The activists, including Sheema Kermani and Karachi City Council member Shahzadi Rai, were released later in the day on the orders of Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar, but not before public outcry began on X over what some netizens called a sign of “shrinking” civil liberties.

Others called the display “shameful”. They questioned why the right to peaceful assembly was being infringed upon and whether it was even upheld anymore, especially when it came to Aurat March.

People, including activist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, were especially outraged at clips of Kermani being manhandled by police personnel and being pushed into the back of a police car.

People wondered if this is how members of the province’s ruling party are treated — Rai is a member of the PPP — how would the police deal with non-members. Her arrest was also condemned by netizens as “unacceptable”.

Another video of an activist being carried into a police van was labelled a “disgrace”.

As the date of their annual protest approaches, Aurat March organisers have said they “will not back down” from their demand to hold the protest in Karachi and will continue to seek the necessary clearance.

They called the police action a “scare tactic” and demanded an explanation from the government on why their activists were arrested and why the NOC is being delayed.

The group shared the news on their Instagram ahead of their 2026 march which is scheduled to be held on Mother’s Day, May 10, at Sea View.

“For the first time in our history we present to you Misogynist of the Year Awards!” announced the group, with a clarification that this was a Pakistan edition.

“Our menfolk spend the entire year displaying their excessive misogyny. We are so used to living in this misogynistic environment that we often forget when or what they’ve said and whom they’ve hurt with their words. So why don’t we all refresh our memories together?” read the caption for the post.

It made an open call for everyone to think of the “most misogynistic remark you can recall a cisgender man publicly making during the year 2025 and drop it in the comments below”.

“Who knows he might end up getting crowned the biggest Loser of the Year in a few days’ time?”

The ‘trophy’ displayed in their post was a glorious golden chapal. We’re pretty sure they’re going to be inundated with entries and we can’t wait to see who’s crowned.

Weinstein, a central figure of abuse allegations that spurred the MeToo movement, appeared at the New York City courtroom wheelchair-bound due to ill health. He is being retried on a count of third-degree rape against Mann that allegedly happened in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room.

Last June, a judge declared a mistrial on the charge after the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate the case amid a jury-room feud. Weinstein, 74, is already imprisoned for other sex offences, so he will remain behind bars regardless of the retrial verdict.

“This case will come down to power, to control and manipulation,” said Assistant District Attorney Candace White. She told how Weinstein used his Hollywood clout to take advantage of Mann — then a 27-year-old “barely scraping by” — including by enticing her with a role in a movie that she had no chance of getting.

Originally published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2026

The comments weren’t just insults, they were written in a way that would linger on in her mind and make her think several times before ever posting again.

Another woman, a rights activist, described how her photographs were lifted, edited, and circulated with explicit captions. A third woman spoke about being warned not to attend public events because “women like her” would be dealt with there. While the language of the threats keeps changing, the core message to these women stays the same — if you don’t step back, you will be pushed back.

These accounts are taken from the #ThinkBeforeYouSpeak campaign run by Pakistan’s Uks Research Centre in partnership with the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). Over the course of a year, the project, titled SafeWords, Safer Worlds, collected testimonies, tracked abusive language online, and tried to map out how misogyny works in Pakistan’s digital spaces. What emerged was that online digital abuse of women is not a series of isolated incidents and is instead a phenomenon with a consistent pattern.

For over two decades, Uks Research Centre has worked on gender and media in Pakistan. With the WACC’s support, this project allowed Uks to go from documenting women’s representation to documenting abusive language used against women.

One of the outputs of the project is a compendium of gendered abusive terms in Urdu and Punjabi. This is not a simple glossary in the conventional sense — each entry includes the meaning of the slur, the usage of the word, and, most importantly, variations in spelling, including Roman Urdu and distorted forms that are commonly used online. This level of detail is important and to understand that it is necessary to talk about the research methodology.

During the research, Uks used Meltwater, a media monitoring and analytics tool usually used by corporations to track the sentiment around their products and services. In Uks’ case, the tool was used to track how abusive terms actually appear on social media. What was found was that the same word can appear in dozens of forms. One word is easily altered using symbols to replace letters, by removing vowels, or by stretching spellings to evade social media filters. So, in addition to being widespread, the abuse is also adaptive.

The compendium lists words and also shows how they mutate in real time. This makes it a practical resource for anyone trying to build or improve moderation systems in South Asian languages, especially on social media. The findings are depressing, as the majority of insults commonly directed at women fall into very clear categories. There are accusations of sexual immorality, there are references to incest that target female family members, there is a reduction of women to their body parts, and there are attacks on ‘family background’.

This is certainly not a coincidence. It is reflective of a society in which a woman’s identity is tied to her sexuality and her family’s honour. The online abuse of women is simply reflective of society’s hierarchies in the digital space.

Beyond data collection, the project also collected anecdotal evidence through a social media campaign and focus group discussions across 15 cities in Pakistan. The project gathered direct testimonies from women and also some men about their online experiences. Unfortunately, the responses were consistent, almost predictable.

By and large, women described how they routinely modified their behaviour. “Apart from having safety concerns in the real world, the virtual world is also a cruel place,” one journalist said. “Women who express their strong opinions online are frequently subjected to hate comments… They end up limiting their exposure.”

In practice, limiting exposure, meant sharing fewer posts, avoiding posting pictures, self-censoring while posting opinions, and avoiding risks.

Another respondent spoke for many other women when she explained how this works. “I feel I have to think two or three times… ‘what will people think’.”

Other respondents also spoke about the cumulative impact of abuse. In many cases, the trolling is not about one message — it often snowballs into dozens of comments, sometimes even hundreds. “This has become an unfortunate reality as combatting trolls online is an exhausting process that most women… avoid in a bid to protect their sanity,” said one respondent. As a result of this exhaustion many women disengage and start withdrawing from online conversations.

There is also a link between online abuse and offline violence. Many respondents talked about doxxing, stalking, and the morphing of images. Several women pointed to the growing threat posed by AI tools that can generate fake images and audio clips.

In Pakistan, where an individual’s reputation is often linked to family honour, the risk is not a theory. As one participant recalled, morphed images have led to extreme consequences, which include violence within families.

It also seems that women in public roles, such as journalists, activists, and politicians, face even more intense targeting. “Women journalists are especially targeted… to gag their voice,” one respondent noted.

Importantly, some male participants also talked about the imbalance. One man noted that women’s opinions online are taken “less seriously” and receive more condescending responses.

One of the goals of the SafeWords, Safer Worlds project was to move beyond awareness and engage institutions responsible for regulating digital spaces. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which handles cybercrime complaints, did not engage meaningfully with the project, despite repeated attempts by the Uks team. This was reflective of the pattern that was reported by users about the complaint process being slow, difficult to navigate and generally discouraging.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was more responsive. The PTA participated in discussions, reviewed the compendium, and issued a public service message on Women’s Day acknowledging online violence against women.

Most global social media platforms rely on moderation systems trained primarily on English-language data. As a result, abusive content in Urdu, Punjabi and, by default, Hindi, usually goes undetected, especially when it is deliberately misspelled.

The compendium directly addresses this gap and provides a dataset that platforms can integrate into their moderation systems. At present, there is no requirement for them to do so.

The project also encountered a challenge stemming from the ban of X in Pakistan during the campaign period. The ban restricted data collection on a platform where a lot of the abuse occurs and made it difficult to track engagement trends consistently.

The SafeWord, Safer World project generated significant public engagement and the #ThinkBeforeYouSpeak campaign reached several users across Facebook and Instagram. It also produced 1o podcast episodes featuring journalists, activists, and digital rights experts, and conducted focus group discussions in several Pakistani cities, including smaller urban centres where such conversations are less common. More importantly, it created a research-based compendium of abusive terms in Urdu and Punjabi, which is grounded in actual usage data.

It is easy and lazy to think of this as a problem of “online behaviour”. The fact is that the language that was documented in the compendium reflects offline realities. It draws on cultural ideas about shame and honour and it is not the internet that has created these attitudes. As a result, many of us exist in a digital environment where participation is imbalanced, where women can speak, but the cost of speaking is high. The evidence from the project makes that clear.

The project’s findings give rise to several questions. Will social media platforms incorporate local-language data into their moderation systems? Will regulatory bodies move beyond paying lip service to gendered abuse in the digital space to actual enforcement of the law? Will reporting mechanisms be simplified and made accessible?

