This post was written by guest contributor Emaan Majed.  On my grandmother’s dresser, there is a pink tube of cleverly marketed whitening cream. She applies it daily, despite being quite pale, despite claiming to hate the colonizers from whom it stems, despite being a health-freak and knowing that it contains hints of mercury. My grandmother […]

Several weeks ago, I wrote a brief profile on Zubeida Mustafa, recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).  My initial coverage of Mustafa’s achievements was based on snippets I had read from a number of profiles online.  Since then, however, I have had the unique privilege of interviewing […]

“A reporter must ignore critics and write the truth, Mustafa said. ‘Even if it is a tiny little drop in the ocean, you know you have made a contribution,’ she said. ‘So then you can have a clear conscience.’” – From an article on Zubeida Mustafa by the International Women’s Media Foundation The past couple […]

“When someone wants to be an artist, because they cannot let what’s going on around them stay the same, achieving fame in the world of art becomes unimportant.” –Alma Suljevic I am a lover of all art forms, including cinema; the Women Make Movies initiative, and the kind of varied and thought-provoking cinema they help […]

On a recent grocery store run, my father and I overheard an interesting exchange between two male store attendants about Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old activist from Pakistan’s northern Swat region who was targeted recently for her outspoken views on education.  While one of the attendants bemoaned her fate, his friend, a young Pathan, speaking with […]

Of late, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has become the unfortunate target of tabloid headlines here in the sub-continent (and beyond, I expect, as the story continues to go viral). According to an “expose” in the Weekly Blitz (a Bangladeshi tabloid), Pakistan’s top diplomat is allegedly embroiled in a passionate affair with Bilawal Zardari […]

There’s something interesting, in that facepalm sort of way, about the manner in which the South Asian female form is constructed and seen through the North American media gaze. The characterizations of the South Asian female differ from country to country in the subcontinent, from Bangladesh to Pakistan to India to Afghanistan. Despite these differences, […]

Recently, I’ve come across two articles on marriage, each published months apart in the New York Times.  The first is an introspective piece that advocates marriage within a Western setting, and the other addresses the apparent prevalence of free-will marriages in Pakistan.  While the first discusses a past romantic relationship and how the author eventually […]

For me, growing up as an expat, Ramadan has been largely about celebrating my Pakistani heritage.  Living in Buenos Aires, in the late 80s when Muslim communities were still a rarity, the act of observing and celebrating such an occasion was often relegated to a handful of Pakistanis who were able to brave sundown in […]

After spending the past few weeks delving into President Obama’s foreign policy strategies, discussing the Rochdale case and surviving steamy temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, I was looking forward to covering something upbeat and inspiring. The appearance of Pakistani sous chef Fatima Ali on Chopped, a cooking competition on the Food Network, provided the […]