Miranda Husain

Enid Blyton was responsible for much mayhem during my childhood trips to Pakistan, which took place every winter. In fact, this was where my head first got turned by Fatty and the Five-Finder Outers — including, of course, Buster the dog. On the rare occasions when I was home alone with no cousins of my […]

My first humiliation took place at Woolworths. It was 1970s London. And, back then, my world was full of strawberry aero chocolate bars and Enid Blyton tales of boarding school frolics and devilish insubordination.  All washed down with lashings of ginger pop. In other words, my world was overwhelmingly white. Except that my Pakistani father […]

There we were. Eight of us huddled on the deck of a small boat. Sailing along the Yangtze River, through the majestic Three Gorges Dam. Seven of us were with Voluntary Service Overseas. Which, back then, represented the rather more respectable way of embarking upon roughly guided adventurism throughout the lonely planet. The universities where […]

It was a scene that would not be out of place on the Real Housewives of ISIS, the satirical BBC sketch show aired at the beginning of the year. Picture this: amid the snide comments about who wears a suicide vest the best — the camera flips to zoom in on an American president’s meeting […]

Long gone are Pakistan’s days of Enlightened Moderation with a uniformed enemy combatant president at the helm, known for his love of whisky and dogs.  Alas, no more images are to be had of a khaki-clad Musharraf beaming from ear-to-ear while clutching a beloved Pekingese under each arm. We can only guess at the reason […]

Poor Marine Le Pen. Fabricated thoughts of how France is not yet ready to be ruled by a woman will be of little comfort. Especially as the man who robbed her of the chance to finally outshine her father was not even contesting this election. He was not even French. Zut alors! That particular honour […]

Consider the scene.  A man with untold blood on his hands finds himself in the state’s warm embrace. The military establishment, keen to keep his head firmly pressed to its bosom where it belongs, has gone the extra mile. With a single swoosh of its magic wand, which comes in a rather dashing little khaki-camouflage […]

Consider the scene.  A man with untold blood on his hands finds himself in the state’s warm embrace. The military establishment, keen to keep his head firmly pressed to its bosom where it belongs, has gone the extra mile. With a single swoosh of its magic wand, which comes in a rather dashing little khaki-camouflage […]

One year after Brexit and Britain will be where it should have been last June — going to the polls in a snap election. Yet the winner here is not British democracy. Nor, indeed, was it when the prime minister, who likes everyone to call him Dave, saw fit to resign over a non-binding referendum […]

Poor Malala. She has gone from being the bravest girl in the world to the most unfortunate. And to think, she was supposed to give us hope, much like Jo’anna. At least till the morning light. Yet from the moment the school going activist found herself with a bullet to the head in a bid […]