Posted on December 1, 2012 by beenasarwar
Tom Salamone of Minisink, New York addresses a rally in front of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission on Nov 15, opposing a natural gas compressor station being built in Minisink. Credit: Asha Canalos
My article for InterPress Service a couple of days ago: Local Opposition Rises Against Fracking Proposal
By Beena Sarwar
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov 27 2012 (IPS) – Efforts to promote the use of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of obtaining oil and natural gas, face stiff opposition from researchers and citizens who say that in its present form, the technology’s risks far outweigh its worth. Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Active Citizens, civil society, Energy, Environment, Featured, Fracking, Headlines, Human rights | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 19, 2012 by beenasarwar
Iqbal Haider: A firm believer in secular values.
My article for The News on Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 – in which I forgot to mention the resolution Iqbal Haider tried to get the Senate to pass against the cold-blooded murder of young Saima Sarwar in the office of Hina Jillani at the behest of her own parents, simply because she wanted a divorce from her abusive husband. Some senators from FATA physically attacked him for it (See my article ‘There is no ‘honour’ in killing).
Beena Sarwar
The protests outside Karachi Press Club will be all the poorer without Senator Syed Iqbal Haider’s energising presence. Activists promoting any good cause could count on him to be there — whether it was justice for Mukhtaran Mai, protest against Shia killings, or a call for peace between India and Pakistan. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: blasphemy, honour killing, Human rights, Iqbal Haider, Pakistan, saima sarwar, VAW | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 6, 2012 by beenasarwar
This is a slightly longer version of my interview of Bangladeshi photographer-activist Shahidul Alam published in Latitude News, May 4, 2012, with reference to his exhibition at Queen’s Museum in New York. The exhibition is an attempt to internationalise the issue of extra-judicial killings. Thousands have been killed in such ‘crossfire’, allegedly at the hands of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) that the U.S. and UK governments have been training and providing arms to.
Crossfire launch at Queens Museum. Photo: Beena Sarwar
In “Crossfire,” an exhibition of photographs at the Queens Museum of Art in New York that closes on Sunday the 6th, acclaimed Bangladeshi photographer and activist Shahidul Alam chronicles the extra-judicial killings allegedly committed by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB.Over a thousand victims have been ‘cross-fired,’ or executed by police without trial, in the last four years in the South Asian country, human rights activists claim. Many more people, perhaps thousands in total, have suffered similar fates, they say. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Bangladesh, crossfire, Drik Picture Library, extra-judicial, Human rights, Majority World, Queens Museum, Shahidul Alam | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 31, 2012 by beenasarwar
“Allow Woeser the freedom to express and to travel”: Prominent Asian intellectuals appeal for Tsering Woeser
Chinese authorities have not only prevented the Tibetan writer and historian Tsering Woeser from receiving the prestigious Prince Claus Award for 2011 in Beijing (being awarded by the Dutch Ambassador to China) but her movements within Beijing have been restricted, says a statement issued from Kathmandu by Prince Claus laureates Arif Hasan (Karachi, Pakistan), Ganesh Devy (Vadodara, India), Jyotindra Jain (New Delhi, India), Kanak Mani Dixit (Kathmandu, Nepal) and Mehrdad Oskouei (Tehran, Iran). Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Arif Hasan, China, Human rights, Kanak Dixit, Prince Claus award, Tibet, Tsering Woeser | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 4, 2012 by beenasarwar
Citizens’ statement of concern about the democratic process in Pakistan democratic and safety of human rights defenders, to be released to the media on Jan 5, 2012 (to endorse, please enter your information in the form at this link)
We, the undersigned, express our grave concern that Pakistani human rights defenders are being threatened and intimidated for their stance in the ‘memogate’ case. We are also concerned at the danger this crisis poses to Pakistan’s democratic political process that had taken a step forward with the elections of 2008. Continue reading →
Filed under: Pakistan, Progressive politics | Tagged: Activism, agencies, Asma Jahangir, democracy, Human rights, Husain Haqqani, judiciary, memogate, Pakistan, security establishment, supreme court | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 30, 2011 by beenasarwar
It is an outrage and a violation of freedom of expression that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) continues to block Baloch Hal in Pakistan at a time when this voice needs to be heard across the country now, more than ever. Reproduced below, BH editorial pegged on the target killing of Dr Baqir Shah (emphasis added):
Editorial: War Against Baloch Doctors
File photo of Dr Baqir Shah after being injured in an earlier attack 14 June 2011. Dr Shah was the police surgeon who conducted the autopsy on five foreigners shot dead by police and FC personnel on 17 May at the Kharotabad checkpost, Quetta.
