Like a tiny flame still years away from growing into a full blown fire, a child is deeply vulnerable to strong winds. Due to this susceptibility, a child feels more intensely than adults do; raised voices from parents, the death of a pet, a seriously traumatic event, all become long-term fixtures on the portrait of a child’s mind. Now imagine the repercussions of molestation on such an impressionable consciousness. A child’s mind is like an open canvas gradually taking shape from the brushstrokes of life’s experiences. An event such as child molestation only leaves permanent dark splotches on the canvas. Through years of professional healing, a victim can paint over these ugly smears, but the marks can never truly go away. How does a child feel after sexual assault? It is the age of innocence, an age to grow, play, learn, and strengthen the mind to meet life’s challenges, and there is only so much a budding mind can endure. After such a traumatic violation of the body, a child’s mind is incapable of processing the wave of negative emotions; they can feel pain, confusion, disgust, and far worse. It takes special level of wickedness to take advantage of a child’s vulnerability Recent news of Pakistan’s biggest child abuse case in history has gripped the country. The story of nearly 300 children ranging from the ages of six to 14 repeatedly molested, gang raped, and forced into unthinkable acts with each other while filmed for hour-long videos so that their parents could be blackmailed, is one of the most horrific tales to come out of Pakistan. Who is at fault? Do we blame the incompetence of the police, who were unable to shut down this gang since 2006? For being so ridiculous as to arrest a 13-year-old boy for having sex with another child, when he was a victim himself? Do we find fault with their corruption, considering how they tried to violently stifle the voices of 4,000 protestors, in the process injuring dozens, and for picking up villagers in the dark of the night, so as to scare them into keeping quiet? (Perhaps the police were worried about allegations of a five million rupee bribe surfacing, allegedly paid by political puppet masters.) Or should we blame the parents, who tried to hide the wrongdoing by paying off the criminals, who were so ashamed that they forgot their children were merely victims? What about the major political parties that shut down big cities on a whim but did nothing here? A party like Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) looking to score points in the National Assembly by making comparisons with the Peshawar school shooting, which were uncalled for? Or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who have shamelessly tried to bury this horrific story six feet under? How about Rana Sanaullah, who has tried to pass off the incident as an innocuous side effect of a land grabbing battle between two groups? Does it matter, Mr Sanaullah, why the story came out when there is video evidence of children being raped? Do you not realise that children can’t give consent? Would you have reacted so flippantly had the victim been your own kin? Or how about the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) which ruled that girls as young as nine- years-old were eligible for marriage, but have remained silent here? Why does this council exist? To only pass laws where grown men can marry young girls? What of the tens of thousands who fill the streets when there is an offensive video on YouTube, or to show support for Salman Taseer’s murderer, do not bother to come out of their homes now? Where do the priorities of these people stand? How is this not worth demonstrating for? Or perhaps we should start with ourselves. Our level of shame surrounding sex has reached toxic levels. The toxicity is such that cases of child molestation in the country are covered up each year by schools, authorities, and the parents themselves. The first priority should be to help the children There is plenty of time to catch the guilty; these children who have suffered from unimaginable trauma need immediate help. The government has to direct its resources to rally professional trauma counsellors across the nation to aid them. But first, the government needs to display the right sensitivity. For once, it has to pretend to have an ounce of humanity. The victims need professional help to process the trauma During an interview for an article on child sex abuse, psychotherapist Saadia Parvez told me that victims are unable to make sense of what happened to them, and often end up blaming themselves,

“To admit a parent has failed [to protect them] destroys the world of a child.”

“When a child is being sexually abused, the body feels sensations, which on some level are natural. This creates a conflict with the repulsion the mind feels, and left unresolved, and can have victims grow up with a weird understanding of sexuality. Often, when a paedophile who had been sexually abused himself is abusing a victim, they are on a subconscious level trying to recreate the tragedy that happened to them, to help make sense of their own childhood trauma. On some level, their mind is asking them ‘yaar, yeh mujhay kya hua hai?’ (What was it that happened to me?)”

Dear Faisal Qureshi, Let me start by saying that while I am a film critic whose reviews are published weekly in Pakistan, I rarely watch Bollywood ‘films’. In fact, the last time I tried, my brain snapped shut, and I vomited uncontrollably for a few minutes. Later, I was diagnosed with Post Bollywood Stress Disorder (PBSD), a mental health condition provoked by a shockingly bad Bollywood film. I was sure I would never watch something as horrific again, until I saw your video response to Indian actor Saif Ali Khan’s comments on the Pakistani ban on his film, Phantom. [fbvideo link="https://www.facebook.com/qureshi.faisal/videos/vb.90055916454/10152932041031455/?type=2&theater"][/fbvideo] Now, I must admit, at the very least, you sparked my interest. After recovering from your video, thanks to a few pills of Imodium, I had a look at the trailer for Phantom. I do agree that this actioner looks like typical Bollywood nonsense where the ideas are recycled from counter-terrorism TV shows such as 24, and films such as Zero Dark Thirty, with the overall tone as subtle as a gorilla conducting a rectal exam. I also agree that Khan is naive to complain about Pakistan blocking his Citizen Kane when similar films of ours are banned in India. I believe films are an art form, and there is nothing artistic about a film which takes thematic decisions based purely on commercialism or patriotism. Meanwhile, Indian film critics have already ripped Phantom to shreds over its jingoism while the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is all set to sue the filmmakers for its dangerous portrayal of its workers. That being said, Qureshi, while some of your points can be appreciated, your video was even more offensive than the film you were targeting, which certainly takes special doing. This would be like being defeated by a fish in a tree climbing contest, or coming across as the real eccentric after a debate with Donald Trump, or losing to Kamran Akmal in a catching contest, and we know that the Akmal men couldn’t even catch a disease in the middle of an Ebola outbreak. In fact, let me take a few minutes to applause. I have never seen such a potent combination of misogyny, sexism, and misdirected saber rattling, packed into a 12-minute long video. It is as if Junaid Jamshed, Hamza Ali Abbasi, and Aamir Liaquat had a baby. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the cartoon show Captain Planet, but I imagine these gentlemen held up their rings, combined their powers, and formed you. Your attempts to belittle Khan by repeatedly calling him ‘behan’ (sister) and ‘bachi’ (little girl) are so demeaning, I bet even Jamshed is sitting at home thinking,

“Dude, that’s a little sexist.”

“This nation knows how to deal with enemies, both foreign and domestic.”

The first time I came across these images I was overcome with grief. Later, the sadness was replaced by outrage, but the tears continued to flow. Strangely, all I can do now is remark on how beautiful this toddler is, even in death. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="270"] Photo: Reuters[/caption] His name was Aylan Kurdi and according to CNN he was only two-years-old. He, along with his four-year-old brother, Galip, and mother Rehen, drowned after their boat capsized near the Greek island of Kos. This family of refugees was trying to find their way to Canada. Reuters reports that their father, Abdullah Kurdi, was understandably distraught,

“I was holding my wife’s hand. My children slipped away from my hands. We tried to hold on to the boat. Everyone was screaming in pitch darkness. I couldn’t make my voice heard to my wife and kids.”

“This week, Syrian government warplanes dropped four rockets on a crowded marketplace in Douma, just outside the capital Damascus killing over 100 people. Just a few hours after the attack, I sat in the ABC Middle East bureau and watched camera phone footage of its immediate aftermath. It was horrific. A desperate man rushed through the dust, carrying a bloodied child over his shoulder. Dozens of dead bodies lay on the ground amongst blown out buildings and destroyed market stalls. The children are the worst part. Their tiny bodies caught up in a horrific game the adults have been playing.”

