Sexual abuse: Can we protect Amna?
Child sexual abuse is probably the least acknowledged forms of abuse in Pakistan. It is like Pandora’s Box, that no one is ready to open. Children, and even adults are not educated enough about certain incidents and their prevention. Middle East Media Research Institute reports that 2,012 cases of child sexual abuse were recorded from all over Pakistan during 2009. This means approximately 3.3 children were sexually abused per day. Of the victims 68% were girls and 32% were boys. It is suspected that the number is much higher. Girls are more likely to be targeted by family members, acquaintances ...
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“If you speak up for Ahmadis, Hazaras, you are Anti-Pakistan”
“I think its natural for Pakistanis in USA to speak ill of this country.. Kashif , your hate for Pakistan is admirable .. Didnt you get your Medical training from that country??? you dont love Pakistan… lets admit this.. Look at your posts” Ajnabi Rastay These were the accusations levied against me recently on a Facebook forum. I was labeled anti-Pakistan. What had I done? Did I curse Pakistan? Did I burn its flag? Did I take out a “Go Pakistan! Go!” procession in the centre of downtown Manhattan? None of the above. All I had done was share news items on the persecution of the Hazara Shia ...
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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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Why Babar Awan chose to shut up
A friend of mine recently sent me this clip of Babar Awan’s interview on one of my favorite shows Point Blank hosted by Mubashir Lucman. In the show the federal law minister uses a weapon that many politicians don’t know how to use against the media -the power of silence. One of my instructors at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting used to tell the class that “silence is death of the broadcast media.” I believe that it was a slight miscalculation on Lucman’s part that gave Awan the opportunity to utilize the potent weapon of silence. Lucman put forth a few questions to Awan ...
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