Pakistan’s first ever Oscar: saving face – or losing it?

A slightly edited version of this article was published by Common Ground News on March 6, 2012 Pakistan’s first ever Oscar: saving face – or losing it? by Beena Sarwar BOSTON – Pakistan’s online community erupted in virtual cheers as Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy received an Academy Award for co-directing the Best Documentary (Short Subject), recently [...]

“We want to attend universities, not funerals” – Young Women of Balochistan

Below please see a letter from Young Women of Balochistan, forwarded by a friend who received it via email on Dec 10, 2011, Human Rights Day – a day commemorated around the country and dedicated to the people of Balochistan by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (See this report by Rabia Ali). Ironically and tragically, that [...]

Hundreds of Saudis urge King Abdullah to free Manal, let women drive

More than 500 Saudi citizens, providing their full names and occupation have signed this petition to the Saudi King posted to the facebook group Freedom For Manal Al Sharif – People’s Petition to the King…

Women rock the boat

A women’s day rally and a feminist cartoonist’s perspective

Egypt police then and now – remembering May 25, 2005

Egypt is the second biggest recipient of American aid and military hardware, long used by the Mubarak regime to brutalise the people. The Egyptian police are even more brutal than in Pakistan. Watching the situation now on Al Jazeera livestream, when the police have been forced to retreat before the might of the people, I [...]

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH ASIA: Women’s Peace Offensive

Aware of the repercussions of remaining silent on a host of issues, including peace and security, that affect them as much as men, women today are increasingly raising their voice in a bid to be heard in the corridors of power and at the policymaking levels.

Doc’s blog; Madrassas vs Pvt schools; Hoodbhoy on Pk; Cost of war and more

New blog – www.drsarwar.wordpress.com – with photos and remembrances, including by I.A. Rehman, Salima Hashmi, Dr Badar Siddiqui, S.M. Naseem, Ali Jafari, Mohsin Tejani and others; ‘The Madrasa Myth’ – Foreign Policy op-ed co-authored by Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das, C. Christine Fair, and Asim Ijaz Khwaja; Pervez Hoodbhoy’s Pakistan predictions; Swat women and ‘mullah Radio’ – a report; HRCP’s report on the internally displaced and more

Some thoughts on ‘Swat flogging video’

The ‘Swat flogging video’ has made headlines all over. For those who haven’t followed the issue or seen the video (warning, it’s graphic) check out Declan Walsh’s initial report on the issue in The Guardian, April 2, 2009 (two days before TV channels in Pakistan picked it up).

Focus on women – Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, a docu on Swat and more

A collection of articles published around March 8, including mine for IPS (‘Women Defy Militancy, Patriarchy’) and The News (‘A new political context for Juliet’), plus articles by Kalpana Sharma, Cassandra Balchin, Zofeen Ebrahim, link to a documentary on a Swat schoolgirl and more.