If you’ve ever wondered what the face of barbarism looks like, then look no further than this man. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="396"] Photo: Daily Mail[/caption] His name is Fayhan al-Ghamdi, and according to reliable sources such as Gulf News and The Independent, he is a famous preacher in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who regularly appears on local television. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: Gulf News[/caption] To say the least, Ghamdi wasn’t happy with his daughter, Lama. He found her innocent smile as well as her other mannerisms to be flirtatious, and soon began to suspect that she wasn’t a virgin. The only problem with this, of course, was that Lama was only five-years-old. She was, as you can see, just an innocent baby. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: Youtube[/caption] Of course, this psychopath didn’t understand his own child, whom he had with his first wife, an Egyptian national. Initially believing him to be a gentle man, Lama’s mother eventually divorced Ghamdi after noticing the violent streak in her husband. Like any child, Lama loved her father, and wanted to continue seeing him, even after her parents had divorced. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: Aiza Yousef[/caption] MSN.com reports on the circumstances which lead to Lama’s death as told by her mother,

“The last visit was when I took her to see him in Riyadh where he had moved after he lapsed into a long silence even though Lama was keen on seeing him. The agreement was that she spends only two weeks with him, but after 14 days, he refused to let her come back home to me. The last words I heard from her were ‘I love you, mum and I always pray for you’.”

“It was such a terrible shock to see her frail body in this tragic state. She remained paralysed for several months before she passed away.”

“The lawyer warned he would take action against all the media that had tarnished the reputation of his client and the status of the judicial system in Saudi Arabia by misreporting the facts about the case.”

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in all its benevolent wisdom, has come to the aid of the Middle Eastern refugees lining up on the gates of Germany, by offering to build 200 mosques in the European nation. Yes, this is exactly what these traumatised people need after losing their homes, resources, family members, dignity, and mental and physical well-being – mosques. Indeed, for those so inclined, it is important for pious refugees to have a place to practice faith, especially in a foreign land where religion can help them feel grounded, but only after achieving stability in their lives. For Saudi Arabia to offer to build 200 mosques in Germany to help the refugee crisis would be like throwing pages of scripture at the survivors of a sinking ship. Saudi Arabia has always had a naked hunger to spread Wahhabism throughout the world. Their ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, taught in Saudi sponsored mosques, has infected Pakistan like a slow spreading virus. Here are some interesting excerpts from Frontline on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS):

“Many of the Taliban were educated in Saudi-financed madrassas in Pakistan that teach Wahhabism, a particularly austere and rigid form of Islam which is rooted in Saudi Arabia. Around the world, Saudi wealth and charities contributed to an explosive growth of madrassas during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. During that war (1979-1989), a new kind of madrassa emerged in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region – not so much concerned about scholarship as making war on infidels. It’s Saudi Arabia and its network of charities and the like. The argument I make is that there is an undercurrent of terror and fanaticism that go hand in hand in the Afghanistan-Pakistan arc, and extend all the way to Uzbekistan. And you can see reflections of it in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in Indonesia, in the Philippines. For instance, in one madrassa in Pakistan, I interviewed 70 Malaysian and Thai students who are being educated side by side with students who went on to the Afghan war and the like. These people return to their countries, and then we see the results in a short while. At best, they become hot-headed preachers in mosques that encourage fighting Christians in Nigeria or in Indonesia. And in a worst case, they actually recruit or participate in terror acts.”

“On the one hand, ISIS is deeply Wahhabist. On the other hand, it is ultra-radical in a different way. It could be seen essentially as a corrective movement to contemporary Wahhabism. ISIS is a ‘post-Medina’ movement, it looks to the actions of the first two Caliphs, rather than the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself, as a source of emulation, and it forcefully denies the Saudis’ claim of authority to rule.”

“The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said that all churches in the Arabian Peninsula must be destroyed. The statement prompted anger and dismay from Christians throughout the Middle East.”

“Islamist police in Saudi Arabia have stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children, and confiscated their bibles, it has been reported. The raid was the latest incident of a swinging crackdown on religious minorities in Saudi Arabia by the country’s hard-line Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The 28 Christians were said to be worshipping at the home of an Indian national in the eastern city of Khafji, when the police entered the building and took them into custody. They have not been seen or heard from since, raising concerns among human rights groups as to their whereabouts.”

“No law specifically requires all citizens to be Muslims, but non-Muslim and many foreign and Saudi national Muslims whose beliefs are deemed not to conform with the government’s interpretation of Islam must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, detention and, for non-citizens, deportation. Shia’s face systematic and pervasive official and legal discrimination (in Saudi Arabia), including in education, employment, the military, housing, political representation, the judiciary, religious practice, and media.”

“…Conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death.”

“They are a family of six... The mother and older daughter would beat us. They used to be sent outside and then the men would rape us. We would scream and cry, then they used knives,” said one of the women. “They raped us, kept us locked up, did not give us anything to eat.” The other woman, 30, said she was stripped, raped and brutalised by “a lot of men who would keep coming to the flat, whose language we never understood.”

Not too long ago, at the call for a citywide strike from Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), Karachi would have launched into a panicked frenzy, storekeepers would have shut down their business, cars would have lined up at petrol pumps, even those with full tanks (because that’s how we roll), schools would have closed early leaving both children and their parents scrambling for home, roads, buses, and, cars would have become the victims of anonymous perpetrators, flowers would have wilted, young lovers would have cancelled their dates at the park, opting for Skype instead, housewives would have cooked strange tasting curries because the dahi wala (yogurt shop) had gone back home, people would have had lunch with double roti (bread) because the chapatti wala was suddenly on vacation in Honolulu. To put it mildly, hell would have frozen over. In sharp contrast, I experienced a typical day at Tariq Road this afternoon, roads were teeming with activity, shops were crowded, the traffic signal boys were busy cleaning windshields while the drivers screamed, begged, and cried for them to stop as usual. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo: Screenshot[/caption] When I came to the realisation that MQM had called for a strike today, I was in shock. It was as if the stern teacher had asked the students to head back to the classrooms, and for once the students did not pay heed. Well, it seems like there is a new principal in town. According to Samaa, after explaining how four of his party’s workers were tragically murdered, local MQM honcho, Dr Farooq Sattar called for a strike,

“We appeal to the trade, transporter, and schools associations to answer MQM’s call affirmatively.”

“We cannot allow anyone to bring life in the metropolis to a paralysing halt.”

“You are requested to take Saturday as any other working day. Do not be afraid to continue with your business or other activities. Call 1101 (Rangers Helpline) if anyone tries to force you to close your shop/office down for the day against your will.”

“Bhai (brother), I live in a bad area. It was difficult to live there without people taking money from us in the name of a certain group. It was also not unusual to see the same people walking about at night heavily armed. But since the Rangers’ operations started we have started to see more calmness. It is far from perfect, but it is significantly better.”

Shut up… shut up… shut up… just shut the f*** up… That’s how it starts for many sex abuse survivors in Pakistan when they finally draw the strength to reach out from the void and tell their story.

“Chup hojao. Shhh. Bas ab tum nay mujhay bataya hay magar aur kis hee ko nahi batana.” (Just keep quiet. You’ve told me, now don’t tell anyone else.)

“Apni izzat ka socho. Tum say kon shaadi karey ga?”  (Think of your reputation. Who will marry you?)

“Uska socho. Log kya kahengay? Uskee zindagee khatam hojaygee.”  (What about their reputation? You’ll ruin their life.)

“Yeh to pagal hay. Iska to dimagh kharab hay. Kuch khawab mein dekha hoga.”  (She is crazy. Must have seen it all in a dream.)

“She’s making it up because she’s depressed.”

