abustaif:

Hazara women in Quetta massed in protest yesterday, refusing to bury their loved ones until justice was served after a suicide bombing in the Pakistani city killed nearly 90 Afghan Shias living there. 

The bombing comes after years of relentless attacks on the Hazara and other Shia populations in Pakistan, with 200 dead since the beginning of the year and thousands killed in the last decade.

Read more

Ajam Media Collective

(via sbzhr)

ajammc:

Did you know that the Pakistani national anthem was written so as to be intelligible in both Persian and Urdu?  

The Pakistani national anthem is known alternatively as “Qaumi Tarana” or “Pak Sarzamin,” and the lyrics were composed in 1952 by Hafeez Jullundhri.

The fact that it is intelligible in both languages reflects the wide overlap in vocabulary in Urdu and Persian due to nearly 5 centuries of use of the Persian languages’s across the Subcontinent.  Prior to the 19th century arrival of the British, the Persian language was the language of literature, poetry, culture, and science across South Asia and was widely studied as a second-language and as a regional lingua franca.  

Under the Mughal Empire, it was the sole “official language,” and although it was gradually replaced with English by the British, Persian language and literature has remained an important part of the region’s cultural heritage. In Pakistan today the language is still studied by some of the educated elite as a second language, while about 1% of the population speaks Persian natively.

independentbroadcaster:

Protest against attacks on women

KARACHI - Women and children staged a demonstration on Saturday to protest against the targeted attacks on Shia women and genocide of Shia Muslims.

They were carrying placards and banners inscribed with the slogans, “Stop Shia genocide”, “Punish takfiri nasbi terrorists and launch operation against terrorists all over Pakistan and “No to criminal silence against anti-Shia terrorism.”

Women and children raised slogans against the perpetrators of anti-Shia terrorism and declared them proxies of the global imperialist forces and Zionism.

“Mehzar Zahra, a 13-year-old student of grade-7 was seriously injured and his father was martyred in front of her on November 30,” said Khanam Zahra Najafi, secretary general, Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, Karachi chapter. The MWM Karachi chapter organised the protest demo.

Speaking to the protestors, Najafi said that Kaniz Fatima alias Dilshad Fatima was martyred along with her spouse on Abul Hassan Isphahani Road. She said that some years back, a female teacher was martyred near Safoora Chowrangi Karachi and a woman lecturer was martyred in Quetta. “Not to forget that terrorists threw acid on the face of Shia women while they were on way to Parachinar from Peshawar in a van,” she recalled. She further said that noted Shia intellectual Saeed Haider Zaidi was martyred in Karimabad in front of his wife. She said that a 38 year old Shia father was martyred while he was going to drop her daughter to school in Gulberg, Karachi.

“All these incidents proved that takfiri nasbi terrorists of outlawed terror groups who have been renamed to continue their terror activities, have targeted Shia women in all over Pakistan,” she said.

Khanam Zahra Najafi expressed grave concern on silence and callousness of the society against the terrorists for Shia genocide.

She said that whole of the world condemned murderous attempt on Malala Yousufzai and now and attack on Mehzar Zahra, a teenager Shia girl, goes unnoticed. She urged that the terrorists must not go unpunished.

(via fala7idreams)

mehreenkasana:

Solidarity- Pakistani style: In G-B, Muharram blurs sectarian differences

“We are here to show support and solidarity for peace and sectarian harmony,” said Mutawali Khan, a senior member of the Masjid Board, a representative body of Shias and Sunnis formed to address a spate of violence which ultimately led to the imposition of curfew in the area in April.

[…]

Dozens of Sunnis led a mourning procession in the heart of the city, where until recently Shias and Sunnis were victims of violent incidents stage-managed by extremist elements. The move is also a blow to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had threatened to attack Muharram processions in Gilgit-Baltistan. G-B’s administration was informed of these threats in a letter by the interior ministry last week. A Sunni delegation comprising elders and the youth from Kashrote and Yadgar areas convened at the Imambargah in Majini Muhalla, where they joined hundreds of mourners.

[…]

There is hope.

I’ve never thought about that comparison.

(via obliquecity)

mehreenkasana:

Ten-year-old Nadia, whose mother and father were killed in a US drone strike on their house. (via Columbia Human Rights Clinic and the Center for Civilians in Conflict: Civilian Impact of Drones)

Remember Malala, but remember Nadia too. Ten years old. A drone struck her home killing her parents. In other words, remember the violence of the Taliban, but remember the violence of the American President, too.

(via yanorayanora)

breakingnews:

14-year-old peace activist shot in Pakistan

BBC News: A 14-year-old rights activist who has campaigned for girls’ education has been shot and injured in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan.

Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in Mingora, the region’s main town.

Nominated for an international peace award, she came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban.

Photo: Malala Yousafzai pictured on March 26, 2009 in Peshawar, Pakistan (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)

(via baruchobramowitz)