image from fast-web.com These days, creative writing courses are offered by so many universities, publishing houses, newspapers or literary agencies, you can’t order a cappuccino without tripping over one or open a newspaper without being invited to go for publishing stardom. So ubiquitous is their presence and acceptance, we’re in serious danger of forgetting that […]
No Country for Bold Women
Reposted from ‘Action For a Progressive Pakistan’ The title comes from Twitter user @BilawalKhoso ***PLEASE SIGN THIS STATEMENT HERE.*** We, the undersigned, condemn the murder of Qandeel Baloch by her brother, Waseem, and demand that the government put the alleged killer on trial. Qandeel, born Fouzia Azeem, was a rebel, an artist, and a gutsy feminist provocateur. […]
Trump, Trust and Governance
gettyimages-5086450001.jpg “Although it tends to get lost in the showbusiness of electioneering, politics is ultimately about governance.” (Professor Philip Bobbit writing about the […]
Arranged Marriage Detectives
First published Huffington Post 5.4.2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ravinder-randhawa/arranged-marriage_b_9609408.html My elderly parents tell this story about how some marriages were arranged in their time: ‘if the girl next in line to be married wasn’t very pretty, when the boy’s family came to see her, they’d show them the prettiest daughter, but actually marry off the other girl. […]
Burning Oil and Not a Single Scream
image from mdean.tripod.com This post first published on Huffington Post U.K. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ravinder-randhawa/burning-oil-and-not-a-single-scream_b_9475460.html ‘…in the middle of beating her up, he picked up the pan of hot oil and poured it on her head, and that woman … that Jat woman … didn’t let out a single scream, not a squeak.’ That was a story […]
British-Asian and All Things Wild and Wonderful
From BBC website. Nadiya Hussain, winner of The Great British Bake Off 2015 This post was first published on Huffington Post U.K. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ravinder-randhawa/british-asian-all-things-wild-and-wonderful_b_9374286.html I’m going to say something rather revolutionary: it’s an amazing thing to be a British-Asian, and in addition to be a British-Asian woman. This may be rather a different song to the […]
The British-Asian Secrets Project
British-Asians are invited to lighten their souls and unburden their secrets. We live in two worlds: the known and unknown, the revealed and the secret. Both travel together, like light and shade, night and day. Both shape our lives and destinies. And both live inside us. I doubt there’s a human being upon this planet […]
Modi, Brady and Omar Khayyam
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. (From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, 1859. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.) I had decided not to write an Old Year/New […]