Sameera Rashid

Progressive writers and intellectuals who questioned some of the assumptions about the new state were also silenced with censorship, court cases and imprisonment. Saadat Hassan Manto, whose writings depicted, in an uncanny manner, the creeping religiosity, mob vigilantism and the increasing power of the generals, was categorised as reactionary and obscene, and he repeatedly attended […]

On the fateful day of September 11, 2001, as airplanes crashed into the twin towers in New York, little did people know in Pakistan, especially those living in towns bordering Afghanistan, that their lives and destinies would change forever. Pakistan joined the War on Terror after the then American president, George W Bush, declared that […]

Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, in his hauntingly beautiful novel Who killed Palomino Molero? chronicles the attempts of entrenched power players to block the investigation of the murder of Palomino by an honest police officer. Llosa’s skill as a novelist lies not in hiding the identity of the perpetrator of the crime, for […]

After staying in India for three months on a study abroad programme, Michaela Cross, a university student, reported her experience of sexual harassment in India on the CNN website in a story titled, “India: the story that you never wanted to hear.” Michaela Cross’s experience of India was mixed, veering from “half-dream” to “half-nightmare”, but […]

In a modern era of nation states and multilateral defence organisations, national governments respond to border disputes and acrimonious claims about national sovereignty in a variety of ways. The responses range from outright war to diplomatic skirmishes to creative resolution of disputes. However, India and Pakistan, in the case of the flare-up on borders, often […]

Sometimes glorious revolutions can veer away from their lofty ideals. In the poem French Revolution as it Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement, William Wordsworth rapturously glorified the momentous event as “pleasant exercise of hope and joy”. Later, as the Revolution descended into chaos and violence, he became disillusioned with the revolutionary spirit and lamented […]

The military-regime appointed President Adly Mansour said in his inaugural speech that the removal of Mohamed Morsi as president of Egypt by the army has “corrected the path of glorious revolution that took place on 25 January, 2011,” and that revolution must continue until “we stop producing tyrants.” This is at best an Orwellian statement […]

On May 7, late in the evening, as I opened my facebook account, I was surprised to see my newsfeed filled with ‘Get Well Soon’ messages for Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). Whatsoever might be our political affiliation, we must ungrudgingly accept that the former cricket captain has touched a raw nerve amongst […]