We are Afghan Women
George W. Bush Institute
Scribner (hardcover), 2016
PRs 1395
Here are Afghan women in their own words. Words that are by turns inspiring, moving, courageous, and heartbreaking. Their powerful stories create a compelling portrait of the lives, struggles, and successes of this extraordinary nation and its extraordinarily resilient women. With an introduction by Laura Bush, honorary founding co-chair of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council.
Afghanistan has been described as “the worst nation in the world to be a woman.” More than fifty percent of girls who are forced into marriage are sixteen or younger. Too many women live in fear and in many areas, education and employment for women are still condemned. The women featured in We Are Afghan Women are fighting to change all that. From rug weavers to domestic violence counselors to business owners, educators, and activists, these courageous women are charting a new path for themselves, their families, their communities, and their nation. Told in their own voices, their stories vividly capture a country undone by decades of war and now struggling to build a lasting peace.
Meet Dr Sakena Yacoobi, who ran underground schools for girls until the Taliban fell, and today has established educational centers across Afghanistan to teach women and girls basic literacy. Or Freshta Hazeq, who as a female business owner, has faced death threats, sabotage, and even kidnapping threats against her children. Naheed Farid is the youngest female member of Afghanistan’s parliament. During her campaign, opponents cut Naheed’s face out of campaign posters and her family risked complete ruin, but her husband and father-in-law never wavered, encouraging her to persevere.
These determined women are defying the odds to lead Afghanistan to a better future. Their stories are a stark reminder that in some corners of the world the struggle continues and that women’s progress in society, business, and politics cannot be taken for granted. Their eloquent words challenge all of us to answer: What does it truly mean to be a woman in the twenty-first century?
Pakistan Between Secularism and Islam
Tarik Jan
Institute of Policy Studies (hardcover), 2012
PRs 1200
Secularising Pakistan, which the constitution proclaims as an Islamic republic (i.e., article 2-A), is a troubling notion even when it is stirred by a marginal section of our society.
The Institute of Policy Studies took the initiative of bringing the two sides of the divide together on the subject and offered them the chance to talk with each other in an environment of free inquiry and open discussion. Perhaps it was for the first time that liberals, conservatives, and Islamists sat together and shared their view with each other. They were not supposed to sing the same song but the fact that they were willing at all to sing their own songs is a landmark achievement for democracy in our country. For that, IPS as well as the speakers who dared to cross the barbed-wire fence can take the credit. Pakistan between Secularism and Islam: Ideology, Issues and Conflict is based on that historic dialogue.
The first edition of the book appeared in 1998 however its themes continue to rage in the print, electronic and social media. If the leftists discard these themes, they will invalidate their existence, and if the Islamists fail to respond to them, they will jeopardize the ideological foundation of the state. Such is the dialectic of the situation.
Cover Point: Impressions of Leadership in Pakistan
Jamsheed Marker
Oxford (hardcover), 2015
PRs 850
Jamsheed Marker’s lifetime in the diplomatic service of Pakistan gave him a unique vintage point. In cricket terms, he was at cover point, near enough to the wicket to follow the action around the stumps...yet sufficiently distant for a general overview of the state of play. Unlike his previously published book Quiet Diplomacy: Memoirs of an Ambassador of Pakistan, which is a rich history of his many ambassadorial assignments, Cover Point covers Marker’s impressions of Pakistan’s most powerful leaders. With the exception of the incorruptible Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his lieutenant Liaquat Ali Khan, all of Pakistan’s leaders succumbed, in increasingly pernicious fashion, to the malign and pervasive influences of sycophancy and flattery. This work relates the first-hand impressions of the author, which he garnered during his illustrious career, starting with Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah up until the rule of General Pervez Musharraf.
The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency
Charles R. Lister
Hurst (paperback), 2016
PRs 3010
The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria’s ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. Ranging across the battlefields and international borders have been dozens of jihadi Islamist fighting groups, of which some coalesced into significant factions such as Jabhat-al-Nusra and the Islamic State.
This book assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organizations in Syria’s fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. Unprecedented numbers of foreign fighters have joined such groups, who will almost certainly continue to host them. Thus, external factors in their emergence are scrutinized, including the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and how it has influenced the jihadist sphere in Syria. Tensions between and conflict within such groups also feature in this indispensable volume.
Love and Revolution Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Authorized Biography
Ali Madeeh Hashmi
Rupa (hardcover), 2016
PRs 1195
Love and Revolution is the first comprehensive biography of the best-known Urdu poet of recent times, a portrait of the man behind the poetry activist, revolutionary, family man, connoisseur of life and a reading of his poetry in the context of his life and times.
Living through the holocaust of partition, Faiz tried to make sense of it through his poetry. In the new nation of Pakistan, he played a prominent role not just as a cultural ambassador but also as a journalist, an important voice of dissent that refused to be stifled, a builder of enduring cultural institutions and an educationist. Awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour after his death, Faiz served prison terms and faced the threat of execution during his lifetime for his left leanings and outspoken criticism of the authoritarian regime.
Written by Faiz’s grandson, this book grants the reader privileged access to the poet through the memories of friends and family members as well as rare letters, documents and photos.