Our message to young girls reads as: you can be shot in the head for fighting for your right to an education; you could be imprisoned if you are framed for blasphemy, and you could be gang-raped for being what 5-year-olds are: vulnerable. The stories...
“There will never be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” Susan B. Anthony – 50 Shades of Feminism Published at PakVotes on May 3rd 2013 Picture: Courtesy http://www.english.pakvotes.pk None of the key issues Pakistani women face will ever find the right solutions unless...
Published in Daily Times on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 It was wartime in Africa, Uganda. Idi Amin had just been removed and Milton Obote was in charge in 1985. I was five, sleeping soundlessly in my room when I heard voices; clutching my blanket I walked out...
Published in Daily Times on August 2nd 2012 Feminism ought to be a verb — to act out the notion that women are equal to men in their status, abilities and virtues. It is not a stagnant ideology that merely observes oppression and outright terror mounted...
[caption id="attachment_216" align="alignleft" width="600"] Girls on phone camera footage clapping to a wedding song[/caption] Published in the Daily Times on June 9th 2012 While the rest of the world fights for an equal payday for women and women empowerment principles in the corporate world, Pakistan remains, according...
Published in Daily times on May 12th 2012 Much has been said about Pakistan’s first Oscar for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Saving Face and the subject of acid crime against women in Pakistan. It has been argued that the film has brought Pakistan’s image a golden streak, which...
Published in the Daily Times on March 15th 2009 The Pakistani lawyers’ movement is on a collision course with the establishment. The country, entirely without stratification resonates its restlessness with this movement, and soon either the judiciary will get some semblance of fairness or a lot...
A film by Deepa Mehta Any film on domestic violence is not an easy one to make; Deepa Metha is getting some vitriolic reviews from India for directing a film limited in technique, plot and dialogue. This barrage of misguided critique is in fact the very...
Published April 19th 2009 Mukhtar Mai, Glamour Magazine’s woman of the year 2005, ties the knot, for reasons she defines as “to support women’s rights.” I hope that this woman who has not backed down in the face of oppression in the name of culture, tradition...
August 19th 2009. Vulgarity is vulgarity, no matter what mouth it comes out of – Maya Angelou Well then so is bullshit. Because that is what it would be called if someone asked President Obama in a public forum what his wife, Michalle Obama thought about the...