Or will the burden continue to fall on women to block abusers and report them? Or to withdraw from online spaces completely?

There are no easy answers, but the SafeWords, Safer Worlds project does offer detailed evidence that is difficult to ignore. What we now need is accountability.

This article has been produced in collaboration with Uks

Calling Springsteen “a dried-up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon”, Trump said his right-wing supporters should keep away from the singer’s concerts.

The shows are “overpriced” and “suck”, 79-year-old Trump wrote on his Truth Social site in a post filled with his trademark insults and boasts about his record as president.

Springsteen, a major US rock figure for more than half a century and winner of 20 Grammys, has been outspoken against Trump’s bid to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

The raids, often by masked agents, have prompted widespread anger but are popular in Trump’s core right-wing base.

On Saturday, Springsteen headlined a “No Kings” rally in the northern city of Minneapolis months after the city became a protest flashpoint. Organisers estimated around 200,000 people attended the event.

In January the veteran singer released his song ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ in response to the crackdown, where masked immigration agents shot dead two protesting US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Springsteen’s song calls the immigration agents “King Trump’s private army”.

Originally published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2026

In a post on her Instagram account, she said clothing brand Engine had used her face on AI-generated visuals for their latest collection. Images has reached out to Engine for a comment.

She said she modelled for the brand before, but was not involved in the promotions for this collection and had not agreed for her likeness to be used in such a way.

The content creator said she had tried reaching out to the brand herself in an effort to resolve the issue, but didn’t receive a response. That led her to highlight the issue on social media.

Tahir said this wasn’t just about one just about one post or one brand. “Using someone’s face through AI without their permission is not okay, in any situation. Consent should always come first, whether the content is real or digitally created.”

She said the fact that these visuals were being displayed publicly and even being used for advertisements was especially concerning. She said creators and models deserve to have control over how their image is used and hoped the brand would address the issue.

In a series of follow-up stories, the content creator said the scariest part was that she was initially fooled too, thinking she might have modelled one or two pieces that she forgot about. She said it was only when she saw they had used her face for so many of their items that she realised what had happened.

She said the problem wasn’t AI taking over jobs, but people misusing it “deliberately and illegally”. She also suggested they might have done a faceless shoot with another model and had AI paste her face onto the pictures, which raises its own problems.

Several people, including models and fellow content creators, shared her concerns, calling the brand out for what they saw as creepy, unethical and even criminal behaviour.

Many, including Miss Universe Pakistan Erica Robin, tagged the brand in the comment section, as did actor Romaisa Khan. RJ Sabah Bano Malik, who called out the “violation of consent”, “theft” and “general ickyness”.

Hania Aamir also got involved, sharing the content creator’s appeal on her story and asking Engine to “please look into this”.

While Engine has not acknowledged the allegations publicly, Tahir said the brand had removed her pictures from their website in the aftermath of her post.

The incident highlights AI’s alarming body-morphing abilities. Similar concerns were raised in January when Grok — the AI arm of the Elon Musk-owned X — was found to be entertaining requests to digitally undress people whose pictures were on the platform, including children.

Musk said the company would not tolerate any illegal activity with its AI tools and Grok’s image generation features on X are now available to paid users only. However, in a post on March 12, Musk said anything “allowed in an R-rated movie” would be allowed for Grok to create.

An open letter shared jointly by Jamil and actor Uzma Hassan, said it had been “well established that violence against animals directly contributes to violence in society”.

The document said Pakistan, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has a responsibility to protect children from psychological harm, including exposure to animal cruelty.

In 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a panel of experts that monitors the implementation of the convention by state parties, issued a comment on the relationship between child rights and the environment. In the document, the committee said, “Children must be protected from all forms of physical and psychological violence and from exposure to violence, such as domestic violence or violence inflicted on animals.”

Jamil’s letter said exposure to animal cruelty affects children’s emotional development and “normalises brutality, weakens empathy and fosters fear and emotional distress”. Additionally, it said “individuals who engage in cruelty toward animals often experience unresolved psychological trauma, which can later manifest in domestic violence, elder abuse, and broader criminal behaviour”.

The appeal mentioned an incident from last week where sanitation workers allegedly dragged a dog through the streets of Gujranwala. Government policy, it said, was very clear on the use of sterilisation and vaccination as acceptable methods of dealing with stray dogs.

At the same time, it said, “violence toward wild and exotic animals is also increasing. Lions and other animals are being paraded through scorching roads for roadside circuses and public entertainment, subjecting them to severe stress and suffering. Reports of abuse of donkeys, illegal captivity of monkeys and the public exploitation of birds under the guise of charity are becoming common”.

The appeal ended by reaffirming confidence in the chief minister’s “commitment to building a safer, more compassionate Punjab” and reminding her that, “A society that safeguards its most vulnerable — whether children or animals — builds stronger moral foundations for future generations.”

In her caption, Jamil asked her followers to read, sign and share the letter, which she called a “respectful appeal for a more humane and responsible Punjab”. She said, “The way we treat animals reflects the values we are teaching the next generation.”

The actor isn’t the first to attempt to bring the issue of animal rights to Maryam’s attention. Actor Ushna Shah penned a similar letter in February, telling her she was “almost perfect” but needed to work on animal welfare.

Zhalay Sarhadi also joined calls for animal protection after reports emerged of animals buried under the rubble of a hurriedly demolished pet market near Lahore’s Data Darbar. The Lahore Development Authority denied the market had any animals inside during the demolition, a claim contested by local animal welfare groups and impacted shopkeepers.

From his outfit to his words, Bardem, a longtime anti-war activist, used his celebrity to advocate for a great cause: the end of war and freedom for Palestinians.

He wore a Palestine pin and a pin saying “No A La Guerra” or no to war on the lapel of his jacket. The anti-war pin was the same one he wore to the Goya Awards in 2003, during the Iraq war.

But unlike many other stars who chose to wear pins or make statements with fashion alone, Bardem used his platform to speak up as well.

Calling both the Iraq war and the one on Iran today “illegal”, he told The Hollywood Reporter it was created by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with “another lie”.

“They are radicalising the regime with their horrific actions, so that’s not the reason [as] it was not the reason ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in 2003,” he said.

He described his second pin as “Palestine’s symbol of resistance”.

While presenting the award for Best International Feature alongside Priyanka Chopra — someone who has not spoken against war or for Palestine and looked quite uncomfortable — his words were succinct: “No to war, and free Palestine”.

Variety noted that his words were met with a “big round of applause”. In a followup interview with the publication, he said he did it because “it is important to understand and bring awareness that you can do both — you can be part of the movie-making community, which is an important community, and also be a citizen who uses this huge speaker to denounce injustice. In this case, it is the genocide of Palestine that is still going on.”

He also called out the ceasefire in Palestine, saying since it had gone into effect, 600 people had been murdered, half of them children. “What is going on in the West Bank, the abuse of civil rights, and human rights and the ethnic cleansing that is happening in the West Bank is horrible and we are not talking about it enough,” he said.

He also spoke about the “illegal war”, once again referring to the joint US-Israeli war on Iran. He said the intention was not to “defeat the regime”, it was about the oil, and that innocent people were being bombed.

This isn’t the first time Bardem has used his platform to talk about human rights violations. In fact, he’s been one of the most consistent celebrities to speak about Palestine. At September’s Emmy Awards, he wore a Palestinian Keffiyeh around his neck and called for sanctions on Israel, denouncing the genocide in Gaza.

“Here I am today, denouncing the genocide in Gaza,” Bardem told Variety without mincing words. “I am talking about the IAGS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who study genocide thoroughly and has declared it is a genocide. That’s why we ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade, and also sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide. Free Palestine.”

He’s also signed pledges not to work with Israeli film institutions, as well as letters condemning Hollywood’s silence on the genocide. He also spoke about Israel’s actions at a press conference at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The Oscar winner denounced Israel’s “dehumanising” attacks on Gaza and said under its most radical government, Israel is committing “crimes against humanity and international law”.

If any other celebrities want a masterclass on using their platform the right way, all they need to do is look to Bardem.

