Alina Yu

Period G3

5 October 2017

Culture Debate

Word Count: 778

Let’s Talk Culturversy

Students compare arguments at school to conversations at home

Walking through the halls, junior Danial Tajwer engages in conversation with ease.

Involved in Model UN, Junior State of America and the Muslim Student Association, Tajwer

partakes in all kinds of discussions, and even debates, with students from different backgrounds.

As a student with a Pakistani ethnicity, Tajwer is among the among both the 22 percent of

minorities and 11 percent Asian minority in this school, according to U.S. News and World

Report; thus, he said he finds culture playing itself into the many debate-like conversations he

has with classmates.

Tajwer said, “Debate is critical and is respective and tolerant of other people’s views so

that you can really understand other people and other cultures at large because without that you

run the risk of isolation within your own cultural framework.”

Living in two separate worlds, the West and the East, Tajwer said he sees the differences

in the types of debate that exist. However, Tajwer said he finds debate to be limited in both

cultures, for there are certain taboos in society that cannot be up for debate in a particular culture.

“In America, we kind of try to avoid controversy when it comes to some (topics) and that

can kind of stifle intellectual debate. That’s also kind of what you see in Pakistan, in a lot of
individual Pakistani cultures, because there are a lot of traditional social norms that have been

established for millennia (such as) the position of women in the household,” Tajwer said.

According to an article in The Guardian, a Pakistani man was sentenced to death in June

for having an online debate with another user on Facebook, allegedly insulting Islam. This has

not been the only case. In April, Pakistani journalism student Mashal Khan was shot dead just

days after having an argument at his university over Islam. Although no such blasphemy laws

exist in the United States, especially regarding arguing over any particular religion, American

students like Tajwer with Pakistani Islamic backgrounds, or backgrounds from any foreign

country and religion, must face conversation in a Western society while respecting their ethnic

culture.

“Over here (in America), it’s trying not to offend people, but in Pakistan it’s trying not to

offend religious authorities,” Tajwer said. “It’s sort of interesting; in the case of religious orders,

what people forget is that Islamic conceptions of law are self-emerged out of a term called

‘ijtihad,’ which is the whole idea that traditionally scholars used to butt heads trying to come to a

consensus on Islamic (beliefs). These opinions crystalized over time, or over consensus, and

people started to assume that’s how things were.”

In the debate class offered here, students learn to construct an argument and to stand in

front of the public, according to Marie Satchivi, English and debate teacher. Satchivi said

students debate over topics which are controversial, but not necessarily ones that will divide the

class. As a minority herself, Satchivi said she is aware of cultural issues and tries to pick topics

that are broad enough in terms of culture.

 “We know that our nation is already divided, so personally I am trying to stay away from

topics that will divide us even more. We offer the students the possibility to choose their own

topic that is controversial but meaningful to them,” Satchivi said.

Catherine Yuan, member of the debate team and senior, said the debates in school are

different from the conversations at home and on the team. While on the team, debate is more

structured, Yuan said in the school environment, arguments and discussions with peers are filled

with learning opportunities.

“Part of (debate) your knowledge about the topic. If you’re debating on the debate team,

you have to research; you have to know a certain amount of stuff and background knowledge,”

Yuan said. “I feel like when I am debating with my peers, I learn a lot more than I actually

debate; we could be talking about a topic I don’t know much about and that happens a lot of

times when you’re just arguing with another person,.”

Furthermore, Yuan said by keeping an open mind and welcoming new ideas, students can

take advantage of an opportunity to learn about other cultures and have deep conversation.

Tajwer said, “I come with a really open mind and nothing really surprises me anymore.

Other cultures seem less foreign, weird or alien. When you remember your own eccentricities,

the other person seems more like you. You are able to not try to harangue the other person into

believing what you believe but instead try to understand where they are coming from and their

viewpoint.” By Alina Yu

Danial Tajwer, Junior

“I am an avid debater with my own father. My father and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,

a lot of issues and political stances, because a lot of the time I have a more Western, liberal

approach and he has a more conservative, Pakistani approach. So we get into these fun heated

debates with each other on everything from American foreign policy to religious precepts of

Islam.”

“Whatever decent you may have it’s sort of individually fostered but trying to bring that up and

trying to quarrel with everybody a lot is considered as a threat. In the West we think of that as a

vigorous intellectual exercise, however in the East, too much debate could be sort of seen as a

subversive element that threatens to destroy societal cohesion.”

“I am not bound by any single culture; I am a very cosmopolitan type. I consume material in

multiple languages. My opinions seem more to be a coalition of common human values and

transcend different cultures.”