India and Pakistan’s new education policies will push their respective religious minorities into a corner Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy ON July 29, Narendra Modi’s government unveiled what it calls a groundbreaking new national education policy (NEP 2020). The 65-page document’s wide range — from primary to university — forces me to consider here just a single issue: To what extent does …

In responding to Indian provocation, Pakistan abandoned its principled stand about who can legitimately decide on the fate of Kashmir, writes Farhatullah Babar by Farhatullah Babar Exactly a year after Prime Minister Modi annulled the special status of Kashmir and annexed the region into the Indian territory, Pakistan responded by unveiling with great fanfare its own new political map. The new …

UN-appointed independent human rights experts have called for urgent action in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, amid concerns of ongoing abuses against civilians there.

GB students are struggling to remain connected with digital world By Ramish Khan There seems to be no one to understand the traumatic situation the students like me have been passing through for the last three months. If I start to jot down the stressful moments I have been through and how badly I have lost my mental peace, it …

Political leaders, media and human rights bodies condemn the abduction of the senior journalist   Herald Report   Islamabad: Journalist Matiullah Jan returned home late Tuesday night, nearly 12 hours after he was abducted from Sector G-6, a highly secured locality of the capital city in broad daylight, family sources said. Earlier on Tuesday, Matiullah Jan, known for his criticism …

Leila Slimani on sex and ethics of women’s liberation in Morocco   By Leïla Slimani   When, in the summer of 2014, I published my first novel, Adèle, some French journalists expressed surprise that a Moroccan woman could write such a book. What they meant by that was an “unconstrained book,” a “sexy book,” a straight-talking, popular book, the story of a woman …

Covid-19 has exposed the myth of neoliberal free-market economic model Herald Report The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the world is at breaking point, and the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the free market and deep divisions in society, calling for a new global deal to combat climate change, forced migration, diseases, patriarchy and racism. Inequality, an issue …

We must look at the roots of capitalism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and anti-Blackness to leave settler colonialism in the past.   by LEANNE BETASAMOSAKE SIMPSON I understand settler colonialism’s present structure as one that is formed and maintained by a series of processes for the purposes of dispossessing, that create scaffolding within which my relationship to the state is contained. I certainly do …

Beware splashy corporate gestures when they leave existing power structures intact. by Helen Lewis Tumbrels are rattling through the streets of the internet. Over the past few years, online-led social movements have deposed gropers, exposed bullies—and, sometimes, ruined the lives of the innocent. Commentators warn of “mob justice,” while activists exult in their newfound power to change the world. Both groups …

A job scheme for women who may otherwise be shunned as outcasts is giving many the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Shah Meer Baloch Margaret Heera runs her fingers through her customer’s hair. “You must manage time for yourself and your skin,” she says, as she ties the hair into an elaborate knot. The beauty salon in Lahore is busy. …