Soch Writing

Havelian aur Hava: On Architecture and Air Pollution

sarah shamim — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 11:52:42 +0000

Meandering through the sehans, gliding across glossy mosaic flooring, and looking out the quintessential verandas, arms resting on the powdery, colosseum-like white pillars, Ali reminisces what his decades-old house in Karachi used to be before it got renovated. “The only difference is that it has been modernized”, he explains while talking about the aspects of his […]

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Anti-Ahmadi hashtags: Initiated by Jamiat Ulema Islam, supported by all

Asad Pabani — Fri, 29 May 2020 11:08:46 +0000

Anti-Ahmadi hatred in Pakistan now has a new outlet: Twitter. On 10 May 2020, three hashtags targeting the Ahmadiyya community popped up nearly simultaneously, racking up tens of thousands of tweets each to become the most trending topics on Pakistani Twitter. The intended message behind the hashtags was fairly self-explanatory. #AhmadisAreNotMuslims conveyed its message quite […]

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#SackShireenMazari

Asad Pabani — Sat, 09 May 2020 11:03:11 +0000

Twitter accounts run by supporters of political parties play a crucial role in promoting a party’s message in the online sphere. In just the last few days, the top trending hashtags in Pakistan have included #وزیراعظم‌نوازشریف (#PrimeMinisterNawazSharif) and #imrankhanhumapkaysathhain (#WeAreWithYouImranKhan), which were ostensibly started by supporters of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan […]

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Trend of over 99,000 tweets appears to have been manufactured by TLP

Asad Pabani — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 11:34:30 +0000

On 14 April, after weeks of tension between the government and the ulema over whether mosques should be shut down during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the Chairperson of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneeb ur Rahman, broke decisively from the government stance. The provincial governments had previously issued notifications that had, in effect, banned congregational prayers; and […]

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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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Apocalypse babies

Sarah Elahi — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 05:14:21 +0000

WHEN MY SONwas three, he was obsessed with dinosaurs. This was to be expected. For reasons I haven’t ever understood, prehistoric lizards are one of the first introductions our children have to science, so liking them is practically a prerequisite for going to school. A friend of mine was delighted when he heard about it. […]

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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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Does your pichal pairi have a guitar-slinging boyfriend?

Hamza Sarfraz — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 11:05:00 +0000

IN SADIA KHATRI’Sshort story The City of Mitr, there are no chaar deevari, no constricting corners, no ceilings. Instead: “a thousand circles overlapping, interweaving, sparkling in their stacked orbits, an intricate geometry… a miracle of light.” On the long night of Shab-e-Yalda, “the womxn lie awake all night, spending their minds and bodies on food […]

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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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What makes a story true?

Natasha Japanwala — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:04:09 +0000

STORYTELLERS HAVE LONGblurred the line between fact and fiction, setting into motion myths, legends, and tales that have trickled down through the centuries not because they are real, but because they are true. When it comes to reportage, playing with facts, which inform and can protect or empower an audience, is dangerous. But in other […]

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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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City of slights

Sarah Dara — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 11:00:25 +0000

WHEN AMNA ABBASdecided to move out, she held a little tea party to introduce her prospective roommate to her parents—a modern twist on the old notion of chai pe bulaana. She’d found her on a women-only Facebook group for roommates and rented properties in Karachi. They all gathered in the drawing room—both sets of parents […]

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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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She had a child through a sperm donor. Nadra refuses to recognise it.

Annam Lodhi — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:00:52 +0000

AREEBA* MOVED TOPakistan in 2014. Her parents were Pakistani, but she had been raised abroad and had made a life for herself there, working in social housing, and raising a young daughter. Creeping austerity and a sudden redundancy at work compelled her to look east; she had fond memories of her visits to Pakistan as […]

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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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A moon in your name

Abdul Manan — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:04:24 +0000

WHEN I CONSCIOUSLYimagine poetry, I see: a small room in which my grandfather from behind a cloud of smoke projects verse after verse, turning to poet after poet, he holds an eternal cigarette like a pen, as if writing poetry in smoke. Poetry is now a fragrant, translucent haze, and the haze a sound of […]

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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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Alchemy in a Pakistani classroom

Nudrat Kamal — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:01:59 +0000

As authoritarian and neoliberal logics undermine universities, students remain their saving grace.

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A note from the editor

Soch Editorial — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:00:50 +0000

BEGINNING TODAY, SOCHwill publish twice a week — a new story every Monday and Thursday. We hope to produce stories that challenge orthodoxies, and to have fun while doing so. Many hands are wrung and heads shaken over Pakistan’s purported ‘youth bulge’ but appallingly little space is given to young voices in the mainstream media. […]

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A Web of Disinformation

Annam Lodhi — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 06:00:22 +0000

Over 265 fake local news sites in more than 65 countries are managed by an Indian network, designed to influence the European Union and the United Nations by criticizing Pakistan.

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Something stinks in the Capital

Annam Lodhi — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 08:24:52 +0000

On August 14, a blanket ban on plastic bags was imposed in the federal capital. Islamabad’s two million residents each use between three and four plastic bags a day. Soch investigates the plastic ban.

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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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