On the vanishing space for moderate voices in Pakistan

February 14, 2011

If Salman Taseer’s assassination underscores anything, it is the Pakistani state’s increasing inability to take on extremist violence and its helplessness in protecting those who differ from a narrow interpretation of religion that seems to be becoming mainstream.

July 31, 2010

The Shoania nuptials had several salubrious side effects. ... One benefit of this love story, which bloomed in the romantic environs of Dubai, is what it did for the market value of Pakistani men. A number of articles published here and across the border added Shoaib Malik’s ‘conquest’ to a list of those won by other shining beacons of Pakistani masculinity.

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Quite aside from the fact that these pieces cast women as parcels of land one has planted the national flag on, they're also mistaken about the true natures of Pakistani men. One writer wondered why our boys don’t have quite the same effect on us, their female compatriots. Here are a handful of hypotheses.

October 31, 2009

In the more recent American romcoms, contemporary mating joins Pakistani drawing rooms and California bars in a hermetically sealed bubble of status, wealth and stability.