If a woman says, ‘Mera jism, meri marzi,’ then a man can’t rape her in marriage. She is claiming authority. So the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Tweeted 23 hours ago
RT @sethimirajee: Are you tempted to ask what I was wearing each time I was harassed?
To be a woman in Pakistan is to encounter this ques… Tweeted 23 hours ago
RT @snigdhasur: Two journalists today told me they were surprised by how competitive @bethejuggernaut’s salaries are. No we do not underpay… Tweeted 1 day ago
Following up from my earlier post, here’s the video recording of the Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture 2023 I delivered online recently for the Center of Excellence in Journalism at IBA, Karachi.
Honoured and humbled to be invited to present this year’s Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture, named for someone who remains a role model for so many journalists and women, someone I knew personally and admired greatly.
Time: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 06:00 PM (Pakistan)
Agenda
5:50 – 6pm Producer at CEJ to admit registered attendees
6:00 pm: Amber Shamsie, CEJ director, – Welcome and introduction to Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture lecture series
6:05 pm: Remarks by Dr Akbar Zaidi, IBA Executive Director
Some steps in a journey sparked by India and Pakistan’s nuclear tests in 1998
Screenshot from Sapan News site, designed by Aekta Kapoor.
Inspired by email updates from Isa Daudpota and Harsh Kapoor of South Asia Citizen’s Wire (SACW) after India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons, I too had begun a bcc email list. This developed into my beena-issues Yahoo-group in 1998 but I had begun to post more irregularly after 2009 when I started a WordPress blog, Journeys to Democracy. Yahoo shut down its Groups platform a couple of years ago.
Now, as I work on developing a new media entity, Sapan News Network syndicated features which emerged from Sapan, the Southasia Peace Action Network (thanks to Aekta Kapoor for the beautiful website), SubStack seems like a good place to revive something like the Yahoo-group community feel. But then there’s also Medium where I have over 2.4K subscribers. All very confusing. Welcome feedback and suggestions.
Finding ‘a way of looking inwards, confronting my own demons, and competing with my own best self”‘
My keynote speech at the first affinity graduation celebration for AAPI – Asian American and Pacific Islander / APIDA: Asian Pacific Islander Desi-American – at Harvard University, 23 May 2022
With my mother Prof. Zakia Sarwar, plus Harvard School of Education graduatesafter the ceremony: Najwa Maqbool and Nishant Singh from India, and Nigel Gray from Sri Lanka.Their families couldn’t make it so we were glad to be there for them. Photo: Lipofskyphoto.com
Beena Sarwar, video and text of speech below. Also published in Sapan News Network
Lee Krishnan in Mumbai, Mohsin Tejani in Karachi: Breadloaf friends, great synergy. Photos: supplied.
Really enjoyed this Sapan online family writing workshop by educators and teacher trainers Mohsin Tejani in Karachi and Lee Krishnan in Mumbai, hosted by the amazing Khushi Kabir in Dhaka, joined by educationist and writer Benislos Thushan in Jaffna – looking dramatic due to a power cut, just before dashing off for an overnight bus to Colombo. Human rights activist and physician Fauzia Deeba from Quetta now in New Jersey talked about the floods in Pakistan and shared the In Memoriam section designed by a young journalist Sushmita Preetha in Dhaka. Senior journalist Namrata Sharma in Kathmandu delivered the heart warming closing remarks that the piece starts with.
Namrata Sharma: “Who and how can anyone say that Southasia is divided?” – screenshot from the workshop.
Lovely writeup on it by young agriculturist-researcher-educationist M. Waqas Nasir in Lahore, published as a Sapan News Network syndicated piece in several media outlets. Read it here: Divided by borders, united by aspirations. This piece and the event would not have been possible without the efforts of data analyst and researcher Priyanka Singh in New Delhi. Both she and Waqas are Sapan founder members.
I’m also happy to share this piece young lawyer Vishal Sharma in Shimla, also a Sapan founder member. I love how hard and patiently he worked on the article, taking in feedback from various friends to shape it into what it became. I also learnt a lot by working with him on it, especially the idea of ‘Himachaliyat’ which reminds me of ‘Kashmriyat’ – promoting pluralism and peace. Published in Himachal Watcher. Read it here: A young leader’s activism may be a gamechanger for the Congress in Himachal‘. Vishal had the visual specially made by an artist friend.
Vikramaditya Singh uses the shield of “Himachaliyat” and “Virbhadra Singh Vikas Model” to counter political rivals. Visual by artist Deepak Saroj in Noida
The “piano man,” a war refugee, became one of the symbols of resistance emerging from conflict. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Lviv, Ukraine, March 29, 2022.
