'Why use Netflix Pakistan when you can VPN to the US?'
Television, as we know it, is dying.I remember the nine ‘o clock news days, when we huddled around our television sets, and PTV headlines were consumed with the utmost attention, and boisterous,...
View ArticleRescued: 'Baji, open the door, I'm dying in here'
Her name is Feroza and she is seven years old. For the first time, in a long time, she is no longer being beaten with heated tongs and locked up at night in a cold washroom. The Child Protection and...
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A song for Lahore
The first time I realised I was utterly in love with Lahore, I was eight years old.My father had taken me to a barber's shop and as I sat waiting for my turn on the sofa — a teenager with a lot of oil...
View ArticleOur hero of the day: A boy presenting his chopped hand on a plate
Here's a hypothetical situation: You have a 15-year-old son, and he hacks off his own hand after believing he has committed blasphemy. How would you react?Shock? Horror? Perhaps, a few weeks of...
View ArticleDear Pakistani child bride, we have failed you
And so, another day dawns with the crow of the rooster and the sigh of the moderate Muslim. Get up, and turn on your computer. You know the drill:We are a peaceful people. Our values are progressive....
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'Try and find my family, give this letter to them'
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View Article'Tashfeen was framed!' — and other anti-US conspiracy theories
The other day, my brother had an animated argument with a relative of ours who thinks that Tashfeen Malik was innocent, and that she had been “set up” and just happened to be in the “wrong place at the...
View ArticleDelhi's demons: The rape victims' ordeal
“I saw the bullet in my chest and just yanked it out,” were the chilling words by a 14-year-old in New Delhi who, after being gang-raped for two weeks, was shot twice and then dumped into a well to...
View ArticleA guide to securing our educational institutions
A number of voices have been raised to question the authorities on what is being done to secure educational institutions in Pakistan from attacks.To be honest, terrorist attacks are something no...
View ArticleAfter all, what is the big deal if a few of them die?
It is a strange world we live in today. In one corner, people are working hard to save the lives of stray animals, setting up rescue centres so that none go cold or hungry. In another, there are people...
View ArticleOur children should fear exams, not being gunned down at school
Almost 28 years to the day, another terrorist attack targeting the memory of the pacifist leader of the old Frontier has left many dead.In January 1988, 17 people died in bomb blasts at Khan Abdul...
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Public misogyny: Chronicles of a boy on Karachi's streets
This piece consists of snippets chronicling gender roles on the streets of Karachi through a male gaze, and also tells part of the story behind Girls at Dhabas— a group that consists of men, women, and...
View Article6 predictable responses after a terrorist attack in Pakistan
It's hard to pull myself up after a tragedy like the Bacha Khan University attack.It's that much harder when public responses to such tragedies are so misguided and insensitive. While I understand that...
View ArticleHas Pakistan always been this ordinary in the shortest format?
Ice-cool waters, lush green plains, overcast skies: New Zealand is serenity's darling, isn't it? But to attribute the same calmness to its cricket side, would be naivety at its undiluted best, given...
View ArticleCharsadda and our history of doublespeak
In the year following the barbaric Peshawar army-run school massacre that left 132 children dead, Pakistan endeavored to make some important strides.The government began to enforce hate speech...
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Karachi to Antwerp at 10 knots an hour
On a sultry Tuesday morning in March 1951, I left Karachi on the St. Jan, a cargo ship belonging to the East Asiatic Company of Copenhagen, Denmark. I was on my way to Antwerp and then to London to...
View ArticleUnloved and in chains — Kaavan
Imagine losing a loved one and then being punished for it.Imagine being shackled; unable to move for four long years. That is the sad reality of the only elephant at Islamabad's Marghazar Zoo — Kaavan....
View ArticleWhen 'their' children gun down 'our' children
"The attackers were like us ─ they were very young," said one of the eyewitnesses after the attack on Bacha Khan University. Reportedly between 18 and 25 years old, the students and attackers both...
View ArticleOnly Muslim women need to learn English in Cameron's Britain
Scrolling over my Facebook newsfeed, I came across the statement that British Prime Minister David Cameron had made regarding Muslim women and the urgent need for them to learn English or face...
View ArticleThe pangolin died — yes, it matters
A member of an endangered species of animals shot five times by a security guard has succumbed to internal injuries, despite earnest efforts by the animal welfare society to save its life.Yes, this is...
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