I am Pakistan

Get to know Pakistan through a unique lens each week. We the people are Pakistan.

[publicshaming]

On Sunday September 15, 2013, Miss America 2014 was crowned. Who will be the new Miss America?

24 year old Miss New York, Nina Davuluri. Born in Syracuse, New York and having lived in Oklahoma and Michigan, Nina Davuluri is the first ever Indian American crowned Miss America.

When Nina was...

[pakistancurates-blog]

This is sooo ridiculous and horrifying, now you are declared a terrorist based on your skin colour. As if demonizing muslims wasnt enough, all brown people are "terrorist". Thank you FoxNews for creating this mindseet and unleashing a bunch of racisit morons upon this world.

[bloglikeanegyptian]

an evening of reading the most awful misogynistic articles on dumb islamic websites has lead me to this:

i’ve always kind of wanted to do a webcomic starring a badass muslim superhero who defends women against the kind of stupid idiocy we have to put up with every day whilst shutting up all the white feminists who try to co-opt the struggle.

i actually sincerely want to develop this because do you REALIZE the potential behind a hijabi/niqabi superhero like her outfit comes with a ready-made abaya-cape and a mask so i’m really into it but yeah this is sort of a quick brain storming comic for the entire concept lemme know if you like it.

[awkwardsituationist]

cambridge university students were asked on campus why they needed feminism. here are 60 answers. click the link for over 600 more.

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Mohammad Zahid- This Weeks Curator (03/06/13-09/06/13)

Tweets as: @Mr_Zii

Abu Dhabi based IT Planner who loves F1 and WWE. In process of balancing contexts and contents of life.

[seppin]

An Iranian channel ran a story about how a certain kind of martial arts is enjoying increasing popularity among Iranian women. This means that a) Iranian women have rights, b) Iranian women can access the public sphere, c) Iranian women participate in organized, public sports, and d) an Iranian government news channel has no problem with any of this.

Faced with these facts, the Western media panicked: some news agencies resorted to the stereotype of Iranian women as veiled, militant fanatics; others opted for infantilizing portrayals of suffering women using martial arts as their only escape. Can you imagine any self-respecting Western reporter writing a story that explained, unprovoked, the popularity of karate among girls in suburban Los Angeles by citing America’s high rates of sexual assault? Additionally, few bothered to mention that recently it has been Western sports organizations that have prevented Iranian women from playing, for example in 2011 forcing the Iranian women’s soccer team to forfeit hope of reaching the Olympics because they wore sports hijabs on the field.

Narratives of weak or militant Iranian women are not just dishonest; they also fuel a political narrative whereby Islamism is equated with backwardness and the ability of women to reconcile Islamic ideals with feminist goals is entirely obfuscated. Both Western conservatives and many secular feminists often participate in this obfuscation, effectively trying to either hide Iranian women’s successes in order to demonize Iran or by ignoring the ideologies of liberation they have formulated in order to preserve the status of secular feminism as the only path to women’s liberation.

[seppin]

Read the entire article. You can follow ajammc on tumblr here. 

[nashadelic-blog]

It was after Bilal Riaz’s funeral prayer. We were in line taking turns to console his father; retired Major General Nasim Riaz, a well known senior anesthesiologist. Bilal had been killed the day before along with 36 others in one of the most brutal attacks we had seen in Pakistan. He had gone...

[pakistancurates-blog]

Heartbreaking

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Fahad Umar - This Week's Curator (26/05/13-02/06/13)

Tweets as @fahadumar

I am Fahad Umar, 25, a finance graduate, currently associated with an investment advisory firm. Books are my best companion. Chocolates and ice cream my weaknesses. I like to keep a positive attitude, enjoy little things in life, earn a smile from others. And I have a passable sense of humor.

[rachelhills]

So. As some of you know, I co-facilitate a monthly feminist discussion group here in London. At our last meeting, one of our members suggested we focus our June discussion on racism and white privilege, and I thought it was a brilliant idea.

But here’s the thing. The majority of our...

[isqineeha]

Pakistani Woman - Emirati Artist Fatema Al Mazrouie

[mehreenkasana]

This is brilliant. The statements in Urdu on the sides are beautiful.

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Andaleeb Rizvi- This Week's Curator (22/05/13-28/05/13)

Tweets as @AndaleebRizvi

An architect, a City Editor in Daily Times, teaching at Karachi University as a visiting faculty in the Architecture department, I dabble in feminism, atheism, Sufism  constructivism, deconstructivism... all these isms and so many more. And if this was all, maybe writing my own bio would not have been such a drag, but it is, always has been. Apart from experimenting in journalism, writing my thoughts, opinions, poems, experiences on my blog, I paint, draw, sketch, make jewellery, do photography, and if I am not doing that, I rant on FB and Twitter.

