Entries from The WIP Contributors tagged with 'Pakistan'

The Shame of Honor:
Global Activists Resurrect the Voices of the Dead

by Mandy Van Deven - India - Asma. Rukhsana. Zakia. Duaa. Fereshteh. Somayeh. Heshu. Samera. Amneh, Zahra. Semse. As an investigative journalist, Rana Husseini had no intention of shifting careers to become a human rights activist until she was given...

Kashmir’s Economy Feels the Effects of Climate Change

by Nusrat Ara - Indian-administered Kashmir - After the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted to a major mistake in its 2007 report, which asserted the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, skeptics and opponents alike went on...

Dancing The Divide: Interview with Pakistani Peacemaker Sheema Kermani

by Aditi Bhaduri - India - With her large flashing eyes rimmed with kohl and flowing hair, she is the quintessential dancer. Despite her chain-smoking, she is the picture of health and surprisingly agile. But then again, she has been...

India Braces for US Pressure on Afghanistan and Kashmir

by Aditi Bhaduri - India - As US President Barack Obama commits a troops increase in Afghanistan and a recognition of the “good Taliban,” and as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paves the way for India’s nuclear energy program, many...

India Ramps up Nuclear Power with Help from the United States

by Priyanka Bhardwaj - India - At the insistence of the United States, India has been granted global “nuclear exception” status despite being a non-signatory on nuclear non-proliferation treaties, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban...

Fighting Kidney Tourism in Pakistan

by Zubeida Mustafa - Pakistan - A few years ago, Pakistan’s newspapers and magazines were awash with pictures of shirtless men displaying scars on their torsos indicating they were organ donors. There were villages where practically every male adult claimed...

Remote Warfare Radically Changes the Front Lines

by Kimberly N. Chase - USA - In ancient times, warriors could look one another in the eye on the battlefield. War was fought with minimal weaponry, a person-to-person test of bravery and strength. Battlefields were clearly demarcated, extending only...

Will NATO Agree to Stabilize Afghanistan?

by Patricia DeGennaro - USA - This year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 60th birthday. President Obama will take his first European trip since the presidential campaign to meet NATO’s twenty-six members. While there, he’ll have to pinch...

Seeking Inclusion and Opportunity, the Disabled Confront Pakistan’s Myriad Challenges

by Zubeida Mustafa - Pakistan - In Pakistan, people with disabilities are generally missing from public places such as shopping malls, restaurants and even universities. But it’s not that the country doesn’t have its share of the disabled; on the...

Thoughts from Mumbai: A Return to Gandhi’s Dream for India

by Rupa Chinai - India - In the aftermath of Mumbai’s most recent encounter with terrorism, there is the feeling of isolation felt by those pleading for sense and reason. These voices are being drowned out amidst the jingoism and...

No Time for War: A Call for Peace Amid Rising Nuclear Tensions between Pakistan and India

by Zubeida Mustafa - Pakistan - Peace activists in Pakistan and India are attempting desperately to be heard above the din raised by warmongers – elitist by all counts and claiming to be patriotic as well – in the wake...

The Granny Peace Brigade Campaigns to Close All US Military Bases - in Latin America and Around the World

by Nancy Van Ness - USA - Their hats adorned with artificial flowers identify them at many of the protests in which I participate. The Grannies also show up on New York City's Union Square to sing their signature anti-war...

Little Hope for Change: Kashmiris Say US Anti-Muslim Policies Will Continue

by Afsaana Rashid - Indian-administered Kashmir - With the US presidential election just days away, people in the Kashmir valley are not much enthused with the changing of the guard. Although there is some hope that the new president will...

Kashmiris Seek Closure and Justice for the Missing on the International Day of the Disappeared

by Afsaana Rashid - Indian-administered Kashmir - As the world observed the International Day of the Disappeared last month on August 30th, Asima Mohi-ud-Din attended a silent protest rally organized by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). For...

Muslims Reach Out to Hindus During This Year’s Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir

by Afsaana Rashid - Indian-administered Kashmir - At a time when it is very difficult to find people willing to extend the hand of human kindness to those practicing a different religion, Muslims living in the Kashmir valley have set...

Violence Touches “each family living in Kashmir”

by Afsaana Rashid - Indian-administered Kashmir - Kashmir’s ongoing armed conflict over the past two decades has had physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequences for everyone living in the valley. Although no official figures exist, everyone agrees there has been...

Islam and Democracy: Why Military Solutions Won't Solve Political Problems

by Beena Sarwar - Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf's resignation from office on August 18th under intense pressure has raised questions, particularly in the West, about the future of Pakistan's "war on terror". The following article takes a historic and...

A Current between Shores: Dictatorship & Democracy

by Rose-Anne Clermont - Germany - January 30th marks the 75th "anniversary" of Hitler's rise to power. Today, appropriately, we begin a nine-part series by Rose-Anne Clermont conceived as "Parallel Histories from Different Worlds." The series begins with the early...

Benazir Bhutto: India’s View of What Was Lost by Her Death

by Neeta Lal - India - While Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination has rudely jolted Pakistan – a country already torn asunder by political instability and terrorism – it has also had a strong resonance across all of Asia especially in...

Postcards From Tora Bora: Looking for the Afghanistan of Yesterday in the Ruins of Today

by Jessica Mosby USA When you think of Afghanistan, smiling women in shift dresses attending college is not the first image that comes to mind. Decades of violence has devastated the country, leaving little more than bomb craters, crumbling buildings,...