Author Amardeep Singh shares a story from his travelogue. Photo: Beena Sarwar
“I experienced nothing but love in Pakistan,” says Amardeep Singh, author of the photo-illustrated travelogue “Lost Heritage – The Sikh Legacy In Pakistan”, published in January 2016 (Himalayan Books). Continue reading
Filed under: Culture, History, Pakistan-India, Travel | Tagged: Guru nanak, Pakistan, Sikh | Leave a comment »
My piece about the TCF fundraiser in Boston last weekend, published in The News on Sunday, May 15, 2016
Adil Najam, Nargis Mavalvala, Ateed Riaz at the speakers table. Photo: Beena Sarwar
Pitching in for education in Pakistan from Boston and beyond
Beena Sarwar
“The Citizens’ Foundation is doing an amazing job, and I’m honoured to be here,” said Nergis Mavalvala, giving the keynote address at the sold-out Third Annual The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) Boston Fundraiser on Saturday, 7 May, 2016.
Propelled to celebrity status by her role in the recent breakthrough on gravitational waves predicted by Einstein, the Pakistani-American astrophysicist at MIT added, “TCF is fantastic – give generously”. Continue reading
Filed under: Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: Adil Najam, Ateed Riaz, class barriers, co-education, Dover Rug, Education, Gender, Human rights, IBA, Nergis Mavalvala, Pakistan, peshawar, Shujat Ali Khan, tcf, women | 3 Comments »
Nergis Mavalvala: “The key to my success is the education I got as a girl in Pakistan”
Mavalvala to be keynote speaker at fundraiser for high-quality, low-income schools in Pakistan
BOSTON, May 04: Nergis Mavalvala, the Pakistani-American astrophysicist at MIT known for the part she played in the breakthrough on gravitational waves, will be a keynote speaker at the Third Annual The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) Boston Fundraiser on Saturday, May 7, 2016. Continue reading
Filed under: Education, Human rights, Terrorism | Tagged: 141 schools, APS attack, Bacha Khan Uni attack, Classical music, Pakistan, Pakistan expatriats, Salamat Ali Khan, Shujat Ali Khan, tcf, TCF USA | Leave a comment »
In Karachi last week, I wrote about Sabeen Mahmud and the Creative Karachi Festival held to commemorate her life and work. PRI published it with the title Remembering a Pakistani woman who died because she wanted everyone to have a space to speak freely along with my radio interview with Marco Werman of PRI’s The World. Below is the unabridged text including with more links and photos. Also see our friend Afia Salam’s tribute to Sabeen in The Wire, Why Sabeen Mahmud Will Always Matter.
A poster with Sabeen’s photo at CKF 2016 on a divider between a stall and walkway at the Alliance Francaise. Photo: Beena Sarwar
Beena Sarwar
Early on Sunday morning in Karachi, a small, eclectic crowd converged at The Second Floor, the iconic coffee shop-cultural hub founded by my young friend Sabeen Mahmud in 2007. Continue reading
Filed under: Balochistan, Freedom of expression, Pakistan, Peace, Progressive politics, Resistance | Tagged: #CKF, #Tree4Sabeen, Activism, Pakistan, Phool Pati, Sabeen, T2F, Truck Art | 2 Comments »
I wrote this for the Huffington Post after the attack on the Lahore park on Easter Sunday.
Aamir Qureshi/Getty Images
The horrific suicide bombing at a park in Lahore on Sunday that killed over 70 people, mostly women and children, is one of many assaults by religious hardliners in Pakistan who are striving to remain politically relevant and in the media limelight.