“I was five and my brother 10. Being the ‘man of the house’, he had always gotten away with things. My well-educated parents loved him more than anything. Since both our parents were doctors – well known doctors – our status was considered to be higher. Bhai had broken an expensive vase. Mamma saw him break it but it was my fault. Daddy saw I was getting beaten up for something not my fault so he took me to his room and cuddled with me. That’s when it started. And it was our secret. In return, I received what I thought was love. Plus daddy was just kissing me and touching me. And he loved me this way for three years. As soon as it struck midnight on my eighth birthday, daddy came into my room. I was giddy with joy. I would get my present now. That was the first night he raped me. Anally. I had to stay a virgin. But he took so much more. For years and years, he came into my room. I was battered and bruised. I knew it was wrong but I was too scared to say anything. I was sure my mother knew but she never heard my screams. She never came to rescue me from him. And his threats were never empty. He had always followed through. But I finally spoke up when I was 17. My entire family got involved and they tried to help me. My aunts and uncles intervened. But I had to stay inside the same house while they made decisions about my life. Conclusion? He shall never touch me again but I still should live with him because otherwise people would talk. And ‘my’ reputation was going to be at stake. In fact, my well-known family would have their status ruined. So it was decided that I’m going to live in my ‘home’. All this time, my mother threw it on my face that I had now tainted their reputation. And that I had been the whore tricking him into my room at night. Eventually, my family backed out, my parents tricked me into going to a therapist who put me on 18 medications and all I did was sleep and eat. But I had my friends and their support. And then suddenly and beautifully I fell in love when I was 19. That person had been raped some time ago and we both just understood each other so well that somewhere down the road of amazing friendship, we both were in love. I finally had a little hope. A little light that had lit up. Then daddy found out that I was dating someone and threatened to rape that person – the person who made me believe in love and understood what I had been through. In despair, without giving any reason, I sent a heartless text, ‘I think we should break up’. Heartbroken and devastated, our friendship was ruined. The only person I had risked to love never understood why and I didn’t have the courage to explain – safety was so much more important. And whatever friendship we had was now all gone. Six months later, daddy came into my room again. He mocked me. He told me how my family did not care about me. How no one had ever really loved me. How my ‘lover’ did not protect me. I was made to be used. My body was made to be used. And only he had the right to do so. I belonged to him. And then he raped me. He was more abusive than ever. All his rage and frustration had come out as a brutal force and had at times ended up with me having to get stitches around my genitals. I was so humiliated. And slowly I lost what little I had of me. I couldn’t even ask my family for help again. They didn’t care. All hell broke loose when I was 22 and had just found out I was pregnant. A baby was growing inside of me. At least I had thought it was a baby. A foetus, maybe? Was it mine? Am I supposed to keep it? Should I keep it? Will this baby be the first person who would love me? However, my (new and genuinely nice) therapist explained to me that I couldn’t keep the baby. I needed to get an abortion. And so I did. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I couldn’t risk it again. I ran away from Karachi all the way to America. With no money and no life. And I started over. That was two years ago. The agency that helped me made sure I survived. They took care of me like I was their family. And I did survive. I’m here writing my story. Completely detached from what had happened. I only feel the pain when I sleep and still have those nightmares. I have suppressed memories which bring back new memories I had forgotten. I am broken and miserable and lonely. And I have scars that can never heal. I have pain I can never forget. I have lost everything I had ever loved. I have stopped believing in love. I am still depressed and suffering from a severe form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People tell me I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay? I don’t believe that. I had heard that for years. ‘I’ll be okay’ are hollow words for me. But I’m still here. I haven’t heard my abusive mother’s words in two years. My father hasn’t been able to rape me in two years. I am here. I am alive.”

When they say they thought 14-year-old MacArthur High School student, Ahmed Mohamed, brought a bomb to school, they are lying. They are lying through their teeth. Let’s examine the facts. This young student of Sudanese origin, who loves engineering gadgets in his spare time, brought a home-made clock to school to show to his engineering teacher. His teacher after examining the device, recognised it as a clock, but realised it could be misinterpreted as something dangerous, and warned Ahmed not to show it anyone else. According to Dallas Morning News, Ahmed said,

“He was like, ‘That’s really nice. I would advise you not to show any other teachers’.”

“It looks like a bomb!”

“Well, you look like an alarmist.”

“It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.”

But the English teacher kept the clock, and during sixth period, Mohamed was pulled out of class by the principal. “They took me to a room filled with five officers in which they interrogated me and searched through my stuff and took my tablet and my invention,” the teen said. “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’ I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.” But his questioner responded, “It looks like a movie bomb to me.”

Police spokesperson James McLellan said Ahmed “kept maintaining it was a clock” when he was brought in for interrogation, but that he offered “no broader explanation”.

The Afghans call this revolting act bacha bazi, and it is exactly what it sounds like. Young boys usually ostracised from villages by their families because they were attacked by a paedophile, wearing flowing colourful outfits clad in bells, dancing in seedy places for older turban wearing bearded Afghan men, only to be sexually assaulted after the contemptible night takes a drug and alcohol fuelled turn. The Guardian stated,

“Dressed in a flowing shirt and long, red skirt, with sherwal pants beneath and small silver bells fastened to hands and feet, the dancer stepped across the floor, face hidden behind a red scarf. The bells chimed with the movement, the skirt brushing past the watching men who stretched out their hands to touch it. The sitar player sang loudly, a love song about betrayal. The dancer twisted and sang hoarsely with him, arms thrown high above a lean, muscular body, moving faster and faster until finally the scarf dropped, revealing a handsome young man’s face with traces of a moustache and beard. One of the men quickly grabbed the scarf and started sniffing it. In an adjacent room, 16-year-old Mustafa was preparing to dance next. His owner opened a small bundle of clothes and produced a long, blue skirt, crimson shirt, leather straps and bells. Mustafa stood on a table and nervously smoked a cigarette. Holding his thin arms over his head, he allowed two bearded, turbaned men, giggling and laughing, to dress him like a doll. One combed his long hair, and invited the other to have the “honour” of wrapping the straps around his hands and feet.”

“I go to every province to have happiness and pleasure with boys, says an Afghan man known as ‘The German,’ who acts as a bacha bazi pimp, supplying boys to the men. Some boys are not good for dancing, and they will be used for other purposes. ... I mean for sodomy and other sexual activities.”

“Like it or not, there was better rule of law under the Taliban, said Dee Brillenburg Wurth, a child-protection expert at the UN mission in Afghanistan, who has sought to persuade the government to address the problem. They saw it as a sin, and they stopped a lot of it.”

“Under Taliban rule, it was banned, but it has crept back and is now widespread, flourishing also in the cities, including the capital, Kabul, and a common feature of weddings, especially in the north. The bacha dancers are often abused children whose families have rejected them. Their ‘owners’ or ‘masters’ can be single or married men, who keep them in a form of sexual slavery, as concubines.”

“I started dancing at wedding parties when I was 10, when my father died,” says Omid. We were hungry, I had no choice. Sometimes we go to bed on empty stomachs. When I dance at parties I earn about $2 or some pulau rice. I ask him what happens when people take him to hotels. He bows his head and pauses for a long time before answering. Omid says he is paid about $2 for the night. Sometimes he is gang raped. I ask him why he doesn’t go to the police for help. They are powerful and rich men. The police can't do anything against them.”

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” one soldier told his father in a painful phone call.

“The American policy of non-intervention is intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflects a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status. Some soldiers believed that the policy made sense; even if they were personally distressed at the sexual predation they witnessed or heard about. ‘The bigger picture was fighting the Taliban,’ a former Marine lance corporal reflected. ‘It wasn’t to stop molestation.’ Still, the former lance corporal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending fellow marines, recalled feeling sickened the day he entered a room on a base and saw three or four men lying on the floor with children between them.”

“So Captain Quinn summoned Abdul Rahman and confronted him about what he had done. The police commander acknowledged that it was true, but brushed it off. When the American officer began to lecture about ‘how you are held to a higher standard if you are working with US forces, and people expect more of you,’ the commander began to laugh.”