On Thursday, US Senators Peter Welch and Chris Van Hollen, alongside representatives Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal and Joaquin Castro, introduced the Justice for Hind Rajab Act, a bill that would require the US government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the child’s death, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The legislation seeks answers from the administration about the killing and what lawmakers describe as broader patterns of civilian harm in Gaza, as well as reaffirming the United States’ commitment to prosecuting war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.

Hind was killed after staying on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society for more than an hour, pleading for help. The society reported that she was under fire from a tank in Tel al-Hawa.

An ambulance dispatched to rescue her — travelling along a route approved by the Israel Defence Forces — was later destroyed, killing the two paramedics inside.

Hind’s story, including the emergency call recording, later became the basis for the Oscar-nominated docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is nominated in the Best International Feature category at the upcoming 98th Academy Awards.

“I was horrified by reports of the Israeli Defence Forces firing over 300 bullets at her and her family while they were simply trying to escape Gaza,” Rep Jacobs said in a statement announcing the bill. “No child should have to face that kind of terror, and no family should have to carry that kind of loss.”

Independent investigations have also attempted to reconstruct the incident. London-based research group Forensic Architecture analysed satellite imagery and visual evidence and concluded that several Israeli tanks were present near the vehicle and that one fired 335 rounds at the car carrying Hind and her family. The group also suggested that a tank likely attacked the ambulance sent to retrieve her.

Sen Welch said the circumstances of the attack demand further scrutiny. “This was not a ‘fog of war’ situation,” he said. “There wasn’t any reason for the IDF to believe Hind and her family — who were trying to escape the fighting in Gaza — posed a threat.”

Hind’s death has since become emblematic of the mounting civilian toll in Gaza following October 7, 2023.

The proposed legislation calls for congressional findings on the attack and a US State Department report detailing US and Israeli efforts to investigate and hold individuals accountable. It would also require the US government to certify compliance with American laws that prohibit assistance to foreign security units implicated in serious human rights violations.

In addition to this, the bill mandates certification from the secretary of state and the US attorney general confirming that the government is complying with US war-crime laws and is prepared to investigate — and where appropriate prosecute — those responsible for the attack.

Rep Jayapal said the bill is meant to push for accountability.

“Today we honour the life of Hind Rajab,” she said in a statement. “This legislation demands an investigation into her killing so we can finally begin to bring about accountability for the countless war crimes the US has been complicit in inside Gaza.”

In the speech, which was published by Zeteo on Thursday, Roy said while the gathering was focused on her book, she couldn’t “end the day without talking about those beautiful cities — Tehran, Isfahan, and Beirut — that are up in flames.” She said she’d like to use some of “my Mother Mary’s spirit of candour and impoliteness” to talk about “the unprovoked and illegal attack by the United States and Israel on Iran”.

The author referred to the bombing campaign in Iran as a “a continuation of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza,” but contended that “Iran is not Gaza”.

She said the world stands on the precipice of “nuclear calamity and economic collapse” as “the same country that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be readying itself to bomb one of the most ancient civilisations in the world”. Any regime change, she said, needs to come from the people and “not by some bloated, lying, cheating, greedy, resource-grabbing, bomb-dropping imperial power and its allies who are trying to bully the whole world into submission”.

Roy said Iran was standing up to the imperialists “while India cowers”, adding that she was ashamed of how “gutless” and “spineless” the Indian government was in dealing with Israel and the US. She lamented that her country had lost its pride and dignity, “except in our movies”. “Let me simply say that I stand with Iran. Unequivocally,” the author said

She decried Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Israel and his government’s trade relations with the US, questioning what it means for India to get the country’s “permission” to buy oil from Russia.

She also called out the Indian government for sending Indian workers to Israel to replace expelled Palestinians, adding that these workers were reportedly not allowed to use air raid shelters during Iran’s retaliatory fire on Israeli cities.

“Who has put us into this absolutely humiliating, shameless, disgusting place in the world?” Roy asked.

The author said the term “running dogs of imperialists” — used by Chinese politician Mao Zedong to describe allies of Imperialist powers — “describes [India] well. Except, of course, in our twisted, toxic movies in which our celluloid heroes strut on, winning phantom war after war, dumb and over-muscled. Fuelling our insatiable bloodlust with their gratuitous violence.”

Roy is no stranger to taking strong and vocal stances on issues she cares about, she recently made headlines for pulling out of the Berlin International Film Festival over the president of the festival’s jury saying cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza. Earlier, she signed a pledge not to work with Israeli cultural institutions over complicity in the state’s war on Gaza.

Her writing is also considered seditious by the Indian government, which banned her 2020 book Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir for “propagating false narrative and secessionism”.

Cover photo: Arundhati Roy/Facebook

Zimmerman works at Exceptional Minds, a nonprofit ‌vocational academy and visual effects studio for adults with autism. The organization provides training to help autistic artists launch careers in the competitive world of Hollywood.

“It feels like a dream,” Zimmerman said of being a part of Gladiator II. “I’ve always wanted to work on a feature film like this.”

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects social interactions, behavior and how the brain processes the world. It ranges in severity and can present challenges in ​the workplace. While many people with autism successfully hold jobs, the US unemployment rate for autistic adults is estimated at around 40%, according to a study published in ​the National Library of Medicine in 2017.

Exceptional Minds — the only full-time, post-secondary programme of its kind in the US for artists on the ⁠autism spectrum — was created to give high school graduates with autism the skills they need to perform meaningful work.

“Autistic artists should be able to work in the field they want to ​work in,” said CEO Lauren DeVillier, a former Disney and Sony executive and the parent of a neuro-divergent daughter. “We are training to put these graduates to work. We want them integrated ​into the studio system and working in the workplace alongside everyone else.”

Working on meticulous tasks

Many graduates of the three-year program gain experience in the Exceptional Minds visual effects and animation studio, where they work under the supervision of seasoned professionals for clients including Walt Disney, Netflix, and Sony. Exceptional Minds artists have contributed to 19 Oscar-winning or nominated films including Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, plus dozens of TV shows ​such as Game of Thrones. They have worked on every Marvel movie since 2015.

Alumni also have been hired at Marvel, the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and elsewhere.

Yudi Bennett, an assistant director and production ​manager on films such as Broadcast News and Kramer vs. Kramer, co-founded Exceptional Minds 15 years ago. She and other entertainment-industry parents worried about what would happen to their autistic children after high school, when many ‌services to help them ⁠adapt end.

Today, the organisation trains about 250 autistic adults each year through courses in visual effects and animation. A video game arts curriculum is scheduled to begin in the fall.

Class sizes are kept small, and instructors are trained in how to adjust timelines or otherwise accommodate the needs of students with autism.

On a recent weekday at the Exceptional Minds offices and classrooms, alumni sat in front of computers working on visual effects while students in another room honed their drawing skills.

Graduate Lily Yllescas discussed how she painted fall colours on trees and removed wires from scenes in the new ​season of Bridgerton.

“When you see it, it will look ​so seamless. But really when you’re ⁠working on it, there’s so many little things you have to pay attention to,” she said.

The meticulous tasks suit many people with autism, students and alumni said.

“Depending on your level of it, you might be able to be more precise,” said student Deirdre Mills. “And sometimes you might ​be able to catch details that others might not be able to see.”

Teaching social skills

Alongside technical skills, Exceptional Minds teaches how to ​thrive socially at work, ⁠something that can be challenging for people with autism.

“We do mock interviews to get us comfortable talking to people, talking about our work, building our confidence,” said student Alex Abrusia. “I’ve grown a lot because of that.”

Exceptional Minds handles the end credits for Marvel Studios films. Jeff Willis, Marvel’s director of credits and administration, said the studio’s work was “on par with anyone else in town” and the artists tackled ⁠creative challenges ​well.

In the credits for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel wanted to have the number 828 expand to become 8/28/1917, the ​birthday of comic book artist Jack Kirby. It was a small detail that thrilled fans. “They just knocked it out of the park,” Willis said.

Co-founder Bennett said she was proud that Exceptional Minds had changed the lives of young adults.

“The ​graduates have gone out and moved into their own apartments. They’ve gotten driver’s licenses, they’ve bought cars,” she said. “They’ve done things that were considered impossible.”

Cover image: Reuters

Foreigners who had built their lives in these cities and are now being pushed to leave by the threat of the war escalating are reportedly leaving their pets behind because of the lengthy procedures involved in relocating animals.

