Pakistan

Pakistan: Transgender man and his wife imprisoned in Pakistan

Background and details of the case of Shamial Raj and Shahzina Tariq. What you can do to help.

International: Perspective - "In defence of the pen" by Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa

"Haleh’s and mine are two perspectives but not the only ones. Social, economic and political growth (and development) in a country depends on the presentation and consideration of multiple views."

Pakistan: Despite targetting of girls' schools by militants, enrollment continues to rise

Throughout NWFP, Pakistan's impoverished western border with Afghanistan, lie the ruins of barbershops and music and video stores – symbols of Western-oriented life that religious extremists have destroyed in a growing wave of violence.

Pakistan: No music, no shaving, no polio vaccinations - the increasing Talibanization of Pakistan

"Shaving beard isn't done here. Contact only for hair cut," reads a sign pasted outside the entrance of a barber's shop in Upper Dir, a rugged and mountainous district in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

Pakistan: Schoolgirls in Pakistan threatened for not wearing the burqa

National newspaper's editorial considers the imposition of the veil and responding to fundamentalisms.

Pakistan: Pakistani authorities have banned the satirical stage play "Burqavaganza" after Islamist MPs raised the issue in parliament.

The Ajoka Theatre company staged a satirical play, "Burqavaganza", in Lahore earlier this month using the image of the burqa as a metaphor for the double standards which exist in contemporary Pakistani society. Following protests from Islamist politicians, the play has now been banned.

Pakistan: Citizens take to the streets to demonstrate against rising fundamentalisms

Rights activists, feminists, and concerned citizens demonstrated in four Pakistani cities yesterday, denouncing the recent examples of a 'Talibanization' of the country.

Pakistan: Islamists in Pakistan issue a fatwa to minister Nilofer Bakhtiar over photo of a 'hug'

Islamic clerics at a radical mosque in Pakistan's capital have demanded the tourism minister be fired for hugging a foreign man, saying she committed a "great sin."

Pakistan: UPDATE: Women abducted by Islamists freed after forced confession

Pro-Taliban clerics and their followers at a mosque in the Pakistani capital on Thursday released three woman they had held for days after accusing them of running a brothel.

Pakistan: Alleged brothel owner abducted by female Islamists

In an apparent anti-vice crackdown, Islamist students took the law into their own hands and abducted an alleged brothel owner along with her daughter, daughter-in-law and infant granddaughter.