Three events and a report

Posted on November 19, 2022 by beenasarwar

Sharing some recent updates from our lovely new initiative, Sapan – we wouldn’t be able to do all this without the amazing volunteerism of those involved

First, the report: Friend Nadra Huma Quraishi’s inspiring piece on the Society of Pakistan English Language Teacher (Spelt)’s unique Teacher Stories competition, a brainchild of Prof. Zakia Sarwar – From the Philippines to Dubai and beyond, a groundbreaking platform for educators provides new ways to collaborate – a Sapan News Network syndicated feature, published at Sapan News Network and other places. Available for use with credit to Sapan News.

(Yes, Zakia Sarwar is my mother, but on merit, it’s a great idea and the writeup was lovely. Hope it’s not seen as nepotism).

The events:

Nov 19-20: Sapan Film Club pilot screening of Bani Singh’s award-winning documentary Taangh. Excited and grateful she has made her film free for 24-hours for Sapan members starting Nov 19. Watch at your own pace. We will have a discussion with her on Sunday 10 am ET / 8 pm Pakistan time. The registration link has details of other time zones. More details at this post on the Sapan website: Sapan Film Club: Bani Singh’s award-winning documentary ‘Taangh’ – register to watch free.

Sun. 27 Nov: ‘Beyond Partitions – Shared Histories, Ways Forward‘ with acclaimed writers: Aanchal Malhotra, Anam Zakaria, Ananya Jahanara Kabir. Thrilled and honoured that Urvashi Butalia in Delhi and Hameeda Hossain in Dhaka will join and present closing remarks.

Nov. 18: Ahead of UN World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (Nov 20), Sapan gets into Twitter Spaces. Also today, we had a great Zoom meeting with some awesome people working on the issue – here’s the Facebook live video recording. We could do with some traction, so hope you will ‘like’ and share.

For more details, visit http://www.southasiapeace.com. Will be grateful to all those who share with their networks. Jo share karey uss ka bhala. Jo na karey uss ka bhi bhala (Wishing well those who share and also those who don’t).

Love and solidarity

NOTE: Posted earlier in Substack – my Personal Political feed.

Filed under: Art and activism, Culture, Education, Literature, Southasia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Understanding life

Posted on April 7, 2021 by beenasarwar
Samina Saad, October 1961 – February 2021

My cousin Asif Saad wrote this moving and insightful piece about our dearest Mina Baji who left us recently, posted to his website Open Minds Consulting. Shared here with permission.

Some treasures from my sister’s brave soul

Self-help literature places a lot of emphasis on ‘finding your purpose’. The coronavirus pandemic recently snatched away my elder sister who was very dear and close to me. The tragedy leaves me looking at life through a very different lens.

As I re-visit what Samina Saad stood for, I realise that ‘finding your purpose’ is not about finding some great ultimate purpose but making the best of what life throws at you – the lemons and lemonade stuff. Baji, as we fondly called her, taught me about being bold and brave and living life as you yourself imagine it.

It’s not that a sense of purpose is not important. The point is that arriving at your purpose is about starting somewhere and following the process. Whatever feels meaningful to you can be your purpose and it may be different at different times.

Continue reading →

Filed under: covid-19, Education, Health, Obituary | 1 Comment »

“It is the values and the teachers that make TCF what it is”

Posted on December 11, 2018 by beenasarwar

Education isn’t just about bricks and mortar… I hadn’t planned to write this report but the story I heard was so inspirational, and the overall event so well done, that I just had to. Shoutout to TCF Boston, The Citizens Foundation and all the wonderful volunteers.  My report in The News on Sunday, Dec. 9 2018 on TCF Boston’s fundraising gala last weekend that will contribute towards more schools in Pakistan. This may be just a drop in the ocean, but each drop contributes to the ocean. 

Noman-parents

Both Noman’s parents died when he was little. The school saved him. Photo: Beena Sarwar

For Muhammad Noman, growing up in poverty with invalid parents in a low-income locality in Karachi, being forced by gentrification to relocate to another locality with no gas, electricity or running water, was the easy part.

It was in 2010, just after family moved to Khuda Ki Basti, the sprawling housing society on the outskirts of the city, that tragedy struck. Noman’s mother died of kidney failure. In 2011, his father, who had severe asthma, passed away.

“When you are poor in Pakistan, you don’t have access to the best medical care,” as Noman understatedly put it. Continue reading →

Filed under: Education | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Howard Zinn’s July 4th Wisdom

Posted on July 5, 2018 by beenasarwar

HowardZinn-People's History

Image courtesy Arkansas Times

  

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

From progressive.org, forwarded by Isa Daudpota. So relevant not just to USA and the time it was written, but today and elsewhere too.

Howard Zinn’s July 4th Wisdom

4-5 min read

Editor’s Note: The late historian and Progressive columnist Howard Zinn shared these words with us back in 2006.  His message is still just as compelling  A World War II bombardier, Zinn was the author of the best-selling book A People’s History of the United States.

