Tag Archives: Western Subcontinent

Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Blasphemy Laws

Shopkeeper arrested for selling shoes with sacred Hindu symbol
  • The shoes contained the “Om” symbol, a spiritual icon in Hinduism, prompting protests and leading to the man’s arrest in the town of Tando Adam in Sindh province, home to most of Pakistan’s Hindu minority.
  • Though strictest for crimes insulting Islam, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws allow for the arrest of those accused of offense to any religion, including Hinduism.
  • Police indicated no offense had been intended and a shift in focus to the shoes’ suppliers, but if convicted, the shopkeeper faces up to 10 years in prison.

Read more:
“Pakistani man charged with blasphemy over shoes with Hindu symbol” (Reuters)
“Hindus in Pakistan protest sale of Om-inscribed shoes” (The Hindustan Times)
“Man selling ‘Om’ inscribed shoes in Pakistan arrested for blasphemy” (The New Indian Express)

Additional:
“What are Pakistan’s blasphemy laws?” (BBC, November 2014)

(Image Credit: via The Hindustan Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Pakistan News | Trans Women

Trans activist dies in northwest Pakistan after uproar over hospital treatment
  • Alisha, 23, died in a hospital in Peshawar after being shot multiple times during a dispute.
  • She had reportedly had her medical intervention delayed as hospital personnel taunted her and debated whether to put her in the male or female ward.
  • While police have taken in a suspect, the trans community continues to worry at ongoing targeted violence, with Alisha now the fifth trans activist to have been killed in recent months.

Read more:
“Pakistani transgender activist who was shot, then taunted at hospital, dies of injuries” (The Los Angeles Times)
“Police arrest prime suspect in transgender Alisha’s murder” (Pakistan Today)
“Pakistani transgender activist dies after delayed medical care” (The Washington Blade)

(Image Credit: Trans Action Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, via The Los Angeles Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Afghanistan News | Hazara

Hazara communities in Afghanistan protest changes to new electricity line route
  • Thousands from Hazara communities in the country are expected to protest after officials outlined a new route away from provinces with large Hazara populations for what they argue are technical and economic reasons.
  • The electricity project is a part of the Asian Development Bank’s plan to connect energy-rich Central Asia with the energy-deprived countries of the western subcontinent.
  • The resource row comes as the government has pledged increased protection for the Shiite Hazara minority, who have faced kidnapping and murder at the hands of militants in the Sunni-majority country.

Read more:
“Afghan minority Hazaras plan protest over power line route” (Reuters)
“Afghan Kidnappers Prey on Hazaras” (The New York Times, November 2015)
“Hazara killings: Thousands protest in Afghanistan blaming militants for murder of seven villagers” (AFP/Reuters, via ABC, November 2015)

Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Christians

Pakistani Taliban kills scores in Easter suicide attack in Lahore targeting Christians
  • At least 69 have been killed and 300 injured by a suicide attack at a park in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and a cultural center of the country.
  • Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility and confirmed that Christians had been the target of the attack.
  • The park was packed with families for the Easter holiday, with many of the victims women and children.

Read more:
“Suicide blast kills at least 69 in Lahore park” (The Express Tribune)
“Explosion at Park in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills Dozens” (The New York Times)
“Taliban faction says carried out suicide bomb attack on Pakistan park, says Christians were target” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: AFP, via The Express Tribune)

Religion + Belief

Interregional News | Shiite Muslims

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Execution of Saudi Shiite leader sparks protests throughout the Middle East and South Asia
  • From Saudi Arabia to India by way of Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan, Shiite Muslims protested the Saudi government’s execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
  • Nimr had been convicted of order followers to attack the police, a crime of “banditry” that carries an automatic death sentence.
  • Before his arrest in 2012, Nimr had publicly called for nonviolent demonstrations to draw attention to the oppression of the minority Shia community in Saudi Arabia.

Read more:
“Shi’ite Muslims worldwide decry execution of Saudi cleric” (Reuters)
“Protests in Kashmir, Bahrain and Pakistan over killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr” (The Guardian)
“Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr: Figurehead Shia cleric” (BBC)

(Image Credit: AFP, via BBC)

Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Shiite Muslims

Shiite mosque bombed in southwest Pakistan, reportedly killing at least 10 and injuring at least a dozen
  • Six children were among the dead after a suicide bomber disguised as a woman in full burqa attacked a mosque in Bolan district of Balochistan province.
  • Though none have yet claimed responsibility, authorities suspect the attack to be the work of Sunni extremists against the country’s Shiite minority.
  • The bombing took place as Shiites prepare to celebrate Ashoura, a 10-day period commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Read more:
“Suicide blast outside imambargah in Bolan district kills five” (Dawn)
“Bombing at Shiite Mosque Kills 10 in Southwest Pakistan” (AP via ABC News)
“Bombing at Shia shrine kills 10 in Pakistan” (The Hindu)

Religion + Belief

Afghanistan Feature | Sikhs & Hindus

The Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan

Afghanistan has seen millions uprooted as local communities have found themselves caught in the middle of the conflict between the Taliban and a coalition of Afghan and U.S. forces. After the Taliban took control of the country in the mid-1990s, two of the country’s religious minorities–Hindus and Sikhs–saw their insecurity skyrocket, with land seizures, open harassment, and economic exclusion causing most of the tens of thousands in their ranks to flee for asylum elsewhere. Anadolu Agency, a state-run media outlet in Turkey, provides a glimpse of the outlook Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have on their prospects today.