Filed under: Blasphemy Laws, Freedom of expression, Human rights | Tagged: blasphemy, Easter, Lahore blast, minorities, Pakistan, qadri | Leave a comment »
Very happy to be able to write about some good news – the recovery of Salmaan’s Taseer’s son Shahbaz Taseer, kidnapped nearly five years ago. Wrote this piece on March 8, 2016, for Scroll.in
The best news coming out of Pakistan this week was about the recovery on Tuesday of Shahbaz Taseer, the abducted son of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. The businessman, in his early thirties, had been kidnapped in August 2011 as he drove to his office in Lahore. Continue reading
Filed under: Blasphemy Laws, Human rights | Tagged: Balochistan, Gilani kidnapped son, kidnapped son, Kuchlak, Pakistan, salmaan taseer, Shahbaz Taseer recovered, Taliban | Leave a comment »
I earlier posted about resistance to the stifling of dissent in India, and why as a Pakistani it matters to me. The trend is visible in other parts of Southasia too, including of course Pakistan about which I’ve written a fair amount. Here’s an update from Bangladesh, where defamation, sedition cases and the attempts to silence the independent media are underway, as well as Chattisgarh, India.
Smiles and sedition. Photo: Andrew Biraj, Reuters
Filed under: Freedom of expression, Gender, Human rights, Southasia | Tagged: #StandWithJNU, Bangladesh, Bastar, Daily Star, Defamation, false allegations, hypernationalism, India, Mahfuz Anam, Maoist, Media, Pakistan, Sedition, Soni Suri, VAW | 2 Comments »
Aslam Azhar, Islamabad, 2013. Photo: Beena Sarwar
My personal tribute to a giant of progressive politics in Pakistan, published in The Friday Times on Jan 15, 2016, posted below with links that didn’t make it into the TFT copy.
By Beena Sarwar
Aslam. That’s what everyone, junior or senior, in the theatre group Dastak called him. He insisted upon it. That was just one aspect of Aslam Azhar, the founding father of Pakistan Television and already a legendary figure in the late 1980s. That was when I joined the theatre group that he had started in 1982 with his close friend and comrade Mansoor Saeed – who also insisted on being called Mansoor. Continue reading
Filed under: Art and activism, Progressive politics | Tagged: art, Aslam Azhar, culture, Galileo, Interview in Buenos Aires, Media, Pakistan, progressive politics, PTV | 2 Comments »
Screenshot from Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk, Geo TV, Jan 20, 2016
I wrote this piece on Jan 20, 2016 on the barbaric attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda. Published in Scroll.in on Jan 22, 2016.
By Beena Sarwar
There is now a numbing familiarity to the kind of news that broke on Wednesday morning from Pakistan.
This time, heavily armed militants in suicide vests scaled the walls of a sprawling university campus near Charsadda, a picturesque town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as North West Frontier) province near the Afghan border. Gunfire and explosions starting at about 9 am resounded through the dense fog enveloping Bacha Khan University, set idyllically amidst sugar cane fields some 13 km from Charsadda.
The four assailants killed at least 19 students and teachers before themselves being killed by the police and army in a three-hour long gun-battle.
The casualty rate was far lower than the attack on the Army Public School in nearby Peshawar just over a year ago on Dec 16, 2014 in which militants killed some 150 school children and teachers.
The relatively low casualties, pointed out Senator Rubina Khalid of the Pakistan People’s Party, is not a basis for self-congratulation.
Continue reading
Filed under: Terrorism, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: Bacha Khan University, charsadda, Ghaffar Khan, Media, Pakistan | Leave a comment »
Still from the cellphone video of an impromptu performance by students in Quetta.
This little music video just made my day when a friend sent it to me yesterday: a Spanish love song by his cousin Hamza Khan, with co-singer Syed Zaryab and guitarist Naveed Ahmed. Students at Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering and Management Sciences, BUITEMS, a leading private university in Quetta, they are also members of the Artists’ League Quetta (ALQ), a platform for the arts started by fellow student and self-taught dancer Farrukh Shaikh earlier this year. The group includes students from different departments in the University – including girls.
Filed under: Freedom of expression, Music, Peace | Tagged: BUITEMS, love song, music, Pakistan, Pishin, Quetta | 1 Comment »
Journeys to democracy 