Boston area: Anja Niedringhaus exhibit opening today

Posted on May 9, 2024 by beenasarwar

A tribute to the spirit of Anja – and the courage of journalists

The story behind a poignant photo exhibition that opens at Harvard today featuring the work of the late photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan at the height of the war between the Taliban and the USA. The show, and its accompanying book, are co-curated by the reporter Kathy Gannon who was injured in the attack that killed Anja.

Pakistani journalist Raza Rumi at the exhibit opening at the Bronx Documentary Center last month. Photo: Beena Sarwar

PERSONAL POLITICAL 
By Beena Sarwar

An exhibition of powerful images from Afghanistan and Pakistan by the late Pulitzer-prize winning photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus opens in the Boston area today.

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Hello, and updates from Sapan News and Southasia Peace Action Network

Posted on December 24, 2023 by beenasarwar

Seasons greetings despite the sadness, and excerpts from a Sapan Alliance newsletter sent out a few days ago on Substack

Joy is also a form of defiance. Dancers: A greeting card I made some years ago (pastel and water colour), repurposed for Southasiapeace.com and Sapannews.com.

In times that can feel dark and dismal, some good news and exciting updates.

Meet Sapan News — a unique media outlet that aims to cover and connect Southasia, the Indian Ocean and diaspora. That goes behind the headlines, connects communities, academics, activists, and more. Creating space for understanding, empathy and nuance.

  • In November, Sapan News qualified for NewsMatch, a philanthropic fund helping nonprofit newsrooms like ours in the U.S. Contributions made by year-end will get matched up to $15,000. Gratitude to our community that has stepped up to meet this challenge.
  • Those wanting to chip in are welcome – here’s the donate link for tax-deductible contributions.
  • A 100 new donors will secure a $1,000 bonus, and monthly donations initiated this month will get matched x12!
Donate now to double your impact

Thank you for your support. It means so much – and together, we are stronger.

Collaborations: Hello, Central Desi!

Sapan News is proud to partner with Central Desi, a dynamic news portal that started as a newsletter to cover all things ‘desi’ (Southasian) in New Jersey. Kudos to journalist Ambreen Ali for growing her passion project into a news org that won a major grant, enabling them to hire reporting fellows. Sapan News has much to learn from this initiative.

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Pakistani minority rights activists renew demands for justice after attacks on churches

Posted on August 23, 2023 by beenasarwar

The attacks on the Christian community in Jaranwala near Faisalabad (former Lyallpur) are among a long string of such violence instigated by extremist elements seeking power in the name of religion in Pakistan. I co-wrote this article for Sapan News with a young reporter in Karachi who was initially only reporting on Pakistan’s first Minority Rights March. Then Jaranwala happened. We now present a longish read putting the violence in context and tracking the trajectory of a turning point in the state’s responses, with a couple of inputs from India

By Abdullah Zahid and Beena Sarwar

Sapan News

  • Karachi protest at Teen Talwar, 19 August 2023. Photo: Abdullah Zahid
  • Karachi protest at Teen Talwar, 19 August 2023. Photo: Abdullah Zahid

“Manzoor Masih – will be remembered!… The Christians of Shanti Nagar – will be remembered!… Rimsha Masih – will be remembered!… ”

Activist and dancer Sheema Kermani led the chanting, evoking the names of a long list of Pakistani Christian individuals and communities targeted by extremist elements in the name of religion over the years. 

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Why do we need ‘restorative’ justice? Hear Ela Gandhi in South Africa

Posted on June 25, 2023 by beenasarwar

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 moderating Sapan Sunday discussion on Restorative Justice, Truth, and Reconciliation with Ela Gandhi,

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.

Read Ela Gandhi’s oped on Restorative justice – a compassionate approach to eradicating crime – a Sapan News syndicated feature available to re-publish with due credit.

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Two years of Sapan, honouring Lyse Doucet, a music competition, and more

Posted on March 24, 2023 by beenasarwar

Can you believe Sapan has been at it for two years?

