When I was in college in the US, I dated someone who used to say, “I'm a Christian with a big crush on Islam.” I think it's safe to say that I'm a Sunni with a big crush on Shi'ism. This is a...
I had never even heard of Moon Market. Iqbal Town is several kilometres away from Gulberg, where I live and work, and is a kind of mini-city on its own. I visited there once, to drop a student home,...
It's an amazing thing, watching a woman's rights activist from my parents' generation in action. The passion that those women had at the height of the women's movement in the 80s when they were...
My grandmother, who's from Pittsburgh, was very afraid that I'd turn out not American enough, so she taught me the Pledge of Allegiance and the "Star-Spangled Banner," asking me to recite them every...
Popular culture in India depicts Punjabi girls as pretty and exuberant. Notwithstanding the perils of any generalization and the hyperbole of cinematic rendition, it is not far from the truth....
A cell-phone video of the flogging of a 17-year-old girl in Swat has garnered much public attention in Pakistan over the last two days. Barely recovered from the previous attack on Manawan police...
Rahman Malik, the Prime Minister's Advisor on the Interior, calls on the nation of Pakistan to party like it's 1965. Which is to say - unite, be nationalistic, perceive an external threat to the...
Last night, Lahore waited uncomfortably for the night to pass. The morning would bring the third day of the Long March. Lawyers, students, party workers, activists and ordinary people have been...
Late Tuesday morning, the Sri Lankan cricket team was driving towards Qaddhafi Stadium in the centre of Lahore to continue its test match against Pakistan when gunmen leapt out at them and shot from...
These last few weeks, Indian-American filmmaker Sarah Singh has been touring in Pakistan, screening her documentary, “The Sky Below”, and taking questions from an energetic Pakistani public. The...