“What was so unnerving about the men I had met was not just their lack of concern for the damage their abuse was doing to the boys, Quraishi says. It was also their casualness with which they operated and the pride with which they showed me their boys, their friends, their world. They clearly believed that nothing they were doing was wrong.”

“Some people like dog fighting, some practice cockfighting. Everyone has their hobby, for me, it’s bacha bazi, he says. When we leave the party at two in the morning a teenage boy is still dancing and offering drugs to the men around him. Zabi is not especially wealthy or powerful, yet he has three bachas. There are many people who support this tradition across Afghanistan and many of them are very influential.”

“The fact that bacha bazi, which has normalised sodomy and child abuse in rural Afghan society, developed within a deeply fundamentalist Islamic region of the world is mystifying. According to a 2009 Human Terrain Team study titled ‘Pashtun Sexuality,’ Pakhtun social norms dictate that bacha bazi is not un-Islamic or homosexual at all — if the man does not love the boy, the sexual act is not reprehensible, and is far more ethical than defiling a woman. Sheltered by their pastoral setting and unable to speak Arabic — the language of all Islamic texts — many Afghans allow social customs to trump religious values, including those Quranic verses eschewing homosexuality and promiscuity. Warlords who have exploited Islam for political or personal means have also promulgated tolerance for bacha bazi. The mujahideen commanders are a perfect example of this — they fought communism in the name of jihad and mobilised thousands of men by promoting Islam, while sexually abusing boys and remaining relatively secular themselves.”

“I was lying here sleeping and four people grabbed me and threw me into a car, he sobs. One was a bus driver, the others were heroin addicts. All four of them raped me.”

“Once, there was a boy on the bus and everyone had sex with him, confesses Ijaz who admits to raping 12 different children during his career as a bus conductor. I did it too but what else could I do? They invited me. And he was that kind of boy anyway.”

Dear Younus Khan, I hope this letter finds you well. Let me start by saying that you are, undoubtedly, one of the greatest Test match batsmen Pakistan has ever produced. Your powers of concentration and mental strength are only bettered by Misbahul Haq in the current Test team, while your skills as a stroke-maker coupled with your triathlon-athlete like endurance are a winning combination like no other. In a sense, you remind me of a boxer who lives for the counter punch. You, Younus, sometimes take more punches than a middle-order batsman has any right to handle, before you begin hitting back. It starts with numerous jabs in the shape of singles and doubles – which unbeknownst to your adversary do sizable damage – followed by more unorthodox shots such as sweeps and flicks, designed to infuriate the fielding team. Finally, your haymakers take their turn as you drive the leather off the old cherry. After a long tussle, as was with your incredible 171 against Sri Lanka, you are standing, arms raised, next to a bewildered and weary opponent, who is beaten black and blue after seemingly dominating the bout earlier. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="597"] PHOTO: AFP[/caption] Younus, though I am sure you have guessed where this is going next, it is imperative for you to continue reading. Throughout your career, there has been a pattern as clear as a quartz crystal for anyone to observe – you find your way into the limited-overs cricket team after some fabulous Test match performances, fail miserably, play magnificently in a new Test series, are dropped from the limited-overs format, throw a childlike tantrum on Pakistani media and emotionally blackmail your way back into the limited-overs team, fail in ODIs again, rinse and repeat. After the World Cup, Younus, I thought you had learned, but here we are once again. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="595"] PHOTO: AFP[/caption] Once more, you made your way to television and threw another outburst after it became apparent you would not be selected for the ODI series against Zimbabwe. Your statement was particularly immature,

“If I am not selected, the one-day team will not be able to stand up.”

“I would advise him to stop worrying about playing the ODI format.”

“I respect him a lot he is a legend of Pakistan cricket. But I think he should not bother or worry about me. Because after 15 years of international cricket, I don’t think I need to take anyone’s advice to decide what to do about my career.”

September 11, 2015. It is a day when the tragedy at Masjid al Haram in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stunned the world. A massive crawler crane, one of many used to modernise the city, collapsed without warning on the Grand Mosque after 5pm on Friday, a time when the mosque is usually bustling with activity. The unfeeling steel indiscriminately took down concrete as well as flesh and bones standing in its path. In the aftermath, the sorrowful scenes saw 107 people dead and 238 injured. The stories emerging from the incident are horrifying. Many have lost their beloved family members in a few heartbeats. Yet, there is also a stunning tale of heroism. A brave young boy, who from the footage seems to be around 10-years-old, notices the incoming danger. While many others around him are frozen into place by the impending doom, the adrenaline launches him into action. Using all of his strength, and perhaps more than he had any right to have, he pushes his mother (at least who I assume is his mother), out of the way in the nick of time. His actions are all the more incredible considering that the woman is twice his size. As the grime from the broken concrete fills the air, his mother wakes up completely disoriented, with her thoughts clearly centred on her son. She desperately sprawls around trying to find him, finally noticing him lying on the floor close to where they had been standing. One can only imagine the shock this mother feels to witness her son so still. The bond between a mother and a child is a connection no one else, not even a father, can feel. For nine months, a child grows in the womb, with the mother sensing its growth at a physical and emotional level she sometimes struggles to put into words. As the child grows into a position where it is able to leave its host, the mother makes countless sacrifices. These sacrifices are painful beyond imagination, but as any mother will tell you, they are worth several times over when a new born opens its eyes and sets its gaze upon on its mother for the first time. Many modern hospitals will, as soon as a child is born, place it on the bosom of its mother, the umbilical cord still attached. This immediate skin to skin contact soothes both child and mother, enhancing a nine-month long attachment destined to last a lifetime. The bond is further strengthened as the child grows little by little. Every day, the baby’s safety and nourishment are primarily in the hands of its mother. She is this new human being’s everything. Her baby will turn to her at every instant, with every need, and will eventually reward her with its first words, “Mamma”. It is no wonder this boy sacrificed his own body for a chance to aid his mother. After all, his mother had been doing the same his whole life.

There is a Chris Rock quote I like sharing whenever someone seeks positive strokes for completing a responsibility they believe is a grand achievement. In his standup, the comedian speaks of fathers who are proud of sending their kids to school or staying out of jail,

“You’re supposed to, you dumb m*****f*****! What kind of ignorant s*** is that? ‘I ain’t never been to jail!’ What do you want, a cookie?! You’re not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having m*****f*****!”

