Guest Post by Aisha Sarwari
“This is why I am not in favor of working women.” Said the Colonel and security in-charge of one of Lahore’s largest office blocks. “Excuse me?” I said.
Before I could unleash my monologue on the tirade of women’s mobility, I am interrupted by the drama unfolding in the Colonel’s office where [...]

Adil Najam
Following up on our post last week about a man beating up his wife with his children watching (earlier post here), it is heartening to find that the government is contemplating a new law on domestic violence - The Protection Against Domestic Violence of Women and Children (PADVWC) Act.
The tragedy is that this will [...]

Adil Najam
Sometimes one is left completely speechless. And I was upon seeing this picture in the Daily Times (21 April) of a man beating his wife as their son looks on.

But the real story here is about a society that chooses to loose its speech and prefers to remain silent in the face of a [...]

Adil Najam
Reader Akif Nizam sent me this story last week. His email said that he found it “quite amusing and just plain feel-gooding.” I agree. I also think that sometimes it is good to talk about the feel-good.
Having said that, I also think that what follows is more than just ‘feel-good’ material. This is about [...]

Adil Najam
The pictures coming out of Islamabad are not good. Not good at all.

Here is yet more evidence - as if we needed more evidence - of a society at war with itself. The hostage-taking by women students from Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad of the residents of a house that they allege is a brothel [...]

Raza Rumi
Who doesn’t know Feryal Ali Gauhar?
A novel at the top of The New York Times international bestseller list, years of television appearances and a highly publicised marriage to Jamal Shah that became fodder for countless gab sessions, have caricatured and made famous her persona. Had I not known her personally, I too may have [...]

Raza Rumi
An email from a Pakistan based writer friend made me recall Parveen Shakir. The poem, Tomato Ketchup, written most probably in the memory of Sara Shagufta (the modernist Pakistani poet who committed suicide in the footsteps of Sylvia Plath).
I am not drawing conclusions or imagining comparisons. My writer-friend is neither suicidal nor at the [...]