Posted on December 18, 2011 by beenasarwar
By Beena Sarwar
From Indian actor Nandita Das in Mumbai, to peace groups and individuals all over India and Pakistan, and in countries as far away as Korea, Australia, Canada and America, thousands are supporting Pray for Peace Between India and Pakistan Day on Sunday, Dec 18, 2011.
Inspired by the idea of the power of collective prayer or meditation, Toronto-based Swati Sharan randomly picked the date several months ago. “These prayers can be done from anywhere on the globe by any one, of any nationality… the more people pray for something at a given time, the greater the difference it can make,” she wrote in an initial article in May explaining the idea, Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: aman ki asha, collective prayer, India, meditation, nandita das, Pakistan, power of prayer, pray for peace, sally fisher, susan marie, swati sharan | 5 Comments »
Posted on December 18, 2011 by beenasarwar
Ad pubished in The Daily Times, Dec 23, 2011
Please note, the names on the signatories list will be updated as more endorsements are coming in.
PRESS RELEASE, December 17, 2011
Civil society terms “memogate” scandal an attempt to thwart democracy; Says threatening the representative system tantamount to attack on sovereignty of people. Read on for the text of the statement and the signatories’ list Continue reading →
Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: Activism, civil society, democracy, memogate, Pakistan | 10 Comments »
Posted on December 17, 2011 by beenasarwar
Thank you Mark Dummett, for the report in BBC today paying tribute to Anthony Mascarenhas, the brilliant and courageous Pakistani journalist who had to flee abroad in order to be able to tell the truth – Bangladesh war: The article that changed history.
Mascarenhas
“Eight journalists, including Mascarenhas, were given a 10-day tour of the province (East Pakistan). When they returned home, seven of them duly wrote what they were told to,” writes Dummett.
“But one of them refused.”
That was Mascarenhas, who died in 1986 in London.
His wife Yvonne Mascarenhas told Dummett that she remembers him coming back distraught: “I’d never seen my husband looking in such a state. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights, Media | Tagged: 1971, anthony mascarenhas, army, Bangladesh, bbc, democracy, goan christian, history, journalism, Media, Pakistan, sunday times | 10 Comments »
Posted on December 15, 2011 by beenasarwar
Here are PDFs of two recent Aman ki Asha pages that I tried to email to the Mumbai journalists who visited Pakistan recently, as the pages feature their responses. Since the second PDF file was for some reason too large to email, I’m posting both of them here. Click these links for the PDFs:
Aman ki Asha page, Dec 8, 2011
Aman ki Asha page, Nov 30, 2011
Come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea anyway. Maybe I should upload more of these pages. The content is all available on the Aman ki Asha website anyway, but there you can’t see the great layouts the designers have been doing. Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: aman ki asha, India, Mumbai journalists pakistan visit, Pakistan | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 15, 2011 by beenasarwar
Christmas trees instead of cars. Yeah.
We’re not exactly into the whole commercial holiday scene but it seemed like a good time to get a little tree to decorate for the season and put out to grow for the rest of the year. So we got ourselves to Ricky’s Flower Market. We’d often passed this inviting looking urban nursery, bursting with flowers and potted plants in warmer weather, incongruously tucked between two heavily trafficked roads at Union Square, Somerville, MA. Now it’s full of Christmas trees. We pulled into the parking spot (bonus) and after some deliberation and discussion with Ricky, the owner, chose a sweet little Dwarf Alberta Spruce (a hardy species indigenous to the New England and Canada area, we learnt), in a pot. Here’s part of our conversation with its surprise tidbits: Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta spruce, christmas, Environment, gas stations, go green, new england, potted trees, ricky's flower market | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 14, 2011 by beenasarwar
Poet Fehmida Riaz with Dr Naseem Shekhani of NHF at the launch of the Urdu English Medical Dictionary in Karachi, Dec 31, 2010
Anyone interested in healthcare in Pakistan – check out and support National Health Forum (NHF), a registered tax-exempt organisation in America initiated by a group of Pakistani doctors, many of whom were activists with the progressive National Students Federation (NSF)in their student days.
Screengrab of NHF website
I know some of them personally and am inspired and moved by their dedication and the work they do. The causes they have taken up include maternal care, child cancer (working to build a children’s cancer hospital) and helping flood survivors in Pakistan through the Pakistan Medical Association. They also support non-profit organisations in USA in the healthcare and medical education sectors. I love that Dr Sher Shah is listed in their website as one of the ‘projects’ they support (if you don’t know who he is, you should. Look him up). Another project, and a great success, is the launch of the much-needed Medical Urdu-English Dictionary. The informative website includes links to PDFs of their reports). Also do check out and ‘like’ the NHF facebook page. 🙂
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: child cancer, credible NGO, Dr Shekhani, Dr Sher Sh, floods, health, Healthcare, maternal health, NHF, non-profits america pakistan, Pakistan, progressive politics | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 14, 2011 by beenasarwar
Image courtesy: Aman ki Asha
PRAY FOR PEACE BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN DAY, DEC 18, 2011
Sunday, December 18… Just 30 seconds of your time!