During my 15 years growing up in Saudi Arabia, there was one tenet I, like most expatriates, strictly abided by. This simple unwritten rule was; minimise your interaction with locals. This is because many, though certainly not all Saudis we encountered, looked upon foreigners as if they were insolent slaves. From interactions in the neighbourhood, workplace, shops, and more, the Saudi disdain for foreigners was pretty clear. With Saudi media towing the Kingdom line, it was only through word of mouth that we learnt of expatriate girls, women, boys, and boyish looking men escaping capture from Saudi groups. These gangs often travelled in hulking SUVs that sported tinted black windows, and would usually take their victims out into the middle of the desert to assault them sexually. I myself evaded a child molester, when my childhood friend and I were followed by a big bellied man with a large beard who tried to bribe us with money and candy. This monster regularly prowled the neighbourhood for a few weeks. In my blog, ‘In Saudi Arabia, Oil will always be thicker than blood,’ I wrote about other such disturbing events. One person we knew left Saudi Arabia merely six months after moving there with his family. A few days close to his arrival, a maid had been found lying dead on a balcony near his house, undoubtedly the victim of her employers. This family friend was in his mid-20s though still looked like he was 15, which is probably why he was targeted constantly by Saudi men. Growing a thin moustache did little to deter their advances, and he gave up his attractive salary and left the unattractive country. If it was bad for middle class expatriates, it was infinitely worse for blue collar workers. The further down the economic class you were, the more easily a prey you became for a local. A Sri Lanka man working as a house cleaner would tell me tales from Saudi houses he worked at, where Filipino, Sri Lankan, Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani maids were easy victims for lecherous Saudi men, and would share their sorrow with him. These women from poor economic backgrounds had few options of escape, especially with their passports locked away with the very men who targeted them. The Sri Lankan worker, who was a good man, and became a friend, would explain how while cycling home from work at night he would regularly be followed by Saudi men driving around in large petrol chugging vehicles. I believed him, because it was a similar story for me, when returning home at night from a game of cricket. Since my departure and the explosion of the internet, stories of Saudi human rights violations, especially against maids, have become very public. Away from their countries, these women are raped, sexually assaulted, accused of stealing, pinned for crimes of murder, and worse. Report after report expands on how these poor women are beheaded with alarming regularity in Saudi Arabia. I heard some terrible incidents during my time in the Kingdom, but the recent report of a poor Indian maid abused by her Saudi employer is blood curling. At the age of 58, she began working in Riyadh three months ago. To her dismay, she was not being paid, was facing abuse, and was being denied full meals. Obviously, this household, much like so many others in Saudi Arabia, assumed that they had bought a slave rather than hired an employee. Upset, Kasthuri went and complained to the police. When she came back, her employers reacted how any owner would behave when their slave would dare humiliate them. Tragically, they taught her a terrible lesson, by chopping off her arm. It is difficult to come to terms with this woman’s ordeal. Thankfully, her embassy is coming to her aid. https://twitter.com/SushmaSwaraj/status/652323117897940992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Amnesty International reports that almost 50 per cent of the people beheaded each year in Saudi Arabia are expatriates. A significant percentage of these foreigners are blue collar workers. If you scratch beneath the surface, you’ll learn of how many of those facing the sword are being tried for crimes likely to have been committed by their employers. The latest Amnesty International report says Saudi Arabia now beheads one person every two days. I am sure ISIS is looking at this statistic with jealousy. The Guardian reports,

“Amnesty said almost half of those executed during the last 30 years were foreign nationals, many of whom lack the Arabic skills to understand court proceedings and charges. Almost a third of those executed were for drug-related offenses.”

“Indonesia announced in May that it would stop sending new domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries after Saudi Arabia executed two Indonesian women. Siti Zainab and Karni binti Medi Tarsim were found guilty of murder and executed in April.”

“There were days when seven to eight men — all from Saudi Arabia — would assault us. If we resisted, the diplomat and his family would threaten to kill us and dispose of our bodies in the sewer.”

“According to Saudi lawyer Majid Qaroob, cited by Emirates 24/7, the man’s wife "faces up to one year in prison or a fine of SR (Saudi Riyal) 500,000 (around $133,000) for defaming her husband. The law ‘on information technology crimes’ stipulates ‘stiff punishment’ for anyone who films others with various devices, including smartphones with cameras, in order to ‘defame them,’ the Saudi lawyer said.”

Dear Fareed Zakaria, You are certainly a titan of journalism. Your CNN show, Fareed Zakaria GPS, is watched by countless worldwide, while your footprint can be found in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Slate, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, to name a few. The career trajectory you’ve taken is nothing short of incredible. After leaving your home in Bombay where you were born to Rafiq Zakaria, an Islamic scholar and a politician associated with the Indian National Congress, and journalist Fatima Zakaria, a former editor at Mumbai Times and the Times of India, you eventually made your way to the US, where you graduated from Yale University, and later Harvard University. From here, you never looked back, striking one milestone after another. Considering your reputation, I was disappointed by your 800-odd word opinion piece on The Washington Post. In ‘The key to solving the puzzle of Afghanistan is Pakistan’ you laid the entire blame of the failure of the 14-year American military campaign in Afghanistan, on Pakistan’s double dealing with the Taliban. Your faulty cause and effect analysis was not only overly simplistic but granted far too much credit to Pakistan for Afghanistan’s problems. Yes, Pakistan carries a long list of issues, but to paint the nation as an all-powerful bogeyman dilutes the gravity of Afghanistan’s home-grown issues. Now, before I continue, I’d like to clarify, I am not another Pakistani nationalist peeved by a journalist who still maintains strong ties with India. If anything, I find patriotism to be an entirely stupid emotion. My recent blog, which was eventually taken down, questioning Pakistan’s blind love for a national hero during a war, where they were the aggressors, was received more negatively than a teetotaling dwarf would be at a Dwarven pub in Middle Earth. Yet even I was put off by your article. Let’s start with when you say:

“Why, after 14 years of American military efforts, is Afghanistan still so fragile? The country has a democratically elected government widely viewed as legitimate. Poll after poll suggests that the Taliban are unpopular. The Afghan army fights fiercely and loyally. And yet, the Taliban always come back.”

“Nearly three years after US-led forces launched the biggest operation of the war to clear insurgents, foster economic growth and set a model for the rest of Afghanistan, angry residents of Helmand province say they are too afraid to go out after dark because of marauding bands of thieves. And during the day, they say corrupt police and government officials bully them into paying bribes. After 11 years of war, many here long for a return of the Taliban. They say that under the Taliban, who routinely punished thieves by cutting off a hand, they were at least safe from crime and corruption. ‘If you had a box of cash on your head, you could go to the farthest part of Marjah and no one would take it from you, even at night’, said Maulvi Daoud, who runs a cubbyhole sized-shop in the town of Marjah. ‘Today you bring your motorcycle in front of your shop and it will be gone. Now the situation is that you go on the road and they are standing in police and army uniform with weapons and they can take your money’. Many claim the US-funded local police, a type of locally sanctioned militia, routinely demand bribes and threaten to accuse those who do not comply of being members of the Taliban. Good governance never came to Marjah, they say. Daoud, the Marjah shop owner, said there was more security under the country’s Taliban regime that was ousted by the US-led invasion in late 2001.”

“Sardar, a 23-year-old working in his brother’s barber shop in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, said local officials had asked for bribes to resolve a long-running family dispute over land. When the backhanders failed to have their desired effect, he turned to the Taliban, the austere Islamist movement that has been fighting foreign forces since it was ousted from power 13 years ago. ‘They came to our home in Chahar Darah and took two days to solve the problem’, he said.”

“The Taliban has since charged that Afghan intelligence purposely gave the US the hospital’s coordinates. Even the possibility that such an accusation is true -- and the duration of the sustained attack suggests that something unusual happened -- points toward the reason that Afghanistan is headed back toward Taliban control: The government is thoroughly corrupt, and the US has been unwilling to take measures to address the situation. While a handful of civilian and military leaders identified corruption as an existential threat to the country, the problem remains unsolved.”

“Over the past few years, faith in the government and the warlords who were allied with the government, never strong, has rapidly diminished. Militias and Afghan Local Police forces installed by the American Special Forces were largely unaccountable. They extorted protection money from farmers, and committed rapes and robberies. But because they had guns and the backing of local strongmen close to the government, people’s complaints were ignored.”

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”

“Like it or not, there was better rule of law under the Taliban,” said Dee Brillenburg Wurth, a child-protection expert at the UN mission in Afghanistan, who has sought to persuade the government to address the problem. “They saw it as a sin, and they stopped a lot of it.”

“The answer to this puzzle can be found in a profile of the Taliban’s new leader, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. It turns out that Mansour lives part time in Quetta, The New York Times reports, ‘in an enclave where he and some other Taliban leaders… have built homes’. His predecessor, Mohammad Omar, we now know, died a while ago in Karachi. And of course, we remember that Osama bin Laden lived for many years in a compound in Abbottabad. All three of these cities are in Pakistan. We cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan without recognising that the insurgency against that government is shaped, aided and armed from across the border by one of the world’s most powerful armies. Periodically, someone inside or outside the US government points this out. Yet no one knows quite what to do, so it is swept under the carpet and policy stays the same. But this is not an incidental fact. It is fundamental, and unless it is confronted, the Taliban will never be defeated. It is an old adage that no counterinsurgency has ever succeeded when the rebels have had a haven. In this case, the rebels have a nuclear-armed sponsor.”

