Pakistan Archives • In Plainspeak

A photograph of a person’s palms held out in prayer. The light is streaked with shades of pink and blue.

Kun Faya Kun: Embodying Non-Conformity

·February 1, 2021
·Ghausia Rashid Salam

For a queer person, or for someone who remains single by choice, everyday existence requires strength and will. That is the embodiment of kun faya kun as a personal philosophy: to manifest the person you want to be through sheer will.

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A still from the film What Will People Say?

Shame, shame!

·July 1, 2020
·Nidhi Chaudhary

I discovered the movie What Will People Say? while browsing Netflix. Growing up in a society in which people are obsessed with everyone else’s opinion (except their own, perhaps), the name of the film caught my attention. Directed by Iram Haq and set in present-day Norway and Pakistan, the film is about Nisha, the teenaged…

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Shamed and Sidelined For Too Long, Plus-Size Women in Pakistan Are Now Speaking Up

·October 15, 2018
·Curated Content

“I realised plus-size acceptance is neither a movement to eat whatever you want nor is it about placing restrictions,” Amina said. “It’s about being kind to your body and realising you are not defined by the size of your waist.”

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A zoomed in photograph of a couple holding hands during the marriage ceremony taking place. Both of them are wearing henna on their hands. The girl is wearing a set of bangles.

How Pakistani and Indian Women in Three Countries Confront Marital Economic Abuse

·May 15, 2017
·Curated Content

From not being allowed to work to having their earnings exploited, many women confront economic abuse, a recognised form of domestic abuse.

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How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out

·April 18, 2016
·Curated Content

In Peshawar alone, the community consists of over 500 transgenders. At least 20 per cent of these have AIDS. Their risk of contracting AIDS is higher, since 59 per cent of khawaja saras report to have at least one sexually transmitted infection.

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Uzma Noorani, a human rights activist, sitting on a sofa smiling. She is wearing an orange and pink Indian suit, and has her hair falling on her shoulders.

New Project Sheds Light on Pakistan’s Lesser Known Feminist History

·November 15, 2015
·Curated Content

It had been there for decades — a red, blue and white flag unfurling in the wind, an unwanted blot in the sky for many who walked under it. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone, removed by a woman who heard the calls for the flag’s removal and decided to…

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Doodle. A long O shape with three x's drawn on its very top, one over the other.

Damage

·August 15, 2015
·Curated Content

When I was younger, someone took a knife to my clitoris and cut out a small but significant part of me. I blamed my mother. I despised her. I loved her. Washington D.C., July 2010 The first and only time I had sex it did not go well. I was twenty-two, a late bloomer by…

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Pakistan’s slow but steady progress on ending child marriage

·June 15, 2014
·Curated Content

Law passed in Sindh province shows that despite religious opposition, steps taken to outlaw child marriage are taking effect. By: Mohammad Zia-ur-Rahman Pakistani students sing songs during a lesson. Child marriage often spells an abrupt end to pupils' education. Photograph: Nathalie Bardou/AP The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), one of Pakistan's most influential religious and constitutional bodies,…

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