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism—that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder—one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking—cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on— have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, fascism, History, Human rights, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Bhutto fellowship at Harvard accepting applications

Posted on November 11, 2017 by beenasarwar

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Returns To Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto, arrival in Karachi, 2007. Photo: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

A new fellowship at Harvard University to honor the late Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto, member of the Harvard College class of 1973, is now accepting applications.  Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, Gender, Pakistan | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Online course developed by late Dr Ruqaiya Hasan kicks off in Pakistan

Posted on February 11, 2017 by beenasarwar

feb2015-chris-m-rh-and-mak-photo-by-lexie-don

Ruqaiya Hasan, Hong Kong, Feb 2015. Photo by Lexie Don

Thrilled and excited to share this news from my mother, Zakia Sarwar, founder member of the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT), about the online course for teachers’ professional deveopment that was her sister, my khala ammi Dr Ruqaiya Hasan’s dream

PRESS RELEASE: 11 February 2017

Professional development online course for teachers in Pakistan kicks off

Project posthumously takes forward globally renowned linguist Dr Ruqaiya Hasan’s dream and intellectual legacy

KARACHI: The posthumous launch of an online course for Pakistani teachers designed by the internationally renowned linguist Dr Ruqaiya Hasan kicks off February 11, 2017, taught by Dr. Carmel Cloran, Dr. Hasan’s colleague and co-researcher from Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. Continue reading →

Filed under: Education | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Save Nepal’s Edhi, Dr Govinda KC, on hunger strike for pro-poor medical reforms

Posted on July 22, 2016 by beenasarwar

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Dr Govinda KC: fighting for pro-poor medical reforms

UPDATE: Sign the online petition

“If South Asia has a viable public health icon after the passing of Edhi in Pakistan, this man is it,” says a Nepali friend. 

Dr. Govinda KC is a man who is considered a saint in Nepal –  a middle-class doctor who on his own expense offers medical help wherever there is a disaster: Haiti, the Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, Bangladesh floods. 

By all accounts an incredible human being, he is entering the third week of his hunger strike, a fast unto the death for reforms in the medical education sector. His demands: lower the cost of medical education and create a public health system that allows access of all to quality care, in the place of Nepal’s present highly privatised and centralised system.  Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, Health, Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Pushing forward the cart that says “Educate Pakistan!”

Posted on May 15, 2016 by beenasarwar

My piece about the TCF fundraiser in Boston last weekend, published in The News on Sunday, May 15, 2016

Adil Najam, Nargis Mavalvala-Ateed Riaz-Beena Sarwar

Adil Najam, Nargis Mavalvala, Ateed Riaz at the speakers table. Photo: Beena Sarwar

Pitching in for education in Pakistan from Boston and beyond

Beena Sarwar

“The Citizens’ Foundation is doing an amazing job, and I’m honoured to be here,” said Nergis Mavalvala, giving the keynote address at the sold-out Third Annual The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) Boston Fundraiser on Saturday, 7 May, 2016.

Propelled to celebrity status by her role in the recent breakthrough on gravitational waves predicted by Einstein, the Pakistani-American astrophysicist at MIT added, “TCF is fantastic – give generously”. Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Nergis Mavalvala to be keynote for TCF Boston fundraiser

Posted on May 5, 2016 by beenasarwar

Nergis Mavalvala

Nergis Mavalvala: “The key to my success is the education I got as a girl in Pakistan”

Mavalvala to be keynote speaker at fundraiser for high-quality, low-income schools in Pakistan

BOSTON, May 04: Nergis Mavalvala, the Pakistani-American astrophysicist at MIT known for the part she played in the breakthrough on gravitational waves, will be a keynote speaker at the Third Annual The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) Boston Fundraiser on Saturday, May 7, 2016. Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, Human rights, Terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Rest in peace, Shahab Ahmed, prominent Islamic scholar from Pakistan

Posted on September 20, 2015 by beenasarwar

A beautiful sunny day…  and Shahab Ahmed’s funeral. His friends, including prominent scholars some of whom had known him for decades and traveled long distances to be there, like Kamran Ali Asdar and Shahnaz Rouse; many from Harvard like Homi Bhabha, Parimal Patil, Asad Ali Ahmed, Martha Minnow, Asim Khwaja; students and former students now themselves teachers; family members; all devastated and in shock. We were together in this panel at Harvard on the ‘blasphemy’ issue a few years back. I had last heard from him in July when his then fiancé Nora replied on his behalf to an email I’d sent. That’s when I learnt he was ill in hospital. My report today, basically just getting the facts out for now. Thanks to Nora for sharing his biographical details and photo at her time of grief. (NOTE: Updated below with comments from Michael Cook, his dissertation advisor, and others):

Prominent Islamic scholar Shahab Ahmed laid to rest

Shahab Ahmed-Photo by Rehan Lashari

Shahab Ahmed in Pakistan. Photo by Rehan Lashari, courtesy Nora Lessersohn

Prominent Islamic scholar Shahab Ahmed, originally from Pakistan, was laid to rest on Saturday morning at the historic Mt. Auburn cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his adopted home. Born in Singapore on Dec 11, 1966, he passed away on Sept 17, 2015 in Boston.
Continue reading →

Filed under: Blasphemy Laws, Education, History, Islam, Obituary | Tagged: , , | 9 Comments »

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