For years, the United States has been the target of increasing animosity from the Arab world, culminating in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America.

This year, events such as the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in February and attacks on Christian institutions in August have shown the resentment of many Pakistanis toward the United States in general, and the war in Afghanistan in particular.

In late August, Y-Press interviewed three Pakistani girls by phone about their opinions on America and on its relationship with Pakistan. While two of the girls -- Amal Khan, 16, and Shazreh Khalid, 17 -- are quite critical of the United States, the third tried to put their opinions in perspective:

"This opinion is not towards the Americans, not towards the people of America, but it's towards America as a nation, as a country and as its policy," said Shahbano Tirmizi, 16, who now lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Amal and Shazreh live in Lahore, Pakistan. What follows are excerpts from the interviews.

Their lives

Shahbano: I really wouldn't say that the life of a Pakistani girl and the life of an American girl are really going to be so different. You know, you get up, you go to school, go to classes, you come back, you go out with your friends maybe, you come back and listen to some music. The only thing that would be different would be that probably mannerisms are different. Conduct is different. Values would certainly stand out.

Shazreh: We are much more conservative. Religion is like a big part of us, and everything revolves around that, and our families.

Amal: In Pakistani society, male domination is still very, very prevalent, especially in the village. But not in the cities. Now as far as our lifestyles are concerned, this is not the case. Our mothers are working mothers. The men in our society do not seem to have a problem with our women getting an education or working.

U.S. policy

Amal: I would view America as someone who is trying to solve the problems of the world, not realizing that, you know, sometimes you just cannot. And in trying to solve the problems of the world, (the U.S. is) creating even greater problems.

To America, the world is one big lab. They experiment on countries and people like guinea pigs. They get the reaction out of them -- you know, "Let's see what happens when we mix this country and that country," not realizing that there are lives at stake.

Shazreh: You have to realize that all these years there have been a lot of different policies that America has just passed without thinking twice about how it was going to affect people. We are hurt by the attitudes of the Americans.

Amal: We were always one of America's greatest allies, but we were always used and dumped and used and dumped and used and dumped, and that just disillusioned us.

A certain amount of responsibilities comes along with the title of being superpower, and one of them is being fair and being just, and that is just not what the (United) States is doing. . . .

You come in here thinking you're a hero. We're how many miles and oceans apart, and you're commanding our lives. Would you come ahead and see the way my people are living before you come and just use them?

American people

Shahbano: The (criticism is against) America as a state and how they have dealt with people's lives and played with people's lives. We all have friends who are Americans. We all have family living in America, who are American citizens. We associate with lots and lots and lots of people who live in America.

Shazreh: As far as I am concerned, it's not fair to say that we are angry at the American people because it's not their fault that they have absolutely no idea about what was going on outside their little world.

No one is going to tell you, "I hate all Americans." You will have a few obviously; you have this everywhere. But most of the people will say, "We are just sick of the American policy and they'd better stop."

Amal: My friends and my community, most of them do share this opinion. The other guys who come in the street would probably be much more rigid than I am and would probably tell you "Down with America, down with all Americans, SOB."

I am sure that I sound probably pretty rigid, but believe it or not, I am pretty neutral. There are people who are much more rigid, much more biased, and who would like nothing better than to see, well, not good things happen to America.

Next steps for U.S.

Amal: You have to open up and start accepting the world as it is, and not just a playground for you to play in, basically. Read about what's going on. When you watch television, look at what goes on outside America. Focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iraq and Iran. Look at these places not as Third World countries, but as places where lives are going on, where people are surviving. You have to start being more sympathetic towards that, and only then will people start being more sympathetic towards you.

Shazreh: And I would like to add, please stop exploiting our religion. Try to study it a bit more and analyze it from a different point of view.