Maulvi breaks a leg – literally
I was 6-years old. Images of a long beard, flecks of spit flying out of an infuriated mouth, and an unforgiving cane had robbed me of my sleep. I was sobbing miserably, twisting and turning in my bed, in the middle of the night while my-eight-year-old sister tried desperately to console me. My hysteria must have awoken my father, who came in to my room and asked in alarm: “What’s wrong, my jaan?” “I’m very scared of Maulvi sahab” came the reply from my quivering lips. My infuriated father probed me and prodded me as to what the Maulvi sahab had done ...
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Of Shab-e-Barat fun
What a blessed festival our Shab-e-Barat is – or was. Let’s forget the bloodletting going on all around us for a while and the games people play around it and talk about the colourful lights associated with the festival – about its phuljharis (sparklers), mehtabis (flares), anars and patakhas (crackers). But today the Shab-e-Barat characterised by these fireworks is no more than a memory. It’s a sign of the times that the festivals that used to bring fun and happiness to Pakistani children are now so devoid of joy. What little remains, faces an imminent threat of an edict declaring it ...
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Selling rewards for the after-life
Sex – and anything remotely connected to sex – sells. Whether its one-liners in Nandos ads punning on ‘peri-peri hot chicks’ or a Twitter upload of Anthony Weiner’s manhood, sexual innuendos are popular. Don’t ask me why – I’m not a social scientist and I don’t purport to know why people are so interested in the act. I just know that they are. And this YouTube video proves my point. This ‘scholar’ (I hate to use this word to describe him, but this is a public forum and I am going to maintain a certain level of respect) is preaching his ...
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Manal al-Sharif: The caged bird also sings
“It is not a revolution, it is not a plot, it is not a gathering and it is not a protest — we are only requesting to drive our cars.” The above message was posted on one of the many groups which have sprouted on Facebook supporting Manal al-Sharif’s brave initiative. An IT security consultant at ARAMCO, the biggest oil company in Saudi Arabia, Manal al-Sharif is a brilliant, sophisticated woman asking for something that should have been a given: driving her own car. The House of Saud Saudi Arabia has largely been immune to the revolutions sweeping the region. The discontented Shia minority in ...
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Confessions of a ‘heretic’
It was like a nightmare. Dark shadows, mysterious phone calls, dreaming of death -there should have been a reason for all of this, but there was none. I had been declared an accursed heretic. I could feel them chasing me down, chopping me into pieces and celebrating wildly afterwards. I could sense the happiness they would gain from spilling my blood. The days were getting darker. I was alive but there was a deadly silence around me. Suddenly, my friends had stopped talking to me and so called ‘moderate’ art teachers started discriminating against me. My once ‘liberal’ social ...
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Who is the real Muslim?
Islam is not complicated, Muslims are. When I say I am Muslim, I should not feel the need to categorise myself as an extremist, moderate or liberal. I either practise my religion or don’t, but as long as I believe in one God and the Holy Prophet (pbuh), I am as much of a Muslim as anyone else. The reaction of several hard-line religious groups at the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, if compared to my reaction and, of course, a very large number of others, confuses me. I claim to be a Muslim and yet I condemn the ...
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