The law of the father
This Monday, one Pakistani garnered accolades for her documentary on honour killing in Pakistan. On the same day, the Pakistani state hanged a killer. In the early morning hours, Mumtaz…
Pakistan in its glory – and gloom
There it is: today’s Pakistan, in all its glory, hope and gloom – the passage of the Woman’s Protection Bill by the Punjab Assembly and the Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led incessant…
Politics of identity, politics of class
I wouldn’t want to be seen as a scoundrel taking last refuge in patriotism, to quote Samuel Johnson. In fact, my belief is in the definition assigned to patriotism by…
Prime-time shame
Every time optimism is allowed to interfere with reality a stark reminder is delivered of how far Pakistan is from being a pluralistic, modern state in sync with the demands…
Let’s bury another daughter
At the same time that two Pakistani/Pakistani-origin women were being feted for their extraordinary achievements, a third was so despondent regarding the road blocks in her path to an education…
Of genuine heroes
We have yet another internationally recognised hero in the person of labour rights activist Syeda Ghulam Fatima. She was honoured this past Sunday with the Clinton Global Citizen Award for…
Good, bad or ugly?
Among the many comments generated within the Pakistani body politic by the Nobel Committee’s decision to award its annual Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai, perhaps the most intriguing one goes…
The cinema centenary
All praise for Karachi’s cine enthusiasts for organising public events to mark the centenary of the subcontinent’s cinema while our filmmakers are once again begging to be put on oxygen.…
Film
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has done Pakistan proud and given its stubborn film buffs a glimmer of hope. Now that the excitement over winning an Oscar is receding it should be possible…
Empowering the oppressed
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar-winning documentary ‘Saving Face’ has rightly brought laurels to her and to her teammates for highlighting globally an issue that had hitherto remained unnoticed and unreported even in…
