The spiritual stock
Drive on the roads of Karachi anytime between dawn or dusk and you'd think we’re doing the world a favour by fasting.

The road back home
While Pakistan has embraced the largest number of refugees in the world, it should be no surprise that it is taking a toll on the country.

Clothe your women with kindness
Hurrah! For Pakistan has finally criminalised domestic violence against women and children. Offenders will face a minimum of six months behind bars and 100,000 rupees…

The sins of the fathers
Shakila was only eight-years-old when she and her cousin were abducted from their home. One night, men armed with AK-47s barged into her house and…

Rage against the machine
Deja Vu! Saudi Arabia’s top cleric, Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh, says that Twitter is a platform for “promoting lies.” Two years ago, Al-Azhar’s Abd…

Hate free
A friend recently reposted a line, “Haters = Having Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success!” on Facebook that got me thinking. Well, it’s true.…

Log off and live life
“I think all this Facebook stuff should just stop!” said Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, at a recent Islamic convention. “Live your lives.…

The gulag of our age
I met Philippe Sands, QC, the author of the book “Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values” in…

Un-teaching extremism
The US has taken an initiative to spread the counter-extremist message across Pakistan to prevent the breeding of extremism and to deradicalise militants who were…

The price Egyptian women pay for justice
On Friday, a gigantic throng of demonstrators at Tahrir Square chanted slogans against the military rule. At the backdrop of this Friday’s protest, dubbed “the…

Celebrating the divine union of the soul
Jalaluddin Rumi is famed as much in the west as in the east for the tradition of whirling and an assortment of devotional poetry. His…

‘Discourtesy always resembles a failure’
I woke up late that morning, I had to rush out without my morning coffee fix and ran toward London’s Edgware Road station – just…

Unmarried at 30: Handling the stigma with grace
Author’s note: As is often the case in real life, things don’t pan out the way we would like it to be, which leads to …

Recipe for divorce: The wealth-driven marriage
He has no qualms about an arranged marriage. But, since he wants to be sure that she is the one that he wants to spend…

The hypocrisy of misdirected faith
After reading the news that Saudi morality police — acting as “God’s agents” on earth to prevent sin — beat up a woman and a man accompanying her on suspicion of dating. I asked myself this question: what right do these “keepers-of-faith” have to rigorously impose Islamic morals on other people. The woman and man turned out to be relatives. When the members of Haia realised their folly, they tried to hush up the Yanbu woman, who was accompanying her uncle for work in Medina, by paying for their hotel stay, SR500 in cash, and mint leaves, with hopes that she would not lodge an official complaint.

‘Death Guards Life’: Coping with the so-called jihad
“What do you see in your dreams, chacha?” my four-year-old niece asked, with her face resting on her hands and her eyes lit with joy…

The accessibility of envy on social media
We have all found ourselves to some degree comparing and judging our life experiences, appearances, relationships, and professional and academic successes to those attained by…

Let’s gossip
“Ayesha is divorced!” a woman told the cousin sitting beside her, the pitch of her voice quiet yet severe.  “Really?” the cousin responded in a…