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...
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...
Published in the Daily Times on November 24th 2010 An estimated 17 percent of all families in Pakistan are associated with polygamy in their primary relationships. This means that as many as one-fifth of our population lives in an arrangement of compromise, most likely to take...
Published on Chowk.com on March 8th 2010 The topography of women’s empowerment in Pakistan is a treacherous terrain, harsh on the eyes. It is often marked by subjugation, lack of education and basic literacy, utter neglect of health; for instance, Pakistan has among the highest occurrence...
Published on Chowk.com on May 29th 2007 “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you.”-Mohammad Ali Jinnah “This is why I am not in favor of working women.” Said the Colonel and security incharge of one of Lahore’s largest office blocks. “Excuse...
Published on Chowk.com on May 9th 2008 What are the odds that I move into a house in the elite F/11 sector of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad and our land lord turns out to be a wife-beater – I in 4, according to the United Nations report...