Newsweek.WashingtonPost.com
Lahore, Pakistan – “I’m a drag queen, darling?not an extremist?and I still say if Pakistanis had more self-respect, we’d be even more anti-American,” says Ali Saleem, who glosses his lips and dons a sari each week to interview celebrities and politicians on his TV program Begum Nawazish Ali, a talk show sensation in Pakistan. “I’m not speaking religion; it’s common sense.”
From politics to culture, Ali says American intervention in Pakistan has ?brought nothing but sadness? by supporting dictators and rendering Pakistan?s people impotent, constantly looking to the outside world, particularly the U.S., for help solving its own problems.
He sees his TV show as an attempt to rekindle a sense of pride and responsibility in his viewers. He uses our interview to call for a boycott of all American goods and cultural products. Pakistanis must ?Turn within for inspiration.?