“The Pakistani army has been described as the ‘godfather’ of the Taliban. That might understate its influence. Pakistan was the base for the US-supported mujahideen as they battled the Soviet Union in the 1980s. After the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan in 1989, the US withdrew almost as quickly, and Pakistan entered that strategic void.”

“Pakistan is a time bomb. It ranks 43^rd in the world in terms of its economy, according to the World Bank, but has the sixth largest armed forces. It has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal, and the most opaque. It maintains close ties with some of the world’s most brutal terrorists. By some estimates, its military consumes 26 per cent of all tax receipts, while the country has 5.5 million children who don’t attend school. As long as this military and its mind-set are unchecked and unreformed, the US will face a strategic collapse as it withdraws its forces from the region.”

(Authors note: Before forming judgment, I urge readers to read this article to the end.)

Argument: If you legalise homosexuality, fathers will be more likely to prey on their sons and other boys in the family. Hence, legalising homosexuality encourages incest and child molestation. (Sent in by various people)

Argument: Child molesters are now demanding the same rights as homosexuals. (Sent by Anonymous)

Argument: You say homosexuality and heterosexuality are only legal between consenting adults. By the same argument, can you not argue in favour of incest between consenting adults? If two members of the family above the age of 18 wish to be intimate, then are you in favour of them also? What’s the difference? And if you have no argument against it, then isn’t legalising homosexuality paving the road for legalising incest? (Asked by various people)

“Incest often leads to traumatic bonding, a form of relatedness in which one person mistreats the other with abuse, threats, intimidation, beatings, humiliations, and harassment but also provides attention, some form of affection, and connectedness.”

“Incestuous connections lead to an overlap of family relationships and social roles and thus to a disturbance of a family bereft of (clear) assignments… Children of an incestuous relationship have great difficulty finding their place in the family structure and building relationships of trust with their next caregivers. The vital function of the family for the human community… is crucially disturbed if its ordered structure is shaken by incestuous relations.” Argument: Well, if you can argue that legalising incest between adults encourages molestation, then why can’t you argue that legalising homosexuality between adults will also encourage molestation? Isn’t it the same thing? (Sent in by anonymous)

Argument: But alright, for argument’s sake, why should incest be illegal even between consenting adults? Let’s just talk about incest between adults.

Argument: What if the adults in an incestuous relationship use protection during intimacy?

“When a young man falls in love with another man, no family is destroyed. Homosexuality is largely immutable, as the chronic failure of ‘ex-gay’ ministries attests. So if you forbid sex between these two men, neither of them is likely to form a happy, faithful heterosexual family. The best way to help them form a stable family is to encourage them to marry each other. Incest spectacularly flunks this test. By definition, it occurs within an already existing family. So it offers no benefit in terms of family formation. On the contrary, it injects a notoriously incendiary dynamic— sexual tension— into the mix. Think of all the opposite-sex friendships you and your friends have cumulatively destroyed by ‘crossing the line’. Now imagine doing that to your family. That’s what incest does. Don’t take my word for it. Read ‘The Kiss’. Or the sad threads on pro-incest message boards. Or what Woody Allen’s son says about his dad: ‘He’s my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression. I cannot see him. I cannot have a relationship with my father …’”

“Homosexuality is an orientation. Incest isn’t. If the law bans gay sex, a lesbian can’t have a sex life. But if you’re hot for your sister, and the law says you can’t sleep with her, you have billions of other options. Get out of your house, for God’s sake. You’ll find somebody to love without incinerating your family.”

At the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker faces off against his father, Darth Vader, under the watchful eye of the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. Initially, Luke tries his best not to engage with Vader in combat, not only in the hopes of pulling his father from the clutches of evil, but to shield himself from the intoxicating draw of the dark side. Darth Sidious,

“Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!”

“So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side... then perhaps she will.”

“Good. Your hate has made you powerful. Now… fulfil your destiny. Take your father’s place at my side.”

