Relief at Zeenat Shehzadi’s recovery

Posted on October 26, 2017 by beenasarwar

Zeenat-%22Quaid and daughter of Quaid%22 2014I wrote this piece for The Wire on Oct. 24, after hearing that the young journalist-activist Zeenat Shehzadi who “disappeared” over two years ago, has been recovered. A brief re-cap of what happened and how her case is linked to that of a young Indian man whose case she had been following after his “disappearance” in Pakistan. 

Pakistani Reporter Zeenat Shahzadi, Who Disappeared While Searching for Indian Man, Reappears

The Pakistani journalist-activist – who had gone missing in August 2015 – has paid a heavy price for wanting to uphold humanitarianism and the principles of social justice.

Five days before she was due to testify before Pakistan’s Commission of Enquiry on Enforced Disappearances in August 2015, 24-year-old journalist-activist Zeenat Shahzadi herself became a disappeared person. She remained missing until her parents received word on Friday – October 19, 2017 – that she had been recovered.

Shahzadi’s mother has spoken to her and reported that she was alright. The family would like to be left alone and not pressed for more details.   [Read more…]

Filed under: Freedom of expression, Human rights, Pakistan-India, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

My Princeton journalism class “favorited”

Posted on May 26, 2017 by beenasarwar
From the Princeton student blog

Thrilled and touched to see my class listed among a student’s favorite classes at Princeton, where I was a visiting professor of journalism last fall. Here’s the text: 

Kevin: I can’t stress it enough: Journalism (JRN 457): “Politics, Causes, and Culture in a Changing Media Landscape,” essentially a journalism ethics class, is by far my favorite course that I’ve had at Princeton. Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar led the course, and brought all of her friends; almost every week we were visited by the who’s who in journalism.  We talked to some pretty incredible people, including journalists who work in television and print, writers for The New York Times and Reuters, and international reporters from Nepal and the Netherlands. Two of the nine visitors were Pulitzer Prize winners. 

The best thing is that journalism classes are seminars with 10-15 students.  With a small class and required biweekly meetings, students always get to know the professor. I’m working for The GroundTruth Project, an international news non-profit, this summer in Washington, D.C., because my professor recommended me for the job!

The class wrote the blog theprincetonglobe.wordpress.com, if you’d like to learn more about what kind of work we did in the course. 

Thank you Kevin, it was a pleasure and honor being your teacher 🙂 

Filed under: journalism | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Don’t snuff out the lights

Posted on April 14, 2017 by beenasarwar

The horrific murder of a journalism student lynched on a university campus in Mardan on April 13 after being accused of ‘blasphemy’, 2017 has revived the urgency of coming together on a joint platform with a minimum common agenda to uphold humanitarian values. Nothing will bring back Mashal Khan, a poet, self-declared humanist and “voice of the voiceless”, but we can at least try to ensure that no other mother loses her Mashal (light) to such barbaric ignorance and orchestrated violence.

Mashal Khan: student, poet, humanist, “voice of the voiceless”

We drafted this statement a few months after the massacre of schoolchildren in Peshawar, signed by over a hundred activists, teachers, lawyers and other professionals as well as students in March 2015: Pakistanis against terrorism: Minimum common agenda against violence in the name of religion – below. Does it need to be amended or updated?  Continue reading →

Filed under: Blasphemy Laws, Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

The importance of representation: “Put us in the news!”

Posted on March 30, 2017 by beenasarwar

Morse School students use ribbons to express their support for immigrant families.

I wrote this piece after a discussion with fourth and fifth graders at a public school in Cambridge MA; slightly different versions published in the Cambridge Chronicle and The News on Sunday. The students’ desire to be “in the news” reflects what I believe is one of journalism’s key roles – to ensure that the voices of the under-represented get heard. The selfie-culture sweeping the world isn’t just about narcissism. It speaks to the human need to be affirmed and remembered. I was here. See me. Hear me. 

PERSONAL POLITICAL

By Beena Sarwar

“Did you see our ribbons? They are for immigrant families,” says Emma, one of half a dozen 9 and 10-year olds I’m talking to about journalism on a bitterly cold weekend in March.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Art and activism, democratic political process, Media, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Lessons for journalists from a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer

Posted on December 28, 2016 by beenasarwar

Beena Sarwar

Notes from the Nieman Pulitzer 100 event in Cambridge MA, “POWER: Accountability and Abuse,” presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University 

wynton-marsalis-nieman-pulitzer-100
Sep. 9, 2016

Cambridge, MA: The thousand-seater Sanders Theatre filled up fast in anticipation of the Wynton Marsalis concert that was kicking off the Nieman Pulitzer 100 event, a few days before my first journalism class at Princeton University. No photography or videos of the performance were allowed but I figured the rule didn’t apply before they started playing so I sneaked a quick photo. Continue reading →

Filed under: Music, Resistance | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

On Dec 16, 2011, remembering Anthony Mascarenhas

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: , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

Journalism and safety in Pakistan (my take, in Asia Society blog)

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: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Free Dorothy Parvaz

Posted on May 15, 2011 by beenasarwar

Filed under: Media | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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