Happy Halloween – Pakistan Ishtyle

Halloween is upon us, dear readers, and as Glee’s Sue Sylvestor aptly noted it is “the day when parents encourage little boys to dress like little girls and little girls to dress like whores.” It has long been this blogger’s favorite holiday, for no other reason than being able to legitimately march around in ridiculous [...]

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Pakistan’s Musical Timeline – Rafaya Sufi

Today, the Pakistani music industry is diverse and rich, and immensely popular television shows like Coke Studio have successfully fused traditional sounds with modern influences. Below, Rafaya Sufi, an Editorial/Web assistant at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York, walks us through the country’s history of music, (this article was first featured on Asia Society’s blog [...]

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Corruption, Perception & Pakistan. Yipee.

  Ah, Pakistan. Not only do we consistently top the Failed States Index [see Alex Lobov's take down of the "failed state" term over at Zeitgeist], but this past summer, we also ranked number one in the world in sex-related searches, garnering us the label, “Pornistan” (thanks, Fox News). Jinnah Sahib, (aka, Big Poppa), would [...]

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Violence in Karachi 102

  Back in January, I wrote a post entitled, “Violence in Karachi 101,” in which I attempted to break down the players in the  then-conflict, the root causes, and potential solutions, thanks mainly to interviews with journalists covering the issue on the ground. In Karachi, violence and political tensions have erupted time and time again, [...]

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Amina Janjua and Pakistan’s Missing Persons

  Guernica Magazine’s October issue has a really powerful piece about Pakistan’s missing persons, people who have disappeared  under the government label of “terrorism suspects” since the 9/11 attacks, (many from Balochistan). Guernica’s J. Malcolm Garcia wrote, “Guilt or innocence is not the issue. To impose terror on suspected terrorists, to maintain a grip on [...]

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The Find Heaven Campaign

    Earlier this year, Daniyal Noorani wrote, sang, and produced a thought-provoking music video called, “Find Heaven” (Jannat Pao in Urdu). The lyrics are as follows, Hey/What’s going on over here/Something’s just not right/My head is spinning with questions/But where are all the answers/Tell me one by one they came and they said/Do you [...]

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Problems with Satirizing the “Muslim World”

According to columnist Andrew Alexander, the Washington Post’s editors recently pulled a Non Sequitor comic strip by Wiley Miller, because they were “concerned it might offend and provoke some Post readers, especially Muslims,” (thanks for the link @joshuafoust). Alexander wrote, Miller is known for social satire. But at first glance, the single-panel cartoon he drew [...]

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Happy Anni-Bloodless-Coup-sary, Mush

    It is October 12 (or at least it still is here). On this day, Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979. And, on October 12, 1999, Pervez Musharraf staged a coup in Pakistan, overturning the government of former PM Nawaz Sharif.** [...]

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Attack on Karachi Sufi Shrine (Developing Story)

    On Thursday, twin blasts struck a Sufi shrine in Karachi, killing at least 5 people and injuring at least 40 others (the Express Tribune reports 10 killed and over 50 injured), just a few months after 40 people were killed in an attack on the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore. According to Al [...]

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The U.S. Image Deficit

The below post first appeared in Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel today, discussing the recently released FATA poll by The New America Foundation. Given the rising tensions between the U.S./NATO and Pakistan, particularly in light of a growing terrorist threat in Europe, such polls can provide interesting insight into the very complex conundrum of anti-American sentiment: [...]

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