That’s the Southasia Peace Action Network, Sapan, ICYMI (‘in case you missed it’ for the uninitiated, helping you get with it, you’re welcome)

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
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‘Can journalists be activists?’ – Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture 2023 – II

Posted on March 24, 2023 by beenasarwar

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.

Text of my talk below with slides.

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Filed under: Freedom of expression, journalism, Media, Pakistan, Southasia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A Bollywood lyricist’s daughter in Pakistan and other stories

Posted on February 13, 2023 by beenasarwar

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.

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May Day and Eid greetings: Solidarity with workers around the world and Southasia

Posted on May 2, 2022 by beenasarwar

It was activist friend Kavita Srivastava in Jaipur who suggested focusing on ‘Labour Rights and Democracy’ for our April event ahead of May Day. Like all Sapan events since launch in March 2022 – the Southasia Peace Action Network – this was also on the last Sunday of the month.

As usual, we live-streamed the discussion on FB – video at this link. We truly appreciate all the ‘likes’, comments and shares that help ensure that our voices are heard amidst the din.

Thanks to old friend and talented musician Arieb Azhar in Islamabad for agreeing to sing at the last minute. Dhonobad Khushi Kabir in Dhaka for transliterating the first verse of the workers’ anthem, The Internationale in Bangla for him. She knows them all by heart. Arieb also sang some of his own verses in Urdu, reflecting contemporary realities. He’s doing an English translation to add. Here’s the clip – thanks Priyanka Singh in Delhi for uploading it so fast.

Priyanka has a great affinity for music and poetry – she was reciting a poem at the online PIPFPD event in January 2021 where I first ‘met’ her. Not surprised she also took time out to post the extempore song by young Lucky Akter in Dhaka ended her presentation with. A former former student activist working with Bangladesh’s oldest and largest peasant organisation, Lucky’s stirring call for rights is lovely even if you don’t understand Bangla.

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RIP Saquib Hanif: A meticulous editor, generous friend, passionate cultural aficionado

Posted on February 8, 2022 by beenasarwar

Death brings people together. I had known Saquib Hanif and his wife Nadia Chundrigar for years in Karachi without really knowing them. We spent a lot of time together when they came to Boston 2015 for the funeral of Saquib’s childhood buddy, the brilliant Nasser Hussain, younger brother of one of my old school friends. Now, it is Saquib’s sudden death, aged just 57, that brings us together again.

Thanks to The News on Sunday for asking me to write his obituary, published on the same page as another obituary, of Tasneem Siddiqui, the top former ‘pro-people” bureaucrat and social activist who died recently from a cardiac arrest, aged 82. We had run into him at the Karachi Gymkhana just a couple of weeks earlier. He had attended a meeting on the morning he died.

Screenshots from The News on Sunday’s People page, 6 Feb. 2022. So many losses.
My 1991 piece in The Frontier Post about Tasneem Siddiqui’s groundbreaking affordable housing project Khuda Ki Basti, just being started at the time.

In the process of working on Saquib’s obituary, I talked to old friends Amra Ali and Salman Rashid – their contrasting views of Saquib would no doubt have amused him greatly. Also sharing Salman Rashid’s lovely video – he had talked to me about these aspects of Saquib the day before recording it.

I took the photos below the day Saquib and Nadia were leaving. There was intense grief, and yet we found it within ourselves to laugh.

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Chomsky among speakers at discussion on “9/11” and aftermath: Impact on SouthAsia and SouthAsians

Posted on September 26, 2021 by beenasarwar
Event banner

Marking two decades of the September 2001 attacks on New York City, global thought leaders and activists from across South Asia and the diaspora will meet across time zones this Sunday to discuss the impact of “9/11” on the region and its people.

The online event also commemorates the global International Peace Day, September 21.

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Filed under: 'War on terror', Afghanistan, History, Pakistan-India, Southasia, Terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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