privilege” of providing for his family.
Someday, in the distant future, he wants to return to Pakistan.
“I’d like to go back someday,” he said. “Pakistan
has the potential of becoming a great state, and I wouldn’t
mind being a part of that.”
CORRECTION
This story should have said accounting junior
Shiraz Khan’s father, Aziz, was unaware of his cancer until
he went to a hospital. Also, Khan was also referring to animosity
between Indians and Pakistanis in Pakistan, not between Sunnis and
Shiites.
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