While many at least try to hand their pets off to shelters with the hope that they’ll be taken care of, some are leaving cats and dogs out on the streets, forcing the domesticated animals to fend for themselves in a wild and hostile environment.

In a statement to The Telegraph, Aditi Gouri, owner of Dubai-based pet boarding service The Barking Lot, said, “Shelters are overcrowded right now and are doing the best they can — we are doing our best to stay as flexible as possible because we understand these are trying times.”

Vets in the country are also reporting a heavy increase in inquiries from owners looking for someone to keep their pets; the frequency of calls asking about euthanasia has also increased.

A volunteer from Dubai told the publication, “I’ve seen around 200 posts now, on WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups — dogs have been found abandoned on the streets, tied to poles and left behind with no owners found. Some vets have even confirmed that owners are coming in to euthanise healthy pets because they don’t want to deal with relocation costs or paperwork.”

Six Hounds, an animal shelter based in Al-Ain said they were receiving daily requests to take in animals, adding, “All of us are overloaded and underfunded and understaffed.”

Owner Anso Stander told The Standard she had received 27 messages concerning abandoned pets in one day. She also mentioned cases where pets had been abandoned in the desert on the border between the UAE and Oman after they were denied clearance to cross. She called the behaviour of fleeing pet owners “selfish and heartless”.

Louise Hastie, the CEO of War Paws — a charity working for animals in conflict zones like Iraq and Ukraine — said it was incomprehensible that pets in a place as affluent as Dubai were facing such high levels of abandonment.

“Abandoning pets at the border or on the streets, not even leaving them with the vet – there’s really no excuse for it, Dubai is an affluent country,” she said from Iraq, where she has been stranded due to the conflict. She said she’d stay with her animals “till the roof came down” if the alternative was to leave them on the street.

The problem of pet abandonment in the UAE is unfortunately not a new one, as a large chunk of the country’s population is comprised of expatriates who end up leaving the country at some point. Many of those departing leave their pets behind, which often results in the animals going through severe hardship and trauma.

The tense situation in the region is also showing no signs of easing as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues into its 10th day. After over 1,300 of its citizens were killed in US-Israeli attacks, Iran has vowed to continue the war, with the country’s Revolutionary Guards saying, “It is we who will determine the end of the war.”

Cover photo:Reuters/file

According to police sources, 44 participants were detained — 25 men and 19 women, including activist Dr Farzana Bari, two of her daughters, and human rights defender Tahira Abdullah.

Police sources told Dawn that the activists were picked up as Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) remained imposed in the federal capital, which empowers district administrations to prohibit an assembly of four or more people in an area for a limited period.

Last year, the Islamabad police registered a case against the Aurat March organisers for staging a protest on March 8 in violation of Section 144.

Islamabad authorities had reportedly refused to grant an NOC for the march from the National Press Club to D-Chowk. The marchers then went ahead with a gathering outside the press club after police stopped them from proceeding towards D-Chowk.

When news broke of the arrests, some wondered why women marching in Islamabad was such a big threat, given the state of the world.

Some had replies to the inevitable — and at this point lame — arguments of ‘foreign funding’.

The hypocrisy of the situation was not lost on people.

Especially given that the prime minister shared a lengthy message paying tribute to women in Pakistan, all while women were being arrested in the capital.

Some people online took issue with their arrests under Section 144. Journalist Hamid Mir called the law a “legacy of colonialism”.

Lawyer Jibran Nasir said it was a bailable offence, theorising that the reason they were detained for hours or non-bailable offences were added to the FIR was “to cause humiliation and intimidation”.

Happy Women’s Day, we guess.

Cover: Muhammad Asim/ White Star

The Palestinian-Dutch supermodel took to Instagram to share a carousel, urging protection for civilians caught in the escalating conflict. Her post came as the region reels from days of bombardment and retaliation.

The attacks killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a move that has plunged the Middle East into its most perilous crisis in decades. Among the dead are 150 children after Israeli strikes destroyed a primary girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran. Nearly 100 others were wounded.

Rights groups say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Iran in the first five days of attacks, with thousands more injured as airstrikes hit urban areas and infrastructure.

Against that backdrop, Hadid shared a graphic from the International Committee of the Red Cross titled “Civilians must be protected”, using her caption to centre the people caught between governments and military escalation.

“My heart is with the people of Iran, and with every civilian anywhere caught in the middle of government decisions and military escalation,” she wrote. “No matter where we live, safety, dignity, and peace should never be negotiable.”

The model pointed out that ordinary people often become collateral damage in decisions made by those in power.

“Too often innocent lives become collateral in decisions made far above them — by systems, by leaders, by forces that claim to act in their name,” she wrote. “But the future of Iran belongs to its people, not to those who silence them or use them as leverage.”

The post was not just a statement but also a resource list. Hadid urged followers to amplify and support humanitarian groups working in the region, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Iranian Red Crescent Society and Save the Children.

She also shared screenshots of statements from those organisations in her carousel, calling for the protection of children as violence escalates across the Middle East.

“Behind the headlines are real families, real fear, and real human lives,” Hadid continued. “What matters most is protecting civilians, preventing further escalation, and remembering our shared humanity.”

The appeal echoes warnings from humanitarian groups that the rapidly widening conflict risks devastating civilian populations. The Red Cross has said expanding hostilities across the region place “civilian lives in grave danger,” while aid organisations are calling for restraint and adherence to international humanitarian law.

The conflict itself has spiralled far beyond a single set of strikes. Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets and US military installations across the region, while tensions have spread to neighbouring countries and disrupted shipping through the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz.

For Hadid — whose father is Palestinian and who has repeatedly spoken about the war in Gaza and broader regional politics — the message stayed focused on civilians rather than geopolitics.

“History has shown us that escalation rarely protects the innocent,” she wrote. “I’m praying for restraint, accountability, and peace… standing in solidarity with the people of Iran, human beings everywhere living through uncertainty right now.”

The remarks by Abdallah Al-Khatib, whose Chronicles From the Siege won the Berlinale’s Perspectives section for emerging filmmakers, capped a politically charged festival, with organisers facing criticism from actors and directors for “shielding Israel from criticism.”

Discussions about Israeli actions are particularly sensitive in Germany, which has become one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, principally because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust — a policy known as the “Staatsraison”. The German government has said Israel has a right to self-defence after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.

“Some people told me, maybe you have to be careful before you say what I want to say now, because you are a refugee in Germany, and there are so many red lines. But I don’t care. I care about my people, about Palestine,” said Al-Khatib, standing on stage with a keffiyeh scarf draped on his shoulder and raising a Palestinian flag at the end of his speech late on Saturday.

“So I will say my final word to the German government. You are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this truth, but you choose not to care.”

German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, who was in the audience, walked out following the remarks. “The Federal Minister considers these statements unacceptable and therefore left the event during the speech,” a spokesperson said on Sunday.

Human rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say Israel’s assault on Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self-defence.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor praised Schneider’s reaction to the speech. “Respect for Minister Schneider and his moral clarity,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

Berlin’s film festival, known by its nickname the Berlinale, has a reputation for being more politicised than its peers, Venice and Cannes — and this year’s edition was marked by frequent discussions about the war in Gaza.

German director Wim Wenders used his final appearance as jury president to urge filmmakers and activists to act as allies, not rivals, after his comment that filmmakers should not be political caused Indian novelist Arundhati Roy to pull out.

Several other award winners used their speeches to express solidarity with the Palestinians.

“The least we can do here is to break the silence and remind them that they are not really alone,” said Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper, referring to Palestinians living in Gaza and other people around the world.

In an Instagram post addressed directly to the chief minister, Shah began by acknowledging what she described as visible improvements in Punjab — from women’s safety to cleanliness and public order. “You are almost perfect,” she wrote, adding that even those who have not traditionally supported the PML-N are noticing the direction the province appears to be taking.

“But there is a silence,” she continued.

That silence, according to Shah, surrounds repeated incidents of animal abuse — some of which have gone viral in recent months. She referenced a video circulating online that showed a dog tied to a vehicle and dragged along a main road, purportedly in Punjab. According to Shah, the clip sparked outrage, with commenters blaming the provincial government for failing to create deterrence to such acts of cruelty. “People wrote that Maryam Nawaz is killing animals. Whether fair or unfair, this is the perception forming,” she wrote, arguing that cruelty cases keep occuring without visible consequences.

