In a thought-provoking review of “Zero Dark Thirty” on The Feminist Wire, blogger and academic Sophia Azeb describes attending the Oscar-nominated film with students from her class on Islam and the West. As she listened to her students analyze the film, Azeb says that one question remained large in her mind:
Why is everyone in Pakistan speaking standard Arabic?
……
I understand, in a way. Pakistan is full of brown people and Muslims. Or, brown people are all Muslims. Terrorists are all Muslims. Muslims are Arabs and brown. Terrorists, and therefore Muslims (and therefore brown people), speak Arabic. I’m not entirely sure how to chart this, but Brown People, Muslims, Terrorists, and Pakistan exist in an ever-shifting constellation. At least, they do in Zero Dark Thirty.
In general, the existence of Urdu isn’t something that seems to be on the radar of the creators of American pop culture. Comedian Kumail Nanjiani has a famous bit on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in which he describes the moment when he discovered all of the signs on the Karachi multiplayer map were in Arabic. (The clip is also worth watching for the description of what it’s like playing a game about the destruction of your hometown.)
One would think that with all of Hollywood’s resources, studios would invest in some good researchers to at least ensure films are linguistically accurate, but alas this tweet from artist Mehreen Kasana earlier this month said it best:
There were only one or two places where I saw this linguistic snafu, and I want to ask everyone who has mentioned this whether they are sure it’s Arabic that’s being spoken at the scenes in question (the scene on the street with the motorcyclists, and during the raid), and not, say, Pashto or Hindko. I am not saying I disagree with Mehreen or with Sophia Azeb, but Azeb at least is acknowledging that she wasn’t 100% sure what language it was.
I am, however, fluent in Arabic. I may not be able to distinguish Urdu from Hindko or Pashto, but the Arabic speaking scenes are crystal clear to any Arabic speaker. -SA
Yes, there was Arabic being spoken, when there were Arabs being shown in the movie. (With the exception of the dudes blocking the van in the Rawalpindi scene). Otherwise, it was Urdu and Pashto and it’s embarrassing that people can’t distinguish between Pashto and Arabic, honestly.
Seriously. I went to school in Texas in the 80’s. I lived in Kuwait at the time. When people asked us where we were from, to mess with them, we said “from Kuwait, Texas.” The most common follow up was “is that near Tyler?” These are average Americans, it’s a stretch for them to figure out where Mexico is and what language they speak in Hawaii. Enough said.