On December 18, wherever you are in the world, take out just thirty seconds to Pray for Peace Between India and Pakistan.
See this article by Swati Sharan introducing the idea behind Pray for Peace Day.
· See facebook page Pray for Peace and post your comments.
· Send feedback to the Aman ki Asha facebook page
Some expressions of support for this initiative include: Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: ali zaidi, bihar, Faisalabad, Gojra, Jhang, jharkand, khudi, Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan, Pentecostal Church, pray for peace day, Sahiwal, swati sharan, toba tek singh | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 14, 2011 by beenasarwar
Hamza Alavi: eminent sociologist, addressed issues of nationality, gender and fundamentalism
Ayesha Siddiqa: political analyst, author of Military Inc.
The Tenth Hamza Alavi Memorial Lecture (free and open to the public)
Keynote speaker: Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa – Bringing Change in Praetorian State (see her recent essay in EPW on Pakistan’s Modernity: Between the Military and Militancy: Sunday, Dec 18, 2011, at 4.00 pm
Venue: Dr. Zaki Hasan Auditorium, Jinnah Medical & Dental College, Shaheed-e-Millet Road, Karachi.
Chair: Dr. Jaffar Ahmed; Introduction of Speaker: Dr. Mohd Ali Siddiqi
Followed by high tea (thanks to Dr. Tariq Sohail).
The lecture, published by the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences, will be available for just Rs.30 per copy. Donations to this cause are always welcome. Please make cheques out to the National Council of Academics, mailing address D 61, Blo0ck 2, Clifton, Karachi 75600
Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: Ayesha Siddiqa, Hamza Alavi, Hamza Alavi Memorial Lecture, Irtiqa, Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences, karachi, National Council of Academics, Pakistan, Politics, sociology | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 12, 2011 by beenasarwar
HRCP activist lit candles on Dec 10, Human Rights Day, that they dedicated to Balochistan. But the killings and disappearances continue - as the photos on the wall testify. Photo: Reuters
Below please see a letter from Young Women of Balochistan, forwarded by a friend who received it via email on Dec 10, 2011, Human Rights Day – a day commemorated around the country and dedicated to the people of Balochistan by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (See this report by Rabia Ali). Ironically and tragically, that very day, a young Baloch human rights activist, 35-year old Faisal Mengal, was gunned down in Karachi (details in this report). As Rabia Ali reports, from July 2010 to November 2011, around 300 dead bodies were found — some even of 14-year-olds, according to Tahir Hussain, Vice Chairperson of the HRCP’s Balochistan chapter. Those killed include two HRCP activists, while the number of people missing range from 5,000 to 6,000. Read on for this brief appeal by the Young Women of Balochistan… Continue reading →
Filed under: Balochistan, Human rights | Tagged: Balochistan, Dec 10, disappeared, HRCP, Human rights, Human Rights Day, killed, missing, women | 6 Comments »
Posted on December 8, 2011 by beenasarwar
Protest rally, Hyderabad, Dec 9, 12 noon, Old Campus to Press Club.
Sharing the grief of friends who have suffered this great loss. I first heard of Zarteef Khan Afridi in 1995, when he wrote to Asma Jahangir offering to come to Lahore with a tribal lashkar to protect her when she was under threat during the Salamat Masih case. I met him later at an HRCP meeting in Peshawar. He hosted us in Khyber, showed us the little library he had opened for local children. He told us wanted his daughter to marry of her own choice and not wear a burqa, but his wife told him she would leave him if he encouraged such behaviour. “Our dear dear friend, renowned leftist and human rights activist Comrade Zarteef Khan Afridi, from Jamrud, Khyber Agency was killed this morning in Saparee area of Khyber Agency while on his way to school where he has been teaching for more than two decades. He had been receiving threats from local religious militants for his revolutionary ideology, work on peace and rights in FATA. He was a brave revolutionary and refused to bow down to the pressure. He followed his truth till the end! Respect and Salam,” writes Ismat Shahjehan. His struggle shall not be in vain.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: HRCP, Ismat Shahjehan, Jamrud, Khyber, Pakistan, Taliban, Zarteef Afridi | 6 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 