Shah’s list of grievances read like a catalogue many Pakistanis sadly recognise — organised dog fighting, donkeys beaten, animals injured and crushed during anti-encroachment operations, and violent treatment at markets.

Dog fighting, though illegal, continues to surface in news reports. In one case, dozens of people were arrested in Punjab earlier this month for organising and attending a dog fight where betting was involved.

In her letter, Shah proposed province-wide spay and neutering programmes instead of poisoning or culling, proper enforcement of existing cruelty laws, humane regulation of donkey carts (“no whips, no wounds”), banning the private ownership of wild animals, and shutting down dogfighting and other violent animal spectacles.

She also floated a bigger idea — transitioning zoos into sanctuaries, a concept increasingly discussed in Pakistan and globally.

The actor framed her appeal in moral and religious terms as well, reminding the Punjab CM that animals are “Allah ki makhlooq” and invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) about kindness towards animals. Posting during Ramazan, she added in her caption: “May this Ramazan not be a performative one. May we all contribute to making this planet, as Allah intended, a haven for all of His creatures.”

Her point is straightforward — cruelty persists, laws exist, enforcement appears weak, and leadership sets the tone.

Punjab does have animal cruelty laws on paper, and dog fighting, as well as dog culling, is illegal. But enforcement tends to be reactive — a raid here, an arrest there — rather than part of a sustained welfare framework. Municipal responses to stray dogs often oscillate between public pressure and short-term solutions, instead of long-term sterilisation and vaccination drives that experts say are more humane and effective.

We don’t know if the chief minister will respond to Shah publicly, but the actor’s letter reflects a growing discomfort with how routinely animal suffering is normalised in public spaces. And as Shah put it, the question isn’t which politician to tag. It’s whether anyone in power is willing to treat the province’s “voiceless” as constituents too.

On Thursday, Alomda and Abu Alala, filmmakers of Sudanese feature Blue Card, and the film’s writer Paula Thabet were informed that their German visa applications had been rejected for travel from Egypt to attend the co-pro platform, citing uncertainty over why they were travelling to Germany and whether they intended to return, Screen Daily reported.

In an official statement, the team showed deep concern about the implications of the refusal. The statement noted, “When professional records, prior compliance, and institutional support are not enough to overcome a presumption of ‘migration risk,’ […] it suggests that artists connected to regions affected by war or displacement may be viewed through a form of labelling that reduces them to perceived migration profiles rather than recognising their professional legitimacy.”

The 23rd edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, which was scheduled as part of the European Film Market from February 14 to 17, invited makers of 35 promising feature-film projects and 10 series projects from around the world to meet with a wide range of potential international co-production and funding partners.

The makers were given an option by the market to take part remotely, but after accepting it initially, they later declined the offer and proceeded to completely withdraw.

“Why should we take part remotely when we have been made to feel unwanted by this country?” Screen Daily quoted Abu Alala, the Cairo-based Sudanese director of Venice award-winner You Will Die At Twenty and producer of Cannes award-winner Goodbye Julia. He has also previously served as a jury member for the Berlinale’s Generation section.

“With our strong reputation in the film industry — with hits at international festivals — we had to take action to save our dignity as Arab and African filmmakers. It’s like they cannot accept the idea of us being decent enough to travel legally and trusting that we will be back to shoot our film in Cairo this April.”

Abu Alala said he placed no blame at the door of the Berlinale, which he described as “a platform that consistently supports films about displacement, exile and the human search for belonging”.

In a statement, Martina Bleis, the head and project curator of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, said: “We were looking very much forward to having the project’s producer, director and writer with us in Berlin, for them to share their vision here with potential partners in person, and we are sad not to have them with us now. The stories that our participants bring onto the screen connect people beyond borders, and we wish the same for our market.”

Blue Card is currently in its pre-production stage, with its filming scheduled from April to May ahead of delivery by November. On Saturday, the film’s producer shared a news story on his social media announcing that MAD World, Arab cinema’s first-ever sales agency, had boarded Blue Card for international sales.

Roy said in a statement sent to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by responses from Wenders and other jury members to a question about the Palestinian territory at a press conference on Thursday.

Roy, whose novel The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as a festival guest to present a restored version of the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, in which she starred and wrote the screenplay.

However, she said that the “unconscionable” statements by Wenders and other jury members had led her to reconsider, “with deep regret”.

When asked about Germany’s support for Israel at a press conference on Thursday, Wenders said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics”, describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”.

Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was a “little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.

Roy said in her statement that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping”. She described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel”.

“If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” she said.

Roy is one of India’s most famous living authors and is a trenchant critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, as well as a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Restored versions of two films by late Egyptian directors, Sad Song of Touha by Atteyat Al Abnoudy and The Dislocation of Amber by Hussein Shariffe, have also been withdrawn from the festival over its stance on Gaza.

“The Berlinale respects these decisions,” a spokeswoman said in a statement sent to AFP. “We regret that we will not welcome them as their presence would have enriched the festival discourse,” she said.

Shying away from politics

The Berlinale traditionally has a reputation for topical, progressive programming, but so far this year’s edition has seen several stars shy away from taking a stance on the big political issues of the day.

US actor Neil Patrick Harris, who stars in the film Sunny Dancer was asked on Friday if he considered his art to be political and if it could help “fight the rise of fascism”.

He replied that he was “interested in doing things that are apolitical” and which could help people find connection in our “strangely algorithmic and divided world”.

This year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient, Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, also demurred when asked to comment on US politics in a press conference on Friday, saying she “cannot presume to say I understand” the situation there.

This is not the first edition of the festival to run into controversy over the Gaza war.

In 2024, the festival’s documentary award went to No Other Land, which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

German government officials criticised “one-sided” remarks about Gaza by the directors of that film and others at that year’s awards ceremony.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliation left at least 71,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the UN considers reliable.

The controversy erupted after scrutiny of US nonprofit tax records suggested that Beydoun may have been paid over $2 million for professional fundraising services linked to humanitarian campaigns.

According to ProPublica’s database of Form 990 filings — a document nonprofits in the US are legally required to disclose — charity Human Appeal credited Beydoun with raising over $7.1 million through online campaigns in 2024, while listing $2,040,887, which is nearly 29 per cent of that amount, as payment to him for “professional fundraising services”, reported Roya News.

Following this, advocacy group Wear The Peace tweeted, “Hey, Khaled Beydoun, why were you paid $2,040,887 to fundraise for Human Appeal (501c3) for Gaza initiatives in 2024? …Beydoun, an influencer who has been fundraising for Gaza through a dedicated link in his bio for the charity, was paid over $2,000,000 in 2024. He fundraised $7,120,440 for initiatives, the charity retained $5,079,553, and he was paid a generous amount of $2,040,887.”

Beydoun firmly denied receiving any personal payment. In a detailed statement on Instagram, he described the figure as the result of a clerical error, saying Human Appeal mistakenly listed his name instead of the nonprofit that actually received the funds.

He insisted he chose not to take personal compensation and instead directed the money towards his organisation’s work against Islamophobia, adding that the figures reflected gross fundraising totals rather than how funds were ultimately disbursed. Beydoun also stressed that the campaigns were not exclusively for Gaza but supported multiple humanitarian crises, including those in Pakistan, Yemen and Lebanon.

In his caption, he accused pro-Palestine advocacy account Wear The Peace of “Sending threatening messages, personal attacks, and more (I have all of these messages saved).”

He added, “I can attack and levy claims about corporations making veiled threats and selling merchandise (for-profit) during a crisis — but that’s what they want.”

But for Wear The Peace, which has been vocal about charity accountability, the explanation didn’t hold. In a lengthy Instagram post, the group questioned how a sworn federal tax filing — signed under penalty of perjury — could contain a multimillion-dollar naming “mistake”, particularly when payments to individuals and corporations carry very different legal implications.

If the money truly went elsewhere, they asked, why hasn’t Human Appeal amended its IRS filings?

Wear The Peace also challenged Beydoun to publicly name the Islamophobia-focused nonprofit that allegedly received the $2 million he redirected. They pointed out that the organisation he is affiliated with, the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at UC Berkeley, reported receiving just over $570,000 in 2024, while other similarly named nonprofits reported receiving nothing. If another entity exists, they argues, donors deserve to know.

