Mudassar: 'These are the flowers of my career'

Since Mudassar does not shy away from taboo-breaking topics, loads of flabbergasting items have come by from a place from which you would not expect to find it: a man watching porn in the woods, transgender women dancing for men at a bachelor party or an untraditional stay-at-home dad who lets his wife work. Mudassar has also often shown the difficult lives people can have in Pakistan. For example, that of a man who is permanently separated from his family by the border in Kashmir, of women who are continuously stared at by men in public or the tough life of a sewer cleaner.

Behind all these interesting stories, there must be an interesting man. Enough reason to interview the journalist operating around Peshawar, close to the Afghan border. After his praying time, Mudassar has managed to find some internet, which has been down for the past two weeks, and he appears in the video call. The first question; ‘how are you?’ is already a difficult one. According to Mudassar, people in the region of Pakistan are never really doing well. “There are always problems, it is very different from the Dutch life.” Nevertheless, he still answers that he is doing alright.  

Mudassar’s daily life revolves completely around journalism. He is either searching for stories or busy making stories. Even when he is not working, this process continues. The stories always come to him; “when you are with friends, when you are playing games, or going for a picknick.” Everywhere he goes, he sees a story for Metropolis. The Pashtun region around Peshawar is full of stories that are interesting to an international audience, especially since foreigners are not allowed there. That is why he sees it as even more important to tell the stories that he finds: “It means that the people are voiceless, so being a voice for the voiceless is my job.”  

Knowing that Pakistan is not the easiest place to film, especially not for the controversial topics that Mudassar takes on, it makes you wonder how he even manages to do so. “People see me as a local person, not as a journalist,” he answers. After all, he has lived here since his childhood. The locals know that his work will never be against their benefits. However, a certain group has been particularly difficult to capture and interview on camera: women. “Ethics, culture and tradition do not allow me to talk to women, or to stay with them or to interview them. It is the biggest disrespect to her family. We live in a patriarchal society.”  

At the same time, his attitude on this topic had a turning point for Mudassar in 2000 when he started working with international journalists and female colleagues - who helped him a lot. Even though he mentions that it is difficult to change your mind in his society, these interactions made him realize: “Yes, women are human beings. They have equal rights like men. I should focus mostly on women! I believe that tribal men are the deprived people of the world, so then I realized that if the men are deprived in this area, what is the situation like for women? They are already deprived even in America and Europe! I believe that that was the turning point in my life.”  

Consequently, he started support women in his environment to study and work in the field. “Now, without a female voice, or without talking about women, I consider my story incomplete.” Nevertheless, he does not want to call himself broad-minded, or liberal: “No, it’s about humanity, it’s not liberalism. It’s humanity that we should look after women and the deprived people.” That is also why he is currently writing a book about the political system and the problems of women in his area. Centering women in reports also comes back in Mudassar’s reports for Metropolis. One example is the story he made on women who are attacked with acid or set on fire by their family members, which unfortunately is not uncommon in Pakistan.

Next to reports on the lives of women or girls in Pakistan, Mudassar has also made plenty of other stories as a longstanding Metropolis reporter. A story that he still remembers vividly and still touches him is the first story he made for Metropolis in 2012. For this item, in the episode “telephone”, Mudassar entered a taliban controlled area where there was no mobile signal. The taliban had banned videos and music videos and even bombed video/music shops. Still, Mudassar followed a group of young people who ignored these rules and were dancing to the music videos on their phones at night on weekends. “When I was recording that report late at night, the young people were enjoying – but outside of that area there was fear. Everyone was afraid. But at the same time, you cannot imagine how a short music clip is giving them so much enjoyment.”  

Another one of his stories one that still makes him proud, is the one he made about teacher Shariff. Shariff walks for five hours to a remote area, crossing through dangerous zones and mountains, to teach children there. In the report, you can see how much of an impact he has on his students. Mudassar continues talking very enthusiastically: “One teacher can do wonders, so what if we can find ten teachers?”. After hearing about Shariff’s case through Mudassar’s story, the government thought the same thing: “76 schools were then built in the area because of that story! The government has now implemented that strategy. It is because of Metropolis!” Someone even started donating money to Shariff to renovate the school and help the students. “Now they are playing games and reading books and there is a cricket tournament for all the schools.”  

Filming “illegal” activities in taliban controlled areas, crossing dangerous zones or capturing controversial topics do not seem to scare Mudassar. He is willing to go far for his stories: “The stories compel me to do it, I’m only a part of that. I have been threatened. My camera and laptop were all broken in front of me. We were beaten, we were kept for five hours. I’ve been in very difficult situations… Just five minutes before your call, I received very threatening calls. They pressurized me. Even the internet is completely under control. When you go against the culture, either you should stop reporting, or you will be threatened. They target journalists who work for international media. But it encourages me when a story is coming along, and the people see the situation of my area. That encourages me a lot. My life may be in danger, and I may have issues, but my work can make people happy at some stage. I always get responses to my stories.” 

To illustrate this, Mudassar mentions another one of his Metropolis success stories. He made an item on a man who cleans the sewage system. Important, but health-wise dangerous work, and looked-down upon culturally.  Dutch people saw the report and donated money to the sewage worker, which helped him a lot. Moreover, the story went viral on Pakistani media and now he gets a lot of respect from people. Mudassar does not want to take credit for this, however: “I made the report, and I get popularity because of him. He is doing a great job, and I only show it.”

Even though a lot of Pakistani journalists leave the country and seek asylum abroad, Mudassar is insistent on staying: “In the West, I cannot enjoy the colorful life that I have in Pakistan. The impact that I can bring in the lives of people, I cannot even do that for one percent in Europe or the West.”  

While Mudassar receives threats from the government, people in his direct environment are sometimes also shocked by some of the controversial reports he makes. Once, he made a story about someone watching porn in the forest, or on dancing transwomen. “Then people say: ‘oh, you are the worst guy for talking about this.’ But there are different reactions. You have two different people in society: negative and positive. If you go against their thoughts, you are a bad person. If you follow the rules, you are a good person.” Mudassar himself, however, does not see any reason for these reactions towards him: “As a journalist, I see myself as a cellphone. I just receive and talk. I only show things to the world that are existing or happening in my society.” 

That is why Mudassar is clearly excited about Metropolis, as it allows him to show different stories that you cannot show in mainstream media. “You can make an impact from individual to national level and to international level. Every story is very important. I believe that there are stories to make in my area, but you need a platform for these stories, that is how Metropolis has helped me. These are different flowers of my journalistic career.”