I am all that I write, say, draw, make, and still none of it. For a better idea, you might want to visit my blog @ http://andaleeb-rizvi.blogspot.com/ orhttp://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/ where I post whatever piques my interest. https://www.facebook.com/Andaleebswork

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Syed Mahmood Kazmi- This Week's Curator (12/05/13-19/05/13)

Tweets as @SMahmoodKazmi

I am a Youth Activist, Volunteer, Social Worker, blogger, writer, Young Leader, an award-winning public speaker, debater! I am currently involved with different projects for the sustainable development. I love to serve humanity Voluntarily and this is something genetic in my case. I have been serving humanity from 2005 and dedication of serving voluntarily in my life is running at it's fastest pace!  I’m living in beautiful city Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan. I am student of MSc Sociology. I’m Volunteer, Youth Activist, blogger, Emergency response Team leader, Youth &Volunteerism advocate and Social Worker in Pakistan. I love to make new friends. I want to explore the whole world and want to make everyone my friend. I love honest, hard-working  devoted people like me :p I want to contribute my part towards betterment of the World. I am writer at ONE SAFE WORLD FOR WOMAN and ITALIAN FIRST FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE (The Post Internazionale) 

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Nuzhat Saadia Siddiqi- This Week's Curator (05/05/13-12/05/13)

Tweets a @guldaar

Nuzhat is a conservationist, writer, amateur chef, and hoarder of odd old objects. She was born in Bahawalpur and considers herself an honourary Seraiki person, although the only thing close to Seraiki in her blood is the sugar from the Sohn Halwa she so loves. A Mass Communications graduate, she’s currently pursuing a masters degree in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology and works for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), where she spends most of her time and energy promoting the cause of environment and sustainability. An avid reader, she also collects books as donations to build small libraries in under-privileged schools, and her tight-knit book club can be found haunting Lahore’s parks on alternate weekends. As one of the chief organizers of TEDxLahore, she is also proud to see that the TEDx phenomena has gone supernova in the country, with several quality events taking place each year. She contributes irregularly to several publications, blogs at http://runninginlahore.wordpress.com and mouths off on.

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Sana Rahim - This Weeks Curator (28/04/13-05/04/13)

Tweets as: @SanaRahim

Sana Rahim is a 23 year old Pakistani American. Her family is Punjabi and hails from Lahore. She is currently a Sales Operations Supervisor. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, with a major in English Literature and a minor in Political Science. 

At Northwestern, Sana served as the Co-Director for The Global Engagement Summit, a conference focused on building the capacity of youth to affect social change. She worked with a number of Pakistani delegates while directing the Summit. In 2009, Sana worked at the Istanbul Bilgi Human Rights Research Center where she analyzed legal implementation of women's rights legislation. In 2010, Sana received The Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Grant to further explore gender equality in Turkey, specifically identifying and analyzing best practices and approaches of women’s NGOs. Sana conducted case studies in 9 cities to analyze the varying socioeconomic factors that influenced NGO approach towards women's rights. Most recently, Sana served as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. As a Fellow, she worked on interfaith projects and raised funds for malaria prevention in Atlanta, GA. 

Sana is passionate about the power of social media and is constantly thinking of new and innovative ways to spread awareness about women's rights issues amongst Muslim communities. In the future, she hopes to spend time in Pakistan working alongside the brave women that are fighting extremism and discrimination everyday.

[whataboutmebruh]

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Shazia Amir- This Weeks Curator (21/04/13-28/04/13)

Tweets as: @Aaliyan_

Hi I'm a 39 yr old A pure pakistani at heart.. born in Karachi & brought up in Lahore.. A graduate from college of Home Economics, lahore . Married and a mom of 2 darling angels, my prime reason of existence. Love photography, driving and skill based arts n crafts.  Love to talk to people.. Read and listen to music on recommendation same is with movies.. 

My view about people is that they need to use commonsense more on a routine basis.. They need to be more decent in addressing others especially on social media.

[wizardshavethephonebox]

[pakistancurates-blog]

Meet Sophia Ahmed- This Week's Curator (14/04/13-21/04/13)

Tweets as: @sophiaahmed

a reformed Chartered Accountant, believes passionately in an equitable & just society. She is particularly interested in education innovation tools for Pakistan & is critical of people who refuse to #payitforward