Beyond technicalities, the group said its central grievance is ethical, not legal. The fundraising, they said, was explicitly presented as emergency aid for Gaza and other humanitarian crises. Donors gave money under the assumption that it would go directly to relief efforts, not be redirected to a separate organisation focused on research and advocacy. Even if the filing error explanation is accepted, Wear The Peace argued that failing to disclose that nearly a third of donations would be used this way undermines donor consent.

They also disputed Beydoun’s claim that the $2 million figure failed to account for operational costs, noting that such expenses are borne by the charity itself and already reflected in Human Appeal’s own accounts. According to their breakdown, Human Appeal spent $27.9 million in 2024, with $15.1 million going to grants and assistance, and $10.8 million spent on fundraising, including marketing and professional services — figures that have only fuelled further questions.

Beydoun, meanwhile, has framed the backlash as targeted and suspicious. He also claimed Wear The Peace has been “attacking” him since 2023 — an accusation the group rejects, stating they previously warned him about Human Appeal’s governance issues and say they attempted to contact him directly before publishing their post.

What remains unresolved is not just whether a clerical error occurred, but whether donors were given enough information to make informed choices about where their money was going. And until clearer answers emerge, ideally from amended filings rather than Instagram statements, this is unlikely to be the last time accountability and activism collide online.

Cover Image via UCLA/Wayne State University

Speaking to Al Jazeera, she said she regained access to the account, but people had to type her full username in the search bar to find it. She also said she had received a message from TikTok saying many of her posts were now “ineligible for recommendation”.

The journalist said the platform was important because it was more widely spread among young people and less restrictive than Instagram. Talking about the youth, she said, they were “the future” and “the main pillars of all these systems”. She expressed concern that, “[if they] don’t understand anything, they will be exploited”.

Owda said “Israeli propaganda” had succeeded in spreading the country’s narrative globally for 76 years, but the rise of independent reporting on social media had made people realise the reality of the situation. She said, “Not saying the truth, not resisting, not fighting back for our rights and our lives, it’s not an option anymore.”

Her TikTok account, with 1.4 million followers, was visible to Images on Thursday, but no new posts were visible after September 2025.

In a post shared on her Instagram account on Wednesday, the journalist announced the account’s deletion, saying, “it’s not restricted as every [other] time, it’s banned, forever”. She said she had been “building that platform for four years”.

Owda said she saw the ban coming after statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the government was seeking greater influence over the platform. She added a clip of the PM talking to American influencers in September, where he called social media “the most important weapon… to secure our base in the US”.

Anadolu Agency reported that Netanyahu went on to say that TikTok was “the most important purchase going on right now,” adding that its control could be “consequential” to Israel.

The journalist also attached a video of Adam Presser, the newly appointed CEO of TikTok in the US, where he said the platform had banned the use of the term “Zionist” in a derogatory sense.

In the clip, which Roya News reports is from a meeting of the World Jewish Congress in 2025, Presser said, “We made a change to designate the use of the term ‘Zionist’ as a proxy for a protected attribute, for hate speech… Of course, you can use it in the sense that you’re a proud Zionist. But if you’re in the context of degrading somebody, calling someone a Zionist as a dirty name, then that gets designated as hate speech to be moderated.”

The executive said the platform had tripled the number of accounts it was banning over hateful activity over the course of 2024 and that it was receiving intelligence about “violative trends” from “over two dozen Jewish organisations”. He said there was “no finish line” when it came to moderating hate speech.

On Thursday, Owda also announced she had joined the Palestinian-owned social media app UpScrolled, which is gaining increasing popularity as a censorship-free alternative to major platforms like TikTok.

The app has seen a major spike in traffic from countries like the US, UK and Australia, where it became the most downloaded social media app on Apple devices recently. The Council on American-Islamic Relations recently commended UpScrolled for “protecting free speech” amidst TikTok’s “censorship spree”

Cover photo: Bisan Owda/Instagram

Hind’s anguished final pleas for help while being trapped in a car under Israeli fire have been retold in the film The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival last year, and is nominated for an Academy Award.

During an Israeli offensive on January 29, 2024, Hind was trapped in a car for hours, begging Palestinian medics over a mobile phone to send help, while her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead.

When an ambulance finally arrived, contact with the girl and the rescuers themselves was lost. Twelve days later, the bodies of the girl, her relatives and two ambulance workers were recovered from the area.

In Barcelona, several hundred people held up a 55-metre-long (180-foot-long) tarp with Hind’s face next to a large Palestinian flag and the message, “Free Gaza’s Children”.

“The children of Gaza do not ask for pity. They ask for their right to live, to sleep without fear, to play without bombs, to grow up, just to grow,” said Hind’s mother, Wesam Hamada, 29, as she watched the hoisting of her portrait.

“The voice of Hind Rajab did not stay in the car, it travelled across borders,” said Jordanian-Canadian actress Saja Kilani, who played a Palestinian Red Crescent first responder in the film and attended the beach protest.

Asked this week about the deaths of Hind and her relatives, the Israeli military said the incident remained under review and it declined further comment. Israeli forces say they never deliberately targeted civilians in the war, accusing Hamas militants of endangering their lives by using them for cover.

The United Nations has said the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “dire” three months into a ceasefire following a two-year war that demolished the territory. Children are among the hardest hit by shortages of shelter, food and basic services including healthcare, aid officials say.

He glanced around to look for its mother or any other cats in the surrounding area, but he didn’t see anything. After playing with the kitten for a short while, he left it with a bowl of milk under a tree. On his way home, he couldn’t shake the image of the small kitten limping around. The next day, he returned to find the cat under the same tree. He wondered if it had moved at all, then scooped it up and took it to the vet.

Over the last 10 years, Karachi has witnessed massive population growth, of both the human and animal kind. A Dawn report described the rising number of stray dogs as making daily life “unbearable” for residents of Karachi, highlighting the challenges faced by the city in managing its stray animal population. As this number continues to climb, along with the lack of governmental animal control programmes in place, much of the rescue work falls onto the residents themselves.

Many of the rescuers interviewed for this story are young people who have taken on the responsibility of caring for sick and injured animals while simultaneously balancing work and studies.

From one kitten to a constant rescue mission

Chai Master’s Ibrahim is one of these people. What started as a spontaneous rescue seven years ago has now become a full-fledged rescue operation that he runs along with managing his teashop.

Rescuing animals was not something he envisioned for himself, but “if I don’t do it, who will?” In practice, however, the work proved demanding, with expensive medical bills and a heavy time commitment. “I have spent a lot of money on these animals,” he said, “everything comes out of the money I make at Chai Master.”

Not only has Ibrahim struggled with finances and paying vet bills, but he has also had to face extreme backlash about keeping the dogs he rescued around Chai Master. He recalled multiple instances where he was sent to the police station for getting angry at someone being cruel to one of the stray animals that hang out around the teashop. “I lost my shit,“ he admitted. “Like yesterday, I was talking to a customer when I heard the screams of a kitten. I looked up to see this guard with his foot on top of it! When I looked at him, he lifted his foot and kicked the kitten away like it was nothing.”

Ibrahim said he could not control his anger and screamed at the guard, who then turned out to be employed by a government official. In a matter of seconds, the police were called, and Ibrahim was dragged off to spend the night in a dark jail cell.

When students become the safety net

Fluff Club operates at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture but the students who run it do so on their own, with no support from the university. Their work includes feeding stray cats, making sure the dogs surrounding the university are spayed and neutered, and any sick or injured animals, including pigeons and eagles, are cared for.

Aamna Iftikhar, the current president of Fluff Club, spoke about how emotionally exhausting it can be to rescue animals and see them in distress. She also highlighted about the lack of emotional and financial support available to young rescuers. The cost of getting an animal spayed or neutered varies, she said, usually around Rs5,000 for a cat and Rs9,000 for a dog.

Transporting the animals to the vet is another financial burden. “For dogs, the transporter charges more since they can be aggressive, so it’s around Rs4,000, while for cats he charges us Rs1,500,” she said. “So the total cost with the spaying and neutering ends up being a lot more.”

Fluff Club also struggles with pushback for rescuing and housing stray animals. “One of the guards at IVS told us that some people had come and fed food laced with poison to Tiger, a stray dog that Fluff Club had rescued,” Iftikhar said.

