protecting children

This morning I was extremely saddened and outraged to read the article “Pakistani boy ‘killed by teacher” on BBC.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7426980.stm
The story is about a seven year old boy who was hung upside down from a fan for not memorizing his Quran lessons, and as a result of this punishment, died.  The teacher has been arrested, [...]

ignorance!

On the way to a conference last week, I was faced with a more or less challenging situation: an intense dialogue among a few colleagues about the significance of different cultures in world history and development.  This is a complex topic and it’s hard to make simple conclusions on the matter.  I want to write about this [...]

oblivious

Young street child selling fortunes in Iran. Picture courtesy of Shapour, flickr.com

I am getting ready to embark on a long trip to Iran this summer in order to begin fieldwork for my doctoral research. This will be the first trip that I will be taking in my life that will be solely devoted to [...]

shoes

We all need a good pair of shoes   Enjoy this picture!

A blacksmith in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar makes shoes for a donkey.

taare zameen par

Last weekend I watched a wonderful movie by Amir Khan called, “Taare zameen par”, which loosely translated means ’stars on earth’. The production, acting and dialogue are wonderful and comparable in creativity and quality to hit independent movies. The story is about a young boy with a learning disability and his parents frustrations [...]

appearances

 

The young man didn’t say a word when I greeted him with the customary salaam. Nothing as I reached across for the warm loaf of barbari bread that he had just taken out of the tanoor and thanked him for his hard work. Complete silence as I handed him my crumpled tomans and asked for change. How [...]