Two wonderful colleagues and friends departed this world rather suddenly within days of each other last month, leaving behind multitudes to mourn their loss — and celebrate their lives: Khalid Hameed Farooqui, Geo News correspondent in Brussels, 7 May, and Editor The News Talat Aslam, 25 May. We honoured both at the In Memoriam section of the Southasia Peace or Sapan event on the last Sunday of May, along with others.
Khalid Hameed Farooqui: A lifetime of politics, journalism, and activism in Europe and Pakistan.
Talat Aslam: His tweets @Titojourno gathered a fan following for his posts on politics, food, film, music and nocturnal wanderings in Karachi.
The tribute to Khalid by European Commission chief spokesperson Eric Mamer in a press briefing shortly after Khalid’s passing speaks for the respect he inspired amongst colleagues and political figures:
Tribute given to Geo’s senior correspondent Khalid Hameed Farooqui – who passed away last weekend – by European Commission. What brilliant praise. pic.twitter.com/xFZRZ3yDNX
Friend Saifullah Saify in Amsterdam organised a wonderful online tribute for Khalid, with tributes from personalities like Farhatullah Babar, and journalists Hamid Mir, Asma Shirazi, Munizae Jahangir, Amber Rahim Shamsi, Murtaza Solangi, Mazhar Abbas, Raza Rumi, Nazir Leghari – see video clips at this playlist on his YouTube channel.
Sharing below my piece on Tito, as friends and family called Talat, one of three articles carried by The News on Sunday in a full page tribute. The two other remembrances, by colleagues Zia ur Rehman and Gulraiz Khan, are online here. My piece includes a couple of my illustrations for Tito’s columns in The Star 1986-88.
: Remembering two gems, stellar journalists and old friendsContinue reading →
UPDATE 5.45 PST: Journalists Amir Mir and Imran Shafqat released on bail. Federal Investigation Agency says they were arrested for their alleged contempt against Judiciary, Army and some “women”…
FIA just announced that they released journalists Amir Mir and Imran Shafqat on bail. According to FIA press release both journalists were arrested for their alleged contempt against Judiciary, Army and some “women” but FIA never mentioned the names of the “women” pic.twitter.com/9WDBRkHxKd
Tweet from Amir Mir’s brother journalist Hamid Mir
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I don’t normally post back-to-back but the situation warrants it. Hours after my last blogpost Stand in solidarity with journalists, two more journalists have been picked up. What is this andher nagari, land in darkness…?
Image of HRCP tweet – Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) has strongly condemned abduction of two senior journalists Syed Imran Shafqat and Amir Mir from Lahore from their residences in Lahore on Saturday and demanded their immediate release.
The PFUJ also announced to hold countrywide protest from Monday against growing incidents of journalists’ abductions in Pakistan.
The abductors were reportedly from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which, PFUJ, believes is involved in taking actions against the journalists at the behest of the government.
Journalists are under fire (literally) around the world, particularly in conflict zones like Afghanistan, where every day news comes in about journalists attacked, abducted, or killed. We stand with our colleagues as they fight the forces unleashed by decades of not only of deliberate fostering of extremist ideologies but also neglect in building systems and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, sharing a statement below signed by over 100 journalists around the world in support of colleagues in Pakistan. The signatories are Fellows at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University joining hands to condemn the April assassination attempt on journalist Absar Alam, a Nieman alumnus from the class of 2005.
The class of 1967 is represented by three Fellows, including Zawwar Hasan, 95, former sports reporter with APP and Dawn and oped writer with Morning News, Pakistan (he’s my mamoo and I’m grateful to him for prodding me to do this). Signatories include members of the recently graduating Nieman class of 2021, as well as three Nieman Foundation directors (oddly known as Curators).
More than 100 Nieman Fellows have joined together to condemn the April assassination attempt on journalist and 2005 Nieman alum @AbsarAlamHaider. They call on Pakistan's government to take action against all those who are attacking & harassing journalists. https://t.co/JvKJptfspc
As the newly-sworn in United States President Joseph Biden begins his tenure, he has a lot of salvaging to do from the wreckage left by his predecessor.
One of the more disturbing messages arising out of the attack by violent pro-Trump insurrectionists at the US Capitol on January 6 involved frightening threats to a free press. Scrawled on a door at the building were the words: “Murder the Media.”
That pithy, vile phrase represented the raw culmination of five years of rhetorical attacks by Donald Trump and his political allies against critical media coverage.
The doors to the U.S. Capitol right now, as members of the mob that stormed it a couple of hours ago file out, without police escorts or handcuffs: "Murder the Media." They don't like that we've been watching and reporting, and will continue to do so. pic.twitter.com/qtqNR26uMd
Journeys to democracy 