“Never. I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Sometimes it is easy to forget the bond between Pakistan and India. Growing up in the Middle East, I had a number of Indian friends, and there was never an ounce of animosity between us, except of course, during a Pakistan-India cricket match. During one of these events, the passive aggressive jokes were as bare knuckled as they could get. We took great pleasure in beating the Indian cricket team during matches at Sharjah, while they enjoyed returning the favour at World Cup events. But even during these hot moments, empathy somehow found its way. After Pakistan was decisively beaten by India at the World Cup quarterfinal at Bangalore, where Aamir Sohail lost to his arrogance after dominating the run chase in a batting extravagance, I, like so many of my Pakistani classmates in Saudi Arabia, was deeply disappointed. That evening, I barely touched my dinner and even skipped breakfast the next morning before school, where the atmosphere amongst Pakistani students was gloomy to say the least. Later that night, as with every other night, I was dropped off by my father at my math tutor’s home. This tutor taught at a local Indian high school by day, and gave private lessons to mostly Indian students by night. When I walked in, I expected to see gloating faces; after all, the match had been talked up for days. Instead, the Indian students were very sporting, while the tutor himself tried to cheer me up by blaming Venkatesh Prasad for rattling Aamir Sohail’s cage. I found the relationship to be similarly healthy while studying in Canada. Indians and Pakistanis shared a special affinity; they hung out together, dated each other, and were more like separated relatives than bickering siblings. The most recent story I have to share is of a vacation in Nepal. The sun had set after we had walked a good 40 minutes from our lodge to an elephant training ground. Although Chitwan is a safe city, walking back with family in utter darkness did not seem like a bright idea. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a vehicle in sight. Here, an extended Indian family had no hesitation in inviting a few Pakistanis to hitch a ride with them on the back of their jeep. At the risk of revving up the cheese, there was little room on the jeep but plenty of room in their hearts. Our trip to the country was made more memorable after we befriended an Indian trekker visiting the country from Singapore. We all gelled over the mutual distaste for our governments and the Bollywood film industry in general. With such camaraderie on neutral ground, the friction between India and Pakistan contrasts sharply at home. There are, real issues, of course. Kashmir is one of the most glaring ones. Other religious issues are so vast; one can see why partition was necessary, especially in the light of recent events. The fundamental difference is that the Muslim majority in Pakistan likes consuming beef, especially during Eid. Meanwhile, the Hindu majority in India considers the cow a scared animal. One side believes it is commanded to protect the source of beef, while the other believes it must be consumed. It is impossible to satisfy one belief without insulting the other and is the sort of comedic difference you’d find between two roommates in a sitcom. No, the writers of Perfect Strangers couldn’t have written it any better. As the people of both nations take their beliefs less seriously with each passing generation, you can expect the frostiness to thaw out over time. Until then, there are roguish elements on either side of the border ready to fan the flames. In India, of course, there is Shiv Sena, which is considered a bit of a national embarrassment. The political party, with all the petulance of a spoiled toddler, has had a disruptive presence. They’ve dug up their own cricket pitches, damaging their own World Cup trophy, and attacking their own film stars. Recently, they’ve turned their sights towards Pakistanis in India. The victims have been film stars, theatre actors, plays, cricket board officials, and our favourite umpire, Aleem Dar. I suppose this is why Shiv Sena’s open invitation to Nobel Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, was all the more unusual. In their view, Malala is the only Pakistani worthy of setting foot on Indian soil. Malala spoke for education, survived a headshot from the Taliban, delivered a rousing speech at the United Nations, raised a small fortune for charity through the Malala Fund, won the Nobel Peace Prize, was interviewed on dozens of shows across America, and did a magic trick which confounded American humourist Stephen Colbert. It is a tall ask to expect Pakistanis to emulate her feats just so that they can see the Taj Mahal. So, what gives? Is Shiv Sena really a fan of the bravest girl in the world, or are they playing more mind games? As Pakistani entertainer Junaid Akram puts it, Malala’s mixed reception in Pakistan isn’t a secret. While most are proud of her, a very vocal minority attacks her on social media at every opportunity. It isn’t difficult to spot the commonalities between her detractors. For one, the complaints against her are written in barely decipherable English. Ironically enough, the haters of a girl who is taking a stand for education could do with completing school themselves. There is no doubt in my mind that whenever one of these trolls rambles on Facebook or Twitter about Malala, an English teacher somewhere cries softly in a corner. Then, there are the conspiracy theories. While these very Pakistanis would not hesitate to target anyone who questions Pakistan’s Army, they, without realising it, are accusing the nation’s military of singlehandedly leading the country’s biggest conspiracy when they claim Malala’s shooting was orchestrated, considering how the army had a major role in shuttling the injured little girl out of the country, and senior ranking soldiers themselves came on international media to narrate the miraculous story of Malala’s survival. If these jingoistic Pakistanis had enough brain cells to comprehend the full meaning of their claims, I am guessing they would react like the robot from Lost in Space and dance around with their arms flailing, chanting the words, “Does not compute… does not compute… does not compute…” Their final argument, of course, is to say that no one can survive a gunshot to the head. Funnily enough, this is the only miracle they don’t believe in. They will ignore the fundamental laws of physics to defend a fraud who claims his car can run on water, but won’t accept Malala’s story. Is it so extraordinary for a person to survive a gunshot to the head? This report examines 66 patients who were shot in the head. Of those, 34 per cent, yes three out of 10 patients survived. More comprehensive studies though, suggest the survival rate is closer to 10 per cent. While it is far from common, it is certainly more likely, than say, a car that uses water as fuel. Those still not convinced, can read about other survivors by clicking here, here, or here. A simple Google search shall only reveal more stories to you. Of course, some right-wing Pakistanis will never be persuaded, and it is these nationalists Shiv Sena targets when it sings praises of Malala. As soon as the news broke, Malala’s haters across social media ranted about the Nobel Prize winner being an agent of Shiv Sena. It must be said, Malala is perhaps the world’s best agent. According to some Pakistanis, she has worked with the American CIA, the Israeli Mossad, India’s RAW, Pakistan’s Taliban, and a few other groups we aren’t aware of. These very Pakistanis will say that the only institution fighting for Pakistan’s integrity is its army, and is completely trustworthy, except of course, when it tells you Malala was actually shot in the head by the Taliban. Shiv Sena, surely aware of how this girl is received in her home country, has sided with her in an effort to rile up some Pakistanis. This would be like the Indian drama where the handsome villain, intent on breaking up an edgy marriage, fakes friendship with the wife to provoke the idiotic husband. The husband, idiotic as he is, doesn’t realise the wife isn’t responding in kind, and proceeds to damage their relationship further. Maybe we should stop being idiots, or perhaps some of us don’t deserve Malala. Thankfully, social media users on both sides of the border have taken a stand against this ridiculousness the best way they know how: by posting a selfie with messages of peace. The initiative was started by activist Ram Subramanian. His hashtag has now taken Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by storm. https://twitter.com/vikaskyogi/status/657590397544214528 https://twitter.com/arshi_yasin/status/657511228923777024 https://twitter.com/Ali_Faraz87/status/657482842222407680 https://twitter.com/june_aid/status/657603115185754112 https://twitter.com/zahaibnabeel/status/658171719656558592 https://twitter.com/Shahbaz_sMs1/status/657515588496039936 The popularity of #ProfileForPeace is further proof of the tie between Pakistanis and Indians. It is a connection that refuses to be broken, even during cricket matches, even when Shiv Sena acts up, even when Indian viewers have to endure Humsafar, and even when terrible Bollywood movies flood Pakistani cinemas.

With alarming regularity, shootings in America make the news across the planet, sometimes every other week. Horrific visuals of mayhem, tragedy, and pain fill our TV screens as we try to understand how the most powerful nation in the world helplessly suffers like this month after month, year after year. We look at the statistics where only the United States amongst its peers sees mass murders take place with any regularity, and wonder what the hell is going on. On the left, American politicians would have their citizens believe the problem simply stems from a lack of gun control, and the public eats it up. But, what if this is simply not true, or not completely true? What if there is more to it? What if the truth is far more complicated and disturbing than what the average American would like to believe? Surprisingly, homicides and other crimes related to guns are down considerably in the United States. On the other hand, mass public shootings are on the rise. According to a Harvard School of Public Health study, every 64 days, there is a mass public shooting in the United States. This is a shocking increase form one every 200 days in the 29 years previously. So why isn’t someone doing something about it? Guns are a religion in America. The debate over the loose interpretation of the second amendment of the American constitution, which allows citizens to arm themselves with the kind of high-tech weaponry found on battlefields, is as loaded a discussion in America, as a conversation over the blasphemy law is in Pakistan. Americans against stricter gun control argue in favour of their constitutional right. On the other hand, those who demand tougher laws for gun ownership cite statistics. When they say the United States leads the world in mass shootings, they aren’t wrong. A report by the Wall street Journal makes for grim reading. United States accounts for only five per cent of the world’s population, yet it claimed 31 per cent of the world’s mass shooters from 1996 to 2012. Another, more worrying statistic, comparing developed nations across the world, shows the United States leading with 133 mass shootings between the years 2000 and 2014. The next in line is Germany with six, Russia and China with four each, South African and Canada with three a piece, and other nations with either one or two mass shootings. Troublingly, there are more mass shootings in the United States in a year than Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, Germany, South Africa, Argentina, England, Russia, Canada, Mexico, China have had in 14 years combined. US’s share of 133 mass shootings is out of a total of 166 between these nations. This statistic has only gone up. CNN states that there is a mass shooting now every two weeks in the United States, and once a month in a school. Undoubtedly, there is a direct relationship between gun ownership and gun murders in any country. It is only logical to assume a person with murderous thoughts is more like to carry out his dark fantasies impulsively when a weapon is easily available. So is this the only reason behind the mass shootings in America? Certainly, the left-wing American politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would like you to believe so. Time after time, Europe and Canada are cited as regions where mass shootings are rare due to low weapon distribution. But what if this isn’t completely true? What if I told you the average American mass shooter doesn’t act impulsively, but plans his shooting until he is set off? The Guardian recently published a data summary on gun murder statistics and gun ownership worldwide. When comparing the world’s most developed nations, the report makes for extraordinary reading. There are 88.8 civilian firearms per 100 people in the United States. In the same nation, the firearm murder rate is 2.97 per 100,000 people. Compare that to Canada with 30.8 firearms per 100 people, which is three times as less, yet the firearm murder rate at 0.51 is six times as less. In short, Canadians do like their guns, but they don’t go around killing other people. It is a similar pattern for other developed nations. In Norway, there are 31.3 firearms per 100 people, yet only 0.05 murders by firearms per 100,000 people. In Switzerland, there are 45.7 firearms per 100 people, but only 0.77 such murders per 100,000 people. Sweden has 31.6 firearms for every 100 people, yet only has a gun related death rate of 0.41 per 100,000. Germany has 30.3% firearms, and a firearm murder rate of 0.19 per 100,000. Finland? 45.3 firearms per 100 people, but a murder rate of only 0.45. The statistics are unsettling to say the least. The differences in murder rates are beyond disproportionate. Let’s keep two facts in mind though. These nations have tighter checks and balances when it comes to firearms and the type of weapons on offer are far less sophisticated than what you’d find in the USA. That being said, it is a deep chasm. Let’s ask the question no American politician is asking: With so many other developed nations boasting gun cultures, why is the gun related murder rate so much higher in America? Thirty one per cent of Canada carries firearms, yet only has had to deal with three mass shootings in 14 years. In America it is 133. For politicians in America, the natural target is gun control. The argument is that if the United States carried the same gun control laws as its peers, if it copied the model followed by the United Kingdom and other countries of Europe, or Australia, it would see a dramatic drop in mass shootings. As I said, this is fair assessment. You take away the guns and you take away the instruments of destruction. But is it really so simple? Are they claiming that if Canada sported three times as much gun-ownership, mass shootings would go up in the nation from three in 14 years to 133? If Switzerland had twice as many firearms as it does now per 100 people, its gun related murder rate would spike from 0.77 to nearly four times as much? What if these mass shootings aren’t as much a gun control problem as we’d like to believe? To Democrats, the only correlation between mass shootings and are the weapons themselves. But what if these mass shootings are a symptom of a far graver and more worrying issue, a complicated problem so disturbing that American politicians would rather ignore it and concentrate on lobbying for gun control? Let me ask you this. Does a normal well-adjusted person pick up a weapon and shoot little children at a school, or kill all of his co-workers in a spree of insanity? Why are these incidents so rare in European and Canadian regions where a significant proportion of the population boasts gun ownership? Sure, stricter gun laws can reduce spur of the moment crimes, but most mass shooters carefully planned their acts for several weeks if not months. A man with time can acquire guns in a country with tougher gun laws if he sets his mind to it, which these Americans did. In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik started planning his attacks in 2002 before executing his horrific plans in 2011. If your country sells guns, there is no check in the world that can stop a methodical mass shooter. Stricter gun control is only the beginning. America needs to understand why these mass shooters turn to murder in the first place. What’s more, when examining Europe and Canada, the politicians need to appreciate other things these nations are doing differently. There are things only America does that may play a major role in the birth of a mass shooter. To start with, let’s examine the profile of a mass shooter. In terms of background, shooters often come from homes where they face a varying combination of abuse and neglect. They may have acted out by hurting animals through torture. They turn to mass murder because they have felt powerless or insignificant all of their lives and becoming a mass shooter puts them in control. They also have histories of depression. Other experts suggest shooters in the work place kill after not achieving their dreams and goals. Having believed in the American dream they now feel let down by America. According to CNN, invariably, the mass shooter carries a mental illness,

