Wellesley in Politics: A personal profile interview.

Wellesley in Politics: Interview with Farahnaz Ispahani ‘85  (@fispahani) Farahnaz Ispahani ‘85 has been a leading voice for women and religious minorities in Pakistan for over two decades, working as a journalist, member of Pakistan’s National Assembly, and most recently as a United States-based scholar. An advocate of Pakistan’s return to democracy during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf, she served …

Religious Fanaticism Prevails Over Pakistan’s Court by By FARAHNAZ ISPAHANI & NINA SHEA

The country’s Supreme Court dodges a decision by adjourning a high-profile blasphemy case. The fate of an illiterate berry picker on death row for blasphemy has gripped Pakistan in a furor of religious fanaticism. Few examples better illustrate the misplaced priorities of the Pakistani government and the country’s Islamist ideologues. Asia Bibi was scheduled to appear before Pakistan’s Supreme Court …

WOMEN AND ISLAMIST EXTREMISM: GENDER RIGHTS UNDER THE SHADOW OF JIHAD BY FARAHNAZ ISPAHNI.

By 2050 there will be 2.8 billion Muslims in the world, of whom almost half will be women. If women are integrated in efforts to confront violent extremist ideology, through equal opportunities and participation in social, political, and economic life, this demographic could positively alter the future of the Muslim world. Currently, traditional, conservative, and patriarchal societies in most Muslim-majority …

“Pakistan’s shrinking minority space” by Farahnaz Ispahani

The desire of Islamist extremists to ‘purify’ Pakistan has resulted in a major catastrophe for the minorities. The country cannot emerge as a modern pluralist state until the reversal of this culture of intolerance The murder in Gujranwala of an elderly woman, a seven-year-old girl and an infant in a mob attack on members of the Ahmadi community highlights the …

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Religious Intolerance in Pakistan and the Plight of Religious Minorities

          Watch Video of event below:   http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/religious-intolerance-pakistan-and-the-plight-religious-minorities June 04, 2014 // 4:00pm — 5:15pm Event Co-sponsors: Middle East Program In recent years, Pakistan—a Sunni Muslim majority country with Shia Muslim, Christian, and Hindu minorities—has been convulsed by sectarian violence. More than 2,000 people have been killed in sectarian attacks since 2008, and last year sectarian …

The Wronged Man

Husain Haqqani tells it like it is. Husain Haqqani, Islamabad’s former ambassador to Washington, is making waves with his latest book, Magnificent Delusions, which speaks hard truths about the arrant alliance between Pakistan and the United States. In 2011, Haqqani was forced to resign as envoy under Army pressure, and the Iftikhar Chaudhry-led Supreme Court, champion of the hypernationalist narrative, …

“Pakistan’s number one threat” by Farahnaz Ispahani

For the last few days, Pakistan‘s capital has been on high alert due to the threat of a possible terrorist attack. Police and military vehicles have paraded around the city, commandos and snipers have been posted on Islamabad‘s picturesque Margalla Hills, and Pakistan’s Navy has been deployed to protect a city that is 915 miles away from the sea. But …