The late police surgeon was somewhat an easy target for terrorists for a host of reasons. His situation could enable any murderer to immediately vanish in thin air because of the circumstances that shrouded the late doctor. He gained enormous national and international media attention after conducting the postmortem of five foreigners who were killed on May 17 in what is now remembered as the infamous and tragic Kharotabad incident. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: baloch hal, baloch hal blocked, Balochistan, Baqir Shah, doctors without borders, Human rights, kharotabad, msf, Pakistan | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 19, 2011 by beenasarwar
Zarteef Afridi's latest photo. Courtesy: HRCP
A tribute to the human rights activist Zarteef Khan Afridi who was shot dead recently – my article in The News on Sunday. Latitude News earlier published a shorter, different version titled In Pakistan, an unlikely hero dies for his cause. Also see my earlier article: Pakistan’s ‘enlightenment’ martyrs
The tribesman who showed the way
There was the letter from an anonymous writer saying he was going to hunt down and kill her. And then there was the letter from an Afridi tribesman offering to come down and protect her.
This was in the mid-1990s. The recipient of the letters was the fiery human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, under threat for having taken on the case of Salamat Masih, the illiterate Christian boy sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’ for having allegedly written sacrilegious words on the walls of a village mosque. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: adult education, afghan war, Asma Jahangir, Benazir Bhutto, blasphemy, Citizen Rights & Sustainable Development, CRSD Peshawar, Education, fata, Gender, HRCP, Human rights, Idrees Kamal, Jamrud, Khyber, mujahideen, nasim wali, Pakistan, Political Parties Act extended to Fata, salamat masih, women elections, women stopped from voting, Zarteef Afridi | 6 Comments »
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 November 9, 2011 by beenasarwar
Another one. Javed Naseer Rind
Interview: Beena Sarwar on Journalism and Safety in Pakistan
Published in Asia Society blog, November 8th, 2011
The body of missing Pakistani journalist Javed Naseer Rind was found on Saturday in a remote part of the troubled Pakistani province of Balochistan, marking the seventh death of a Pakistani journalist in 2011 and placing Pakistan on pace to rank as the world’s deadliest place for journalists for the second year in a row, according to a report by The Committee to Protect Journalists.
Rind, an editor and columnist with the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Tawar, was kidnapped in his hometown of Hub in southern Balochistan province. The discovery of his body paints a bleak picture of the working conditions for journalists in the troubled country, who battle pressures on the international front from the war on terror and human rights and ideological issues at home. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Another Pakistan, asia society, Balochistan, cpj, democracy, Human rights, javed rind, jouranlist killed, journalism, Pakistan | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 8, 2011 by beenasarwar
Cartoon by Sabir Nazir | Viewpointonline.net
Originally published in Viewpoint Online, Nov 3, 2011
No shortcuts
Beena Sarwar
Watching Libyans celebrate the toppling of their dictator two things come to mind. First, Gaddafi’s apparent extra-judicial murder after being captured must be condemned. Secondly, a cautionary reminder: don’t expect the death or removal of a dictator to mark the end of the struggle. It is just the beginning of another struggle, an even messier one — the political process known as democracy. We in Pakistan know this all too well. Dictators die or get toppled but their legacies live on. Their creations like Zaid Hamid may lose, even as the creator Gen Zia wins (see Anas Abbas’ de-construction of this phenomenon at his blog) Continue reading →
Filed under: Blasphemy Laws | Tagged: blasphemy, democracy, HRCP, Human rights, I.A. Rehman, Libya, Pakistan, taseer, tns, viewpoint | 3 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 