“Duwe found the most common illness associated with mass public shootings was paranoid schizophrenia, a type of schizophrenia in which the person has delusions of being plotted against or persecuted.”

She just wanted to live her life. Rokhsahana, estimated to be only 19 years of age, was brutally stoned to death just over a week ago, in late October. An Afghan girl belonging to the village of Ghalmeen, she had spent her entire life suffering decisions made by other men. According to The Guardian:

“According to Joyenda, who has staff members from the village, Rokhsahana first ran away several years ago to Iran after her family tried to marry her off to an old man. After they brought her back, they forcibly married her off to another old man. When she ran away this time, she did so as a married woman, and was punished with stoning. Local officials, including the police chief and the head of Ghor’s department for women’s affairs, Masooma Anwari, have blamed the Taliban for the killing, claiming that the sentence was decided in a Taliban court. However, activists in Kabul warned against jumping to conclusions. Wazhma Frogh, co-founder of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security, said her contacts in Ghor had told her the perpetrators were not Taliban but rather the local tribal leaders.”

“The man was let off with a lashing, Joyenda’s spokesman said.”

“Earlier this year, a state court overturned many of the initial hard sentences given to those behind the mob murder of Farkhunda, a female religious teacher, in Kabul.”

Dear Imran Khan, Let me start by offering my sincerest sympathies on the tragic end of your relationship with Reham Khan. I have, since I was a boy, held admiration for your achievements, and have read all books written by you, and therefore know how dearly you hold the institution of marriage, and how earnestly you wish for such a partnership to succeed. I also realise that you were hurt by the sad end of your first marriage, and must have entered your second one with every intention for it to succeed. These things considered; the differences between you and Reham must have been vast and irreconcilable for the two of you to end the partnership only after ten months. It is understandable for you to seek privacy so as to find the space to grieve and heal from this heartbreak, yet the way you recently tore down a journalist for inquiring about your marriage was disconcerting. [embed width="620"]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3c8gtx_imran-khan-scolds-reporter-who-asked-him-about-his-divorce_news[/embed] Do politicians have a right to privacy? Yes, well, of course they do, unless their private lives reflect poorly on their ability to perform public duties. Let’s take for example your many jibes on the current Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom you have called out time and again publically for unscrupulous business practices. Sharif would not be able to realistically ask for privacy on his personal business decisions since those choices speak ill of him as a leader. Likewise, a reporter has every right to question you on why your marriage ended so swiftly, as it speaks poorly of your decision making, especially in light of the disturbing rumours surrounding the demise of your second marriage. Normally, one wouldn’t pay heed to such gossip, except it comes from the same source, journalist Arif Nizami, who has been proven to be accurate twice so far on your affairs. Although many of the allegations such as domestic abuse, financial payoffs, and slow poisoning come across as ludicrous, they are serious enough for any reporter to want to investigate further, as it involves you, a powerful political leader. Your party has claimed that these allegations are false, but your track record makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDkCugH4mc This brings me to your repeated appeals for privacy. It pains me to say this Mr Khan, but over the years you have used ‘privacy’ as a cover, though only when it suits you. Let’s look at this interview of you from when you were at the age of 38. Here, you invite a British reporter to your home to discuss your love life. As the reporter asks you about one girlfriend after another, you chuckle with the glee of a schoolboy, only stopping him to mention that these women are now married. [embed width="620"]https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x36hwt2_reaction-of-imran-khan-when-journalist-shows-his-girl-friend-list_news#tab_embed[/embed] Mr Khan, clearly, you felt no need for privacy then, not for yourself, not for the happily married women you were discussing. I wonder how they or their spouses felt to see an ex-boyfriend discuss them like mere conquests. Roles reversed, would you have found it pleasant to see your spouse’s former lover discussing her on television with such juvenile mirth? Is privacy only of value to you when it shields your own life? The most cringe worthy quote of yours came towards the end,

“There was one particular girl my mother used to like a lot. She was my sister’s friend. My younger sister’s friend. Whenever she used to visit my younger sister, my mother always said, ‘have a look at her and tell me if you find her attractive’.”

“I am only here because I have been publically challenged by Imran Khan’s statements to the press, which appear to allege that he is not the father of my daughter, and that I should go to the courts to prove he is not the father. This entire situation is deeply painful and sadly disappointing for me. Since my child’s birth four and a half years ago, my past conversations with Imran allowed me to trust his words that in time he would personally acknowledge to our daughter who her biological father is, and why he couldn’t be in personal contact with her all of these years. I have never asked for anything from Imran. Now, I ask only for the truth and the rights of my daughter, which she is entitled to enjoy.”

“We believe the complaint, as originally filed, was ill-motivated. We believe the mother may have been the unwitting tool of my client’s opponents.”

“White got pregnant and Khan told her he hoped it was a boy. When he learnt the baby would be a girl, Khan expressed disappointment and said the child would not be able to play cricket. He urged White to have an abortion, but she refused.”

“We did not request child support. We hope that, one day, he will open his heart to his little daughter and give her the love, respect and support every little girl deserves.”

“In May 2004, one of those old girlfriends, the millionairess Sita White, died suddenly of a heart attack. Her daughter Tyrian was proven to be Imran Khan’s child in 1997. Imran denied he had fathered the little girl until a legal suit proved otherwise. He did not meet Tyrian until she was six-years-old.”