Hello all, I’m excited to be moderating this discussion on Sunday 25 June, 10 am ET/7 pm PKT
Register on Zoom, or tune into YouTube live to join us.
Look forward to the discussion and inputs from renowned photographer Shahidul Alam, Sri Lankan human-rights advocate Ambika Satkunanathan; Nepali journalist and democracy activist Kanak Mani Dixit; and Bhutanese human-rights activist Suraj Budathoki. Plus a cultural performance from Indian economist and musician Sumangala Damodaran and closing remarks from acclaimed feminist Khawar ‘Rani’ Mumtaz.
Hello all, check out the work we’re doing at Sapan News, providing behind-the-headlines information with context and nuance, and syndicating pieces out to a growing media network.
Sapan News syndicated feature in The South Asia Times, page 27, 3-9 June.
NOTE: If you like/support our work, please contribute what’s possible – no amount is too big or too small. Will be so grateful. We need to raise $15k by year end at a minimum. You can make tax-free donations at this link.
Joyland poster
On another note, I saw the banned-unbanned-censored (still banned in Punjab?) Joyland in Karachi a few weeks ago, and it haunted me – and my cousins who I saw it with – for days. This is the first feature film from Pakistan to screen at Cannes where it won two awards.
“What began as a small independent production among friends at Columbia University’s graduate film program became one of the year’s biggest success stories in world cinema — and a ground-breaking film about queer desire in a traditional Muslim society” reports NPR.
The film is showing at Coolidge Corner Theatre in the Boston area this week– writer-director Saim Sadiq has said the cuts made for the film’s showing in Pakistan were insignificant but I am curious to see the uncensored version.
A film I saw recently and enjoyed was Nandita Das’ Zwigato, that she showed in person at various cities in the US.
Even on the small screen I found it thought-provoking and beautifully done, with many layers, a great commentary on the changing society, its challenges and opportunities. Sensitively depicted relationships, humanity, and aspirations. Great poetry and soundtrack, with many nuggets and vignettes sprinkled throughout. The end credits with animations are particularly creative and a story in themselves.
This is the third feature film by Nandita Das that I’ve seen, after Firaaq and Manto. Each of them a labour of love, executed with courage and clarity.
Interesting that the posters for both films feature two-wheelers…
Ending on a sad note – the triple train crash in India that has claimed nearly 300 lives. As expected, authorities are trying to pass it off as ‘human error’ rather than admit to the systematic problems with the railways or the government’s financial choices.
Excited for the second anniversary event up this Sunday, hosted by the amazing Khushi Kabir in Dhaka, taking forward the legacy of our late friend Kamla Bhasin at Sangat.
We’ll review what we’ve done over the past two years – the collaborations, the discussions, the film club and more. Taking up all kinds of cross-cutting and cutting-edge topics. It’s been thought-provoking, inspiring, and fun.
We will honour the inspiring journalist Lyse Doucet for her humanitarian reporting, an award initiated by Dr Tayyaba Hasan presenting it from the Sapan platform. Dr Hasan heads the Hasan Laboratory at Harvard Medical School – the bio at the link does not convey why she is doing this — you’ll have to tune in to find out.
Sapan honours Lyse Doucet: A lifetime of humanitarian reporting.Photo: Amanda Benson
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
Another obituary I wish I didn’t have to write. Farewell Zia sahib. What a life – and what a contribution to the arts and progressive thinking, with your immaculate performances and recitations. Thanks to The Wire editors for pushing me to write this piece, sent out as a Sapan News Network syndicated feature to several publications.
Zia Mohyeddin: An unparalleled orator. Photo: Courtesy Dr. Ghulam Nabi Kazi, Flickr
Born: 30 June (or 20 December) 1931, Lyallpur; Passed on: 13 February 2023, Karachi
The great Zia Mohyeddin was already a legend when I first interacted with him as an adult in the mid-1990s. He had recently moved to Lahore where I then lived at Lakshmi Mansion at Regal Chowk. I was working on the launch of weekly The News on Friday, a brainchild of my editor the multi-talented Imran Aslam who revered Zia sahib.
Both were alumni of the prestigious Government College Lahore and its GCDC, the Government College Drama Club. Knowing my family’s connection to Zia sahib, Imran asked me to approach him for a weekly column.
Pakistan’s progressive movement revolved largely around the great poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose work Zia Mohyeddin so eloquently recited in his signature style, his distinctive, gravelly voice setting him apart from others. As part of the same circle, Zia sahib, born in 1931 in then Lyallpur (Faisalabad), Punjab, knew my father Dr M. Sarwar who led Pakistan’s first nationwide student movement, the Democratic Students Federation, 1948-54.
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.
#JusticeforFaisal demo at Harvard Square, 14 Jan 2023. Photos: Beena Sarwar
The summer of 2020 saw massive Black Lives Matter protests across the USA. Although these protests have largely died down, a small group has continued to demonstrate in Cambridge MA, standing at the corner of Prospect and Broadway streets every Friday afternoon. No media outlet has picked up the story of these peaceful demonstrators holding up BLM signs, including: ‘All lives matter but not all lives are threatened with racist violence’.
In Spring 2022, one of my students at Emerson College did a video report on these Stand-outers as they call themselves. It includes comments from two of the group’s members, retired pediatrician Dr. Alan Meyers and history professor Dr. Tom Johnson (erroneously mentioned as Robinson in the video) on why they continue demonstrating. Report below, shared with the student’s permission:
The latest Sapan News syndicated feature, by Ramon Magsaysay awardee Dr Sandeep Pandey on the difference between the release of convicts in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case and those convicted in the Bilkis Bano case. He argues that the premature release of one set of convicts cannot be used to justify another — one was set free by the courts, while administrative decree was behind the other. One poses no threat to the victim’s family, while the other has sent witnesses into hiding.
Exploring a way of looking inwards, confronting my own demons, and competing with my own best self
My Harvard Commencement keynote speech at the first affinity graduation celebration for AAPIDA – Asian Pacific Islander Desi-American, 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
Journeys to democracy 