Education is a right… Not privilege – DSF Pakhtunkhwa Students Convention, April 29, 2012, Peshawar
DSF Convention, Peshawar, April 29, 2012.
Filed under: Student politics | Tagged: DSF, Pakistan, Student politics | Leave a comment »
Pakistani women waging peace the world over
Posted on April 29, 2012 by beenasarwar
My blogpost for Global Post, about a coalition of women affected by violence and war, on a mission to spread their message and highlight the unique roles of women in the struggle for peace. Also published in The News, Pakistan.
WASHINGTON: It was when children began painting ambulances, hospitals and dead bodies in art class that Bushra Hyder decided it was time to actively work towards healing.
That was 2009, and there were almost daily blasts in Peshawar, a Pakistani city not far from the border of Afghanistan, where Hyder runs an elementary and high school. The whole city, including the students and teachers at her school, was traumatised by the conflict raging around them. Those who could, fled to the capital Islamabad, or abroad, or anywhere but where they were on the frontlines.
“The violence affected the people…socially and psychologically,” Hyder said, speaking at a seminar at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) on Tuesday.
“People lost businesses and loved ones. Blood and death was brought to our doorstep. All this violence really took a toll on the children. Boys played war games, and parents told me their daughters were mangling dolls’ limbs like victims of bomb blasts.”
Hyder began holding counselling sessions for the children and developed a peace syllabus to be taught at her school. She also started a children’s club (Peace Angels) and a mothers’ club (Mothers of Change) for women and their children who were victims of extreme violence. Peace Angels visited hospitals and orphanages, “to meet those most affected by the violence and see for themselves the results of violence,” while the mothers come to Hyder’s school to talk to students about the their own experiences and “how to get rid of the hatred.”
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Memories of an unassuming Marxist
Posted on April 29, 2012 by beenasarwar
Published in The News on Sunday, Feb 19, 2012
Memories of an unassuming Marxist
The progressive movement of Pakistan has lost one of its best sons in the death of Dr. Manzoor Ahmed
By Shahid Husain
Memories of an unassuming Marxist
Filed under: Progressive politics | Leave a comment »
Picture this: World traveler takes photos that make us care
Posted on April 29, 2012 by beenasarwar
My interview for Latitude News, April 25, 2012 (Note: Latitude News is now defunct; some pix missing in this post)
In Pakistan’s Hunza Valley in 1994, Perrault says, “I was amazed at the ethnic diversity of the people in this region. These women look like they are from Eastern Europe – and they have family living in New York City.” Because of a lack of health care, the mother had an untreated toothache. (Don Perrault)
Beena Sarwar
Tourists take photographs, but Don Perrault is the rare traveler who uses photography to give something back. I met Don Perrault at an Amnesty International get-together at an art gallery in South Boston. He fit the type of the optical engineer he is, unassuming, conservatively dressed and soft-spoken. But he spends his free time traveling and taking photographs, primarily in Africa and Asia.
He’s begun selling these to raise money for nonprofits working on health, education and gender empowerment. His highest-grossing photos, sold at a silent auction, went for a cool $5,000. Continue reading
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: containers to clinics, don perrault, hunza, jagdish dhinra, ladakh, Medical Missions for Children, Nepal, photography, rwanda, uganda, yosemite | Leave a comment »
Trade winds for peace: In the air, a hope song
Posted on April 29, 2012 by beenasarwar
A political push and removal of barriers will see a rise in trade, and peace, between India and Pakistan...
This article was originally published in The News and The Times of India last week
Trade winds for peace
By Beena Sarwar
“Trade for peace” is the new catchphrase defining the emerging relationship between India and Pakistan – a relationship historically so troubled that, when not actually at war, they have been engaged in a virtual cold war. But the winds of change are now blowing in a more positive phase, heralded by recent breakthroughs on the trade front. Continue reading
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: aman ki asha, attari check post, cii, india pakistan trade, indo pak business meet, milnedo, prisoners | Leave a comment »
Music: Touching the soul, defying the Taliban
Posted on April 14, 2012 by beenasarwar
Asfand Yaar Mohmand performing - photo: Shiraz Hasan
Asfand and his Rubab! This lovely, moving post by Shiraz Hasan reminded me of another moving documentary film I saw over a decade ago, Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician’s Life in Peshawar by Dr. John Baily (1985). It is tragic how musicians have been pushed around, forced to flee the fighting during the Afghan war of the 1980s and now, persecuted and punished for their art by the ‘taliban’.
Asfand Yaar Mohmand, as Shiraz Hasan writes, comes from a family of labourers. They initially opposed his decision to become a musician but realising he would “not step back” have came around. “I love playing the Rubab, this is such a beautiful instrument. Its strings touch your soul, literally,” says the 19-year old Afsand.
The only international organisation in the world advocating freedom of expression for musicians and composers is Freemuse, which I came across some months ago when Salman Ahmad of Junoon introduced me to its founder Ole Reitov. In an subsequent email Ole wrote that his own “deep interest and dedication to this issue started in Lahore in 1980 when – invited by Raza Kazim – I recorded Iqbal Bano (in Kazim’s studio) and talked to her about the reasons why she stopped performing in public”.
Filed under: 'War on terror', Music | Tagged: Afghanistan, freedom of expression, freemuse, Iqbal Bano, John Baily, music, Ole Reitov, Pakistan, Raza Kazim, rubab, Shiraz Hasan | Leave a comment »
Peace. Action. Karachi. Lessons from Liberian women
Posted on April 13, 2012 by beenasarwar
Liberian women demonstrate at the American Embassy in Monrovia at the height of the the civil war in July 2003. Photo: Pewee Flomoku
Poster: Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Original Artwork: Olaf Hajek
Originally published in The News blog, What Karachi can learn from Liberian women, April 6, 2012
Beena Sarwar
Watching “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”, an hour-long documentary film about how a small band of women came together to bring an end to the bloody civil war in Liberia, it struck me that their approach may well work in Karachi.
Although Liberia, with a population of barely three million is just a fraction of Karachi’s over 16 million, both have been gripped by ongoing turf and gang wars. As in Liberia, the underlying motives are to gain power over resources and employment.
The intense scale of violence in Liberia brought on by violent warlords and the corrupt Charles Taylor regime claimed over 200,000 lives before the women won peace in 2003. Their sustained movement of about two-and-a-half years was built upon earlier struggles waged by women, journalists and political activists. Continue reading
Filed under: Gender | Leave a comment »
Journeys to democracy 