There's a current fashion trend in #Pakistan that's facing violent reprisals. Many women are going out in public, with headscarves and dresses that have #Arabic or #Urdu alphabet letters imprinted on them, only to be confronted with accusations of #blasphemy. Back in December, Fizza Abbas, journalist, poet and writer, ventured out to a bookshop with … Continue reading Fizza Abbas’ Personal Run-in With Blasphemy
Blogs
Vulnerability requires sensitivity & more police women
I was recently asked by the Director of SecurityWomen to write about my experiences with the police. The organisation calls for more women in the security sector in all countries that comprise the UN. Women disproportionately suffer in male-dominated systems, at work, at home and in societies and communities that relegate them. In regard to … Continue reading Vulnerability requires sensitivity & more police women
Survivors
Monday 14th September, 2020 Bhaji, I’m still waging against the insanity that your life changed permanently last week. In this culture she can be branded a whore for not bringing his cup of tea on time. Leered at for wanting financial independence - or just independence. Control. Abuse. Dismissed. The Pakistani female experience requires desensitised … Continue reading Survivors
Radical Within Reason
'InfidelsAreUs' has lost its relevance. Those who have recently stumbled across my ad-hoc pieces won't be familiar with this tag-line. During the summer of 2014, I met a British Pakistani female activist via twitter and we immediately hit it off, to the point where when she stressed the need for me to publicise my pent-up … Continue reading Radical Within Reason
Ode to Chongqing
Dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty Hard-worked, humbled, bound by duty Fascination with the foreign: stops & stares Watching alien faces gaze upon their wares Smiles & excitement: young children pointing in curiosity Cultural exchanges & confusions, sporadic results of hostility Lack of knowledge of the 'other', filtered concept of reality Irrelevance of language barriers through hearty … Continue reading Ode to Chongqing
Radical Within Reason 