An Enemy of the People in Oslo

I am a doctor, and director of board for the organization LIM (Gender equality, Integration and diversity).

I belong to the doctors, the daughters, the Norwegian-Pakistani women, the west-enders, the walkers, the directors of the board, the first generation immigrants, the mothers, the sisters, the reserve-sisters, the ones that travel a lot, the lovers of poetry and poems, the language lovers, the dialect lovers, the Bollywood lovers and the singers but I do not belong to the haters, the ones that want to hurt others, the ones that work with arms, the ones that wish to arm our police with guns, the EU supporters, the owners of holiday houses or the religious fanatics.

I live here because my father moved here. He left Pakistan to find a better life. He travelled from country to country in search of a better life, and finally he ended up here. If he’d ended up in Denmark I would have been Danish. I came here the winter of 72-73, on a family reunification. My father had then been here since about late ’70. So I have lived here since I was four years old, except from the year I had as an exchange student in the US when I was sixteen. I like Oslo so much that I refuse to move, even to Bærum. If I had to move it would have to be far, to another city or country. I have lived most my life in Oslo, Lilleaker or Ullern area. This is where I grew up! But even if I grew up in Lilleaker, we spent a lot of time in Gamlebyen and Grønland, as there were a large Pakistani community there. Yes, I am sure that I will live here in ten or twenty years.

I have read Ibsen but I hadn't read An Enemy of the People. I also thought it was very interesting to read some of the comments in the back of the book, Ibsen actually moved to Italy because he was so fed up with the society he lived in. There are so few today that dare to mean anything. Everyone wants to cover over things, and neutralize it. I am not totally unafraid myself, but I think when it comes to addressing questions that touches upon the problems in our society more of us could speak up. Health is the issue raised in An Enemy of the People. Today we should not only discuss health, but also which moral and ethical norms and standards we should have in the future. Many of us are afraid of raising our voices in order to challenge authorities. But I have learned, as Petra learned from her father, that you should not be afraid of challenging authorities. When I read “the strongest man in the world is the one standing the most alone” I thought of my father straight away. Because he is a man who was absolutely the strongest in his group. He was very future-minded. I think a lot of strong people think in longer perspectives than others. I would in many ways give Stockmann right, the ones that are standing alone are strong, as they would have to be strong in choosing to stand alone.

My big transition and turningpoint is from being a Pakistani girl to being a Norwegian-Pakistani girl. 

I would walk or go by bus to the theatre.