“You just have to do it. No matter how exhausting it gets, these animals don’t have anyone to depend on; you just have to pull through for them.”

System error

Despite the dedication and hard work of these young rescuers, the broader system still fails to provide any sort of support. With a lack of animal control services, rehabilitation programmes and response teams meant to be provided by government organisations, much of this responsibility is left to private citizens.

Sumaira Hussain, a director at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), talks about the city’s approach to stray animals. Her division looks after the Rabies Control Programme Sindh, which is a project by the Sindh Local Government Department. It handles dog population control through spaying, neutering and vaccinating stray dogs. “The project has three deliverables. One is the population control and the management of stray dogs. Second is the vaccination of stray dogs, and the third is public awareness about rabies and stray dogs,” she said.

Hussain also explained their process of working with the stray dogs. “We trap them, neuter or spay them, vaccinate them, and then we release them to the same place from where they were picked up. This is the overall concept of the Rabies Control Programme project,” she said.

While the programme is being funded by the government, this division focuses only on areas that fall under the jurisdiction of the KMC. DHA and Clifton — where most of the young people we interviewed operate — do not, so the programme does not cover those areas.

Filling the gaps, one rescue at a time

Sharmeen Farooqi, a rescuer who started an organisation called Karachi Animal Human Union (KAHU), spoke about the work she was doing, including speaking with the Cantonment Board Clifton to establish a spay-neuter programme in its jurisdiction. She said they aim to neuter around eight to 10 dogs a day, reaching around 150 dogs a month, and hope to start as soon as possible.

Despite efforts being made to create initiatives, they are still limited, and this is where young rescuers step in.

At KAHU, Syed Shuja decided to start rescuing strays when he noticed that many of the shelters in the city did not have anyone available to conduct rescue operations for injured animals. He works mostly on the ground level, helping transport sick and injured stray animals from vets to shelters. Today, he manages to rescue and help at least five to six animals a day.

What organised rescue can look like

The Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF) also operates a rescue programme, albeit on a much larger scale. They started out in 2013 as an NGO dedicated to the welfare of animals in Pakistan. Before the ACF, there was not a lot of awareness or support for animals in Karachi, and its founding helped spread these initiatives across the city. It also relies on donations and is dedicated to offering care and sanctuary to abandoned, abused and stray animals all over Karachi.

What started as a small rescue operation has now become arguably the largest animal shelter in the city. The ACF has initiated several impactful programmes, such as a mass rabies vaccination campaign for stray dogs as well as a Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release programme aimed at humanely controlling the population of stray dogs.

Last year, the foundation worked with the Sindh Wildlife Department to provide a safe space for monkeys rescued by the Customs department. An organisation like the ACF is proof that there is a future for stray animals in Pakistan.

Another young animal rescuer is Sana, who runs an Instagram page by the name of “Bezubaan Paltooo”. Sana started rescuing animals when she first noticed three abandoned kittens in the basement parking lot of her apartment. She tried finding a home for them, but after many failed attempts, decided to adopt them herself. This was four years ago.

Since then, Sana has rescued and saved the lives of at least 70 stray cats and dogs and tries to help any animal she comes across.

Sana struggles with finding funding for her rescue operations. She said she often receives DMs on Instagram from people who don’t understand why she chooses to rescue animals.

“People have asked me to stop collecting funds for animals,” she said. “They think that humans deserve more.” She often has to beg for donations on her Instagram story before someone donates a few rupees. “It’s not easy work being a student who rescues animals; most of the time, I have no choice but to pay from my own pocket,“ she explained.

Still fundraising, still firefighting

The Animal Welfare Society at IBA is another student-led organisation that also struggles with finding funds for their rescue operations. “Most people don’t appreciate that we ask for donations or the fact that so much money is spent on the animals, but the sole purpose of our society is to make sure that every animal we come across is taken care of,” Sarah, who is the current CEO of the society, said.

The rise in young people stepping up to be first responders for injured and abandoned animals is not a coincidence; it is a direct result of a city where no formal systems exist to protect those who cannot speak up for themselves.

When the government fails to provide animal control services, rehabilitation facilities and response teams, the responsibility is pushed onto the citizens or replaced with the cruel and ineffective practice of culling.

When stray animals are left to suffer through unchecked breeding, road injuries and neglect, there is little choice left but for the youth to take matters into their own hands.

A lot of the rescuers interviewed for this article said they wished Karachi had a more centralised rescue system. Sana of Bezubaan Paltooo, said, “Living here, you see how rescuing often depends almost entirely on individual people, WhatsApp groups, Instagram pages, and personal funds. There’s no single helpline, no coordinated response, and no guaranteed follow-up care, hence everything becomes slower, heavier, and emotionally exhausting for rescuers.”

She added, “Only if every neighbourhood would take responsibility to just feed the animals around them would it make a huge difference.”

Sarah from IBA’s Animal Welfare Society also said she wishes “there was a more centralised facility and more emphasis was put on vaccination programmes for animals”.

For all of these young people, rescuing animals is not a form of activism but instead a reflex, something that they know they must do. “We don’t think about what kind of animal it is,” Iftikhar from Fluff Club said. “If we see an animal in distress, we know we have to help it.”

In the absence of centralised systems, that reflex is often the only option available.

Cover image: Faysal Mujeeb/White Star

During her most active years, Pakistan was under military rule, and a series of discriminatory laws — most notably the Hudood Ordinances — created institutionalised, gendered oppression. These laws systematically restricted women’s autonomy and became tools to intimidate marginalised communities. Against this backdrop, Jahangir’s interventions were radical. She challenged not only specific laws but also the social and institutional structures that normalised injustice.

Her work demonstrates that feminist resistance in Pakistan has always required engagement with both the legal system and the social fabric that supports it.

What makes her legacy particularly relevant for Gen Z is the structural similarity between past and present forms of oppression. Young women today face gendered surveillance in public spaces, harassment in institutions and social policing of mobility and speech. While the mechanisms may have evolved — with digital harassment, social media scrutiny and institutional inertia replacing overt legal restrictions — the underlying logic of control remains. Recent judicial developments show how the struggle she championed is far from over.

The recent reclassification of a rape conviction as consensual adultery, reducing a 20-year sentence to five years, revealed persistent patriarchal assumptions about consent and credibility. The majority reasoning, centred on the absence of visible coercion, delayed reporting and lack of physical resistance, echoed older evidentiary standards that discount the realities of trauma, fear and power imbalances.

Even advances in marital rape convictions are contested: a landmark 2024 conviction in a Karachi sessions court marked progress in Sindh, sentencing a man to three years for non-consensual acts within marriage, but this was contrasted by a 2025 Lahore High Court ruling that limited accountability for acts shortly after divorce. These contradictions show that while the law can change, the social and institutional logics that perpetuate gendered oppression remain resilient.

Jahangir’s insistence on challenging authority, defending the structurally excluded and refusing compromise offers a framework for understanding these contemporary struggles. Resistance is not only about visible protest; it is persistent engagement with systems of power. Her feminism was inherently intersectional. She defended women, religious minorities, children and bonded labourers.

She recognised that oppression operates along multiple axes — gender, religion, class and region — and that a failure to address these intersections weakens the fight for justice. Jahangir’s activism consistently refused to let the concerns of the elite overshadow the everyday struggles of the marginalised, insisting that legal reform and advocacy must reflect lived realities. For young feminists today, this is a vital lesson.

It is crucial that Gen Z feminism does not become dominated by privileged voices and detached from the realities of working-class women; movements must remain attentive to economic inequality, ensuring that their demands, strategies and victories do not leave the most affected behind. For Gen Z activism to be transformative, it must carry forward this commitment to inclusivity and solidarity across social divides.

Another critical lesson lies in the ethical dimension of her activism. Jahangir consistently refused to compromise on principle. Even under personal threat, she prioritised moral clarity over personal safety or popularity. For Gen Z, this is a vital reminder that sustainable activism depends on ethical consistency. In a society where women are constantly navigating the tension between safety and voice, her life serves as an example that true resistance demands courage, strategy and integrity.