Read more:
“Afghan Sikhs, Hindus fear violence but long for home” (Anadolu Agency)

Other coverage:
“Feeling alienated, Sikhs choose to leave Afghanistan” (The Hindu)
“Oppressed by Taliban, Afghan Sikh families seek help from DSGMC” (The Times of India)
“Facing Intolerance, Many Sikhs and Hindus Leave Afghanistan” (Wall Street Journal)

(Image Credit: via Anadolu Agency)

Gender

Afghanistan News | Women

Taliban destroys popular women’s broadcasting station during Kunduz battle
  • Roshani, a women-run radio and television station in Kunduz, was burned to the ground by Taliban fighters as they took the city of Kunduz from Afghan and U.S. forces.
  • Roshani had begun its television broadcasting only two months earlier, offering women-focused sports, entertainment, and cultural programming.
  • In addition to broadcasting, Roshani station director Sediqa Sherzai had been in the final stages of preparing to launch a production training program for women focused on video recording and editing.

“The Taliban erased many years of our efforts to build women’s media in Kunduz. … When things get back to normal in the city, we have to start all over again from zero.”

Read more:
“Taliban Flips The Switch On Women’s Radio, TV In Kunduz” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
“Taliban target media during Kunduz takeover” (Reporters Without Borders)

(Image Credit: via Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Gender

Pakistan Feature | Women

Video

Keeping on Trucking

Shamim Akhtar, 53, has become the first woman granted a heavy vehicle license in Pakistan. Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe profiles the single mother who took up truck-driving in order to support her family and the challenges she faced on the road to her licensing.

Watch the full Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty feature on YouTube.

Gender

Afghanistan News | Girls

Afghan police investigate gas poisoning at girls’ school in Herat province
  • More than 100 girls were taken to the hospital in Herat province for toxic gas poisoning at their school in the village of Enjil.
  • While police investigate whether the incident was intentional, politicians suspect it was the work of conservative factions who oppose education for girls in the country.
  • Most of the girls were discharged the same day as their hospitalization.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Afghanistan News | Hazara Shias

Taliban suspected in kidnapping of 12 ethnic Hazaras and murder of 3 in Afghanistan
  • The kidnappings took place in the eastern province of Ghazni at the hands of unidentified gunmen, the latest kidnapping following the abduction of 30 Hazaras in February.
  • Around the same time four bodies were discovered, three of which were Hazara and the fourth Pashtun.
  • The Taliban are suspected of being behind the events as the community was a frequent target of anti-Shia campaigns during Taliban rule prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion.

Read the full story at the Daily Times.

Ideology + Affiliation

Afghanistan Feature | Artist-Dissidents

Video

A Protest in Color

A group of artists convened at the presidential palace in Kabul to paint a mural in protest against government corruption.

View the AFP feature on YouTube (in French).

Age

Pakistan News | Children

At least 12 men arrested in widespread child abuse scandal in Pakistan
  • The men are accused of sexually abusing 280 children and blackmailing their families.
  • Charges detail how the abuse was captured on film, which was then used to extort money from parents.
  • Families accuse the police of failing to act on information they had received, with some alleging a cover up.

Watch the Euronews report on YouTube.

Gender

Afghanistan Feature | Women

Video

Making Bricks of Molehills

An estimated 2 million widows in Afghanistan struggle to hold together their families and forge a future for themselves following the death of their husbands. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty profiles a group of un-remarried women who, living independently, have built a community from the ground up with the few resources they have.

View the full feature at Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe.

Gender, Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Christian Women

Aside
Death sentence temporarily stayed for Pakistani Christian woman charged with blasphemy
  • Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued the decision as they prepare to hear an appeal against the conviction of Asia Bibi, a mother of four who became the first woman sentenced to death under the law.
  • Blasphemy laws are ill-defined in Pakistan and often connected to personal conflicts and extortion, making the rate of convictions high.
  • Two politicians who intervened on behalf of Bibi were murdered, inhibiting calls for legal reform.

Read the full story at Al Jazeera.

(Image Credit: EPA, via Al Jazeera)