I had my US Visa interview around 10 days ago and I have been bothered by it ever since. Agreed that the embassy is overburdened by the immense amount of applications and agreed we haven't done ourselves favours by blowing up our own country, but the US is not protraying a nice image abroad. Embassies are windows to their respective countries and what attracts people to America is the bill of rights. In America, you can be who you want, you can say what you want and you can dare to dream what you want without the fear of persecution.  The law gives you immense protection. You are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent like we are here in most parts of the world.

       So what was this prison like environment telling us about America? You come to Convention Center at 5:30 (ok USEFP helped us bypass this step and ok the embassy official were extra nice to us Fulbrighters), wait in a long line for a ticket to the shuttle bus service to take you in the Diplomatic Enclave(where no civilian can go directly), and then when your turn comes, if it ever comes, the shuttle takes you to the embassy. Here you wait again in lines to get in to the embassy. You then go through security, where they even make you take your belts off.So after like forever, you are asked to get your fingerprints done in a room where you stand in front of a glass window with a lady in a robot like manner asking you questions and a Pakistani outside helping you with the  fingerprint machine.

        Then you are asked to wait outside again until there are enough chairs in the interview room for you to go in. And this is where the horror really sets in. Twelve windows all around the room with the embassy officials/councellors behind it and a row of seats in the middle for you to wait till your turn comes up. On your turn you go up, pick up a phone and the official through a glass window (can I stress this enough?) asks you questions that will help them decide whether you are eligible for the VISA. You standing there 10 feet away from the person sitting with a barrier between both of you, what rapport does this set? You being treated like you are a convicted criminal, what does this do to you psychologically? And worse still, you giving out your personal and financial details in a room full of people waiting for their interviews staring at your fate, what fear does this invoke? Convicted of what?

             Wouldn't it be nicer if the interview was in a room in sitting position with some amount of privacy (maybe like in telephone booths instead). I am not asking that the embassy do away with security, but at least treat us with dignity. Not all Pakistanis are terroists and we should be given the respect Americans give human beings so we could say yes, America, stands for the ideals we want to strive for.

However, all that the interview did to me was give rise to questions. Why was I being treated like a convict? What did I do? I don't want bombings. I want to live in peace of mind and heart and I want to learn, come back and do something that would change the fate of my nation, Pakistan. I want to prove all us people in the world can live in harmony and show that the American culture is centered around the bill of rights, not the war on terror. 

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