Her strategies were both pragmatic and visionary. She did not rely solely on individual advocacy but nurtured institutions such as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and AGHS Legal Aid. These structures ensured that resistance could outlast her own life, creating a legacy that continues to shape legal and social debates today. Contemporary Gen Z activism, though dynamic and highly visible, often struggles with sustainability. Jahangir’s life underscores the importance of combining immediate action with long-term institutional work.

Reflecting on her legacy also requires acknowledging the generational shift in modes of resistance. Gen Z often operates in a hyper-connected environment, with digital mobilisation amplifying voices but also exposing activists to new forms of scrutiny and surveillance. Jahangir’s era required physical courage, legal literacy and moral precision. The challenge for Gen Z is to translate similar principles — strategic thinking, intersectional awareness and ethical courage — into new contexts, balancing visibility with sustainability and personal safety with collective accountability.

As we marked her birthday on January 27, it becomes clear that Jahangir’s relevance is not symbolic. It is analytical and practical. She offers a blueprint for confronting systemic oppression, defending the most affected and building institutions that enable persistent resistance. For Gen Z feminists, she is a reminder that the work of resistance is layered, risky and ongoing. Every march, protest or public assertion of agency is part of a continuum that she helped shape, yet one that demands constant self-scrutiny to avoid replicating the exclusions it fights.

Her life teaches that courage is human, ethical and strategic. For a generation negotiating fear, digital and physical surveillance, and persistent patriarchal control, her strategies remain instructive. Gen Z feminists inherit not only her inspiration but also her methodology: challenge oppressive structures, defend the marginalised, refuse to compromise and create enduring systems for justice. In a rapidly changing political and social landscape, her legacy provides both a mirror and a guide.

It has risen quickly to become the most downloaded social media app on Apple’s App Store in the US, UK and Australia — it ranks number eight in Pakistan.

The app, which says it operates without “shadowbans” and “censorship”, was built in the aftermath of Israel’s war on Gaza, when social media control over posts about the war began to tighten.

In Hijazi’s own words, “I was getting my news from independent journalists and activists online and across social media platforms and I myself was sharing and reposting also. But as the months dragged on, every conceivable metric — death toll, time, destruction of buildings, number of hostages — skyrocketed and the only decreasing metric was online visibility. The truth was essentially being silenced or throttled.”

He said he felt a pressure to amplify the voices of his people. which is what drove him to quit his corporate job and create the platform.

With a layout similar to Instagram, UpScrolled offers users Following and Discover feeds. According to the platform’s website, the Following feed is sorted chronologically, allowing users to decide what they want to see from the creators they follow and the Discover feed is ordered by popularity, with some decay over time and a little bit of randomness to keep things fresh.

The website also says the platform does not push an agenda, “political, commercial, or otherwise,” and that moderation of posts that violate community guidelines and break the law will be human-led, transparent and apolitical.

Hijazi said UpScrolled isn’t a new idea, it’s just a return to what social media was supposed to be, a place for “social connection”. “I want UpScrolled to be everyone’s platform. Politics spurred its creation, but its success lies in the diversity of its community and content… Ambitious? Maybe. Revolutionary? No,” he said about his creation.

He also said the platform was “self-built and self-financed” without any funding from venture capitalists and bigger tech firms. The app briefly went down on Monday after a surge of new users overwhelmed UpScrolled’s servers, the team said they were working to scale their setup accordingly.

The platform’s meteoric rise comes as TikTok’s US operations have been taken over by a majority American-owned venture, which the Council on American-Islamic Relations describes as pro-Israel. The think tank commended UpScrolled for “protecting free speech” amidst TikTok’s “censorship spree”.

Accompanied by students from schools run by his charitable organisation, the Zindagi Trust, Roy released a new song, ‘Late Ho Gaye’ on Saturday to talk about just that. The music video starts with the singer asking how far along an expectant mother is and following it up by inquiring whether the parents-to-be had enrolled their unborn child in school yet.

When asked how the kid could be enrolled when the parents have neither a name nor a gender, Roy appears on screen to tell them, “Late ho gaye!” (you’re late).

The track serves to criticise the many pressures children face in the course of their time in school, starting with the unreasonably early registration deadlines elite schools have, which often force parents to take two year olds for admissions interviews.

A schoolgirl then pleads, “Mujh ko zara, pehlay honay to do. Dil khol ke, thora ronay to do (At least let me be born first. Let me cry my heart out first).”

The song moves on to the linguistic stress many kids face trying to juggle an English education when they speak other languages at home. A succession of kids tell the viewer, “Teacher ne English mein daanta, ammi ka Urdu mein chaanta, abbu Punjabi bolay saada (My teacher scolded me in English, my mother slapped me in Urdu and my dad speaks in Punjabi).”

Next on the hit-list: tuition centres. Kids dressed up in work clothes tell the screen, “Jaise school se aao, tuition. Bhaari basta phir uthaao, tuition. Saans to lenay do, paani to peenay do, khana to khanay do, nahi! Tuition (As soon as you get home from school, tuition. With your heavy backpack, tuition. Let me catch my breath, drink a glass of water, have something to eat, no! Tuition)!”

The track also calls out parents for giving their kids screens instead of actual parental attention and also for not giving their children enough time to actually be themselves. Roy ends the video with a message — “On World Education Day, let’s pledge to not just burden our kids in the name of education and actually educate them well.”

Many celebrities found the singer’s video intensely relatable, with Maryam Nafees posting it on her Instagram story and comparing Pakistan’s education system to the rest of the world. She said parents are encouraged to send their kids to schools “once they’re emotionally ready to be out there in the world. Ideally at age three, four or five.”

In comparison, she said, “We know how it works in some cities in our country”.

Case No. 9 actor Rushna Khan shared the song too, remarking that “childhood isn’t a race”.

Saboor Ali, another new mother, spoke about the struggle she was going through with her own daughter’s schooling. “Serena is still so little, but here we are in the school admission race already. The pressure is real, and honestly, it feels so unfair for parents and for the tiny souls too.”

Sarwat Gilani posted the singer’s reel to her own account and added some apt commentary in the caption. She said when celebrities such as Roy start talking about social issues such as the “pressures of school admissions, unrealistic expectations, and the flaws within our education system,” it means that “the conversation is shifting, and that the need for change can no longer be ignored”.

Education, she said, has become “a race, a comparison, a constant source of anxiety for children and parents alike”.

Gilani said Roy’s voice is important in society as it “reminds us that reform begins with awareness — and awareness begins with speaking up”. She said she hopes to see “an education system that nurtures curiosity, creativity, and emotional well-being — not just grades and admissions”.

In the comments under the singer’s post, many celebrities praised Roy’s initiative. Mawra Hocane said he was “correcting the country’s system, one video at a time”. She hoped people could gather the courage to “find their way out of this rat race” after watching the video.

Celebrity makeup artist Natasha Ali Lakhani said the video was “such a powerful reflection of our schooling system” and the pressure placed on children, which is “neither conducive to their well-being, nor to parents having balanced mental health or a healthy relationship with education”.

Content creator Waliya Najeeb asked why we were “so obsessed with putting literal babies in school”. She said she’d been asked on multiple occasions why her two-year-old wasn’t in school, which she found “a bit odd”.

Roy has a history of taking tangible steps to improve the standard of education in Pakistan with his stewardship of schools that pride themselves on a more holistic approach to education. His schools offer chess lessons as well as music lessons, allowing for children to do more than be stuck in classrooms.

The session took the form of a conversation between the two speakers. Sirajuddin gave a brief introduction of Hanif, saying that his broadcast in Punjabi from the BBC was of great interest for many, as he conveyed his thoughts to the ordinary people in a very cool and impressive manner. She said perhaps the author found an escape from the stress of journalism and started writing fiction.

To a question, Hanif said he had undergone schooling in the military school system but ended up in civilian life. He held his teacher and editor, Razia Bhatti, in high esteem. He said she told him how to tell a story, where to place sentences to create the effect the story needed. In a lighter vein, he said Bhatti used to tell him the media had never been free; perhaps that’s why the journalist later started writing novels.

Sirajuddin lauded Hanif for his use of wonderful metaphors and phrases. She said character names like Teddy Butt and Joseph Bhatti carried significance in his books and added that he used cinematic images in his novels. His use of caricature in description made for very interesting characters.

While talking about literature as resistance, Hanif mentioned Junaid Hafeez who had written poetry as a medical student in Lahore. The author said he had read some of the student’s poems, adding