By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE theme of International Women`s Day observed on Monday was `equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all`. One may well ask if this ideal can ever be achieved as long as the unequal power relationship between the sexes, which causes women to become victims of domestic violence, continues to exist.
Continue reading Violence in the Home
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has urged wealthy Pakistanis to pay a higher share of taxes to reduce the country`s dependence on foreign aid.
She especially pointed to the health and education sectors, which, as her administration is now realising, are in very poor shape in spite of the nearly $6bn aid provided by the US to Pakistan since 9/11 for civilian projects.
Continue reading Who pays for education?
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
Institutions must not be allowed to die. And if they are institutions whose primary function is to educate, it is all the more important that they be kept alive.
But on the cards is the death of a centre that has educated 12,000 women in feminism and many more who have attended its short-term workshops. Lahore`s ASR [`impact`, in Urdu] will run out of funds in October and its executive director, Nighat Said Khan, says she will pack up if no one comes to bail the institution out.
Continue reading ASR must be kept alive
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
A YEAR ago, on Feb 19, 2009 Christian Zainab Abbas “slipped into the past”, to borrow her own phrase from a poem she wrote five months before her death. Ever since I had wanted to write about Chris, as I had always called her since she walked into my office at
Dawn with an article she had written for the paper several years ago.
Continue reading Remembering Chris Abbas
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: The WIP
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 contrary, their numbers are estimated to be 16 million. So why are they invisible?