South Asia Citizens Web

In 2016, there is no reason that Pakistan’s people, mainly its women, should have to live in fear of the savagery and brutality of honor killings.

Since 2013, more than 20 people – including secular writers, bloggers, professors, members of religious minorities and foreigners – have been killed in targeted attacks in Bangladesh. Why are secular individuals being targeted in Bangladesh? Who is killing them?

Discussion in Urdu on the celebrated progressive writer Saadan Hasan Manto on Rajya Sabha TV -a public television network

It is a novel way to ‘improve’ educational standards by any yardstick. The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education has decided to rejig the school curriculum to obscure certain historic facts, cleverly add a few new ones and put a twist on others. So, we find no reference to Jawaharlal Nehru being the first prime minister of India, no mention of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.

My reason for writing this narrative is that I want to face the demons. I want to make sense of the things that happened to me. But not just for me. I want people to know, especially the young girls and women who are conditioned to endure violence and who are silently fighting abuse. I want them to know that they are not alone in this fight. To the society that pretends it is a private matter, I want to say loud and clear that domestic abuse is real.