Justice – Soch Writing

Is piddarshahi a feminine noun?

Zuneera Shah — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:43:04 +0000

Content warning: descriptions of abuse, incitement to violence and rape HIBA REMEMBERS WAKINGup to the front page of Dawn on March 9 last year with a feeling of jubilation. The day before she had sung, marched, and danced her way from the Lahore Press Club to Alhamra Hall with her fellow women and allies. Evidence […]

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Comrade: A lament, a love letter

Ayyaz Mallick — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Bekari-e-junoon ko hai sar peetne ka shughalJab haath hi toot jaein tou phir kiya kare koi Husn-e-farogh-e-sham’a-e-sukhan duur hai AsadPehle dil-e-gudaakhta paida kare koi Passion, now eclipsed, is indulgent in self-flagellationWith the hands amputated, is there else to do? Keeping the flame of poetry aglow is a far cry, AsadThat molten heart is yet to […]

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Where are students supposed to live?

Annam Lodhi — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 04:00:59 +0000

LAST OCTOBER, OSTENSIBLYacting on a tip received on the citizens portal, authorities stormed a house in Islamabad’s E-11 sector. It was early afternoon but the residents—students with typically muddled schedules—were mostly asleep. Startled, they rubbed their eyes open to the sight of their housemates being dragged outside by uniformed officers. One boy struggled to free […]

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Is abortion legal in Pakistan?

Zuha Siddiqui — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 11:00:51 +0000

SAMAN WAS 21when she found out she was two months pregnant. She told her sister, her mother and her partner at the time. Her mother swiftly made arrangements: the next day, after dusk, she drove Saman to an informal abortion clinic on the outskirts of Islamabad and paid Rs50,000 for the procedure. “I remember lying […]

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Why is it so difficult to talk about female genital cutting in Pakistan?

Hina Javed — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 06:00:40 +0000

Content warning: detailed descriptions of procedures of female genital cutting ON AN EARLYsummer afternoon in 1980, seven-year-old Leena Khandwala relaxed on the couch with her feet up, enjoying the onset of school holidays. She felt a rush of excitement when her mother asked her to accompany an aunt for shopping. The atmosphere was cheerful and […]

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ایمپریس مارکیٹ کے متاثرین کا کیا بنا؟

Aziza Ahmad — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 11:00:55 +0000

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Afterlives of the Empress

Aziza Ahmad — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 11:00:39 +0000

For a version of this comic in Urdu, click here. Illustrated by Aziza Ahmad & reporting by Zuha Siddiqui. AZIZA AHMADis an illustrator and graphic designer from Karachi, currently based in Stockholm. ZUHA SIDDIQUIis assistant editor at Soch Writing.

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Sued for saying #MeToo

Zainab Husain — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:07:56 +0000

AT FIRST THEwhispers were hushed and halting, unsure of the moment, uncertain of the response. Then, borne by momentum and bolstered by numbers, stories of abuse and assault flooded social media. For a brief moment, as 2017 turned into 2018, as the #MeToo Movement exploded in the US and reverberated worldwide, conversations about gender justice […]

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#MeToo and the media: Mistakes we know we are making

Soch Editorial — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:05:12 +0000

THE FIRST TWEETSsurfaced on October 20, 2019: filmmaker Jami accused a certain “media tycoon” of sexual assault. Newspapers and editors balked: #MeToo had been simmering in Pakistan for a while but never had it bubbled over within scalding distance. Still, it was possible to tiptoe around it for two months — then Jami named a […]

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Indigenous iterations of azaadi in Kashmir

Zuha Siddiqui — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:03:15 +0000

WHEN PRIME MINISTERImran Khan took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly last year, some 11,000 kilometres away in Kashmir, people were hanging on to his every word. For them, Khan was an ally, a representative, a rare advocate before a global audience. Afterwards, the streets of Srinagar erupted in celebration. Along the 740-km […]

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Silencing Kashmir

Annam Lodhi — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 11:00:41 +0000

Social media platforms are silencing dissenting Kashmiri voices. Soch investigates how, and why.

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Karachi’s Missing Children

Zuha Siddiqui — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 14:10:03 +0000

From January 2017 to April 2018, Karachi’s welfare organisations found 345 newborn babies dumped in the garbage across the city, and yet, infanticide is not a pressing issue for the city’s police.

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Marching for Water

Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:11:49 +0000

Hundreds of people from the Indus delta region marched 140 km in July this year. Their demand was simple: Water.

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One Khokha, One Thousand Lives

Annam Lodhi — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 04:27:39 +0000

Islamabad’s khokhas provide the poor with free drinking water, affordable food, and for the most part they are licensed. Why then is the CDA so adamant to shut them down?

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The Kashmir Dispute – A Timeline

Zuha Siddiqui — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 15:07:38 +0000

India and Pakistan have been locked in a territorial dispute over Kashmir since 1947. This timeline charts the history of the region and the conflict.

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India Scraps Kashmir’s Special Status Amid Statewide Crackdown

Zuha Siddiqui — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 13:55:55 +0000

Indian has revoked Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special autonomy to Kashmir. What does this mean for Jammu & Kashmir?

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“I am part of you”

Enum Naseer — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:56:59 +0000

Jalila Haider is here to stay, to challenge the present order, and rebuild the future for her community. In these pursuits, she is relentless.

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What the Jharu Embodies

Sarah Eleazar — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 07:28:53 +0000

If the forced identity of Pakistani Christians has become sanitation workers, then the symbol most commonly associated with them is the jharu. The jharu is never missing from the Christian’s hand whether one can see it or not.

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A Culture of Rape

Daanika Kamal — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 19:00:11 +0000

Rape culture in Pakistan is the embodiment of a constant power struggle; one that is carefully nurtured and disdainfully disregards that female wounds are deeper than male ‘desires’.

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Quetta’s Missing, Dying, Dead, and those Left Behind

Zainab Husain — Wed, 29 May 2019 08:00:12 +0000

Communities in Balochistan have been protesting for over a decade. Can anyone hear them?

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Smartphones and the fight against sexual harassment

Mehar Khursheed — Wed, 29 May 2019 04:00:18 +0000

A few years ago, there was a moment in India, when a Kerala-based excise commissioner, suggested that men who stare at women for longer than 14 seconds should face jail time. He was ridiculed mercilessly for this proposition. Pakistan’s workplace anti-harassment laws do not include ‘staring at women’ as harassment, though some private workplaces do […]

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The tragedy of Lahore’s Orange Line

Asad Pabani — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 09:05:02 +0000

For once, the bulldozers are silent. Their operators have gone home for the night, leaving behind the bulky metal beasts at the site of the demolition, their silhouettes an intimidating reminder of their capabilities. The silence accentuates the crackle of rubble under the feet of Ali Rashid, a former resident of the area. As he […]

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What political parties believe about healthcare

Asad Pabani — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 09:02:09 +0000

With Pakistan’s total expenditure on healthcare amassing to a mere 3 percent of its GDP, an infant mortality rate of about 9 percent (the 11th highest rate in the world according to the World Bank), and a general lack of efficient and operational healthcare delivery systems, it is pertinent to discuss what each major party […]

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Unexplained abductions in Karachi

Zainab Husain — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 08:58:27 +0000

Six activists were illegally abducted in Karachi on Sunday the 22nd of August. The activists were kidnapped after attending a Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) solidarity protest, held at the Karachi Press Club. Their whereabouts are still unknown and there have been no cases registered against them. The six missing persons are members of Lal Salam, […]

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