South Asia Citizens Web

Lahore, 8 September 2018. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious concern over the government’s decision to withdraw its nomination of Dr Atif Mian for the Economic Advisory Council (EAC). In a statement issued today, HRCP has said:

. . . there is much to reflect upon in post-colonial Pakistan when feminists who draw global attention to cases of gender abuse are warned not to ‘wash their dirty laundry in public’ and are routinely labelled ‘native informants’ and ‘imperial collaborators’. Afiya S. Zia’s brave and insightful book, Faith and Feminism in Pakistan, draws attention to the history, achievements and threats faced by the secular feminist movement in Pakistan today. In this welcome intervention in the field of gender in South Asia, Zia attempts to challenge a dominant historiography that she claims has failed to recognise the potential of feminist movements in Pakistan.

The presence of BJP and VHP leaders in the ‘grand welcome’ for Ajmer dargah bomb blast convict Bhavesh Patel in Bharuch is not the first instance. Such gatherings for fanatics are becoming common in Hindutva supremacist circles.

On the sidelines of the LSE-Berkeley Bangladesh Summit held at LSE in June 2018, Mahima A. Jain interviewed to Bangladeshi lawyer Sara Hossain, who was a panellist discussing “Civil Society and the State”.

Mounting state repression acknowledges the growing solidarity among the oppressed. The August assault has opened up political possibilities for the opposition in the run up to 2019.