Why Kate and Wills made me so proud
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s tour of Pakistan this week was important in so many ways – following in Diana’s footsteps, highlighting climate change and Kate getting to actually talk in a TV interview.
But the big thing for me about their trip – the first royal visit to the country in 13 years – is that it has given people in this country pride to be from Pakistan.
For most of my life, until I was in my late 20s, I was deeply ashamed of my Pakistani heritage.
It came from the fact that in the 70s and 80s, “P*ki” was hurled at anyone who looked slightly Asian. So I told people I was from India.
In reality my parents emigrated in 1965 from Kashmir, in northern Pakistan, to the Midlands.
My school lessons there reinforced that Pakistan was a Third World country, where people lived in mud huts, were starving and uneducated.
But after school, as soon as I walked through the front door, I became a Pakistani.
I changed into my traditional dress called salwar kameez – the baggy trousers and a tunic Kate has been wearing this week, while meeting orphans and visiting cancer hospitals.
At home, I ate curry, listened to Pakistani music and spoke Urdu. I was different and different meant an easy target. Not helped by Norman Tebbit with his cricket comments – support Pakistan and you’re not truly British.
It was wearing the cultural dress in public that was most traumatic – so I didn’t do it. But Mum did. She’d pick me up from school in her bright, jewelled, silk floaty fabrics. I was mortified.
I made sure I was the last one out so I couldn’t hear the yobs calling “why have you got your pyjamas on?” or the always original “can anyone smell curry?”
I wanted my mum to be like my mates’ mums, who wore grey and beige. I wanted to blend in.
For me, the shame turned to pride when in 2007 I did a BBC documentary, where I travelled thousands of miles to the village my parents came from at the foot of the Himalayas. Like William and Kate, I visited the iconic Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, where women were welcomed – something that didn’t happen in the UK.
I never expected the breathtaking scenery, the diversity of people, the kindness, the fashion and art, the resourcefulness of the young people.
Pakistan has been overshadowed by terrorism. But Wi l liam and Kate brought the real Pakistan into our homes. You can see they ’ ve fallen in love with the place and its people, just like Diana did. And for once, we are talking about what Kate is wearing and it means something.
Even William has been styling out the traditional hats.
It’s fashion diplomacy at its best.
And the school run in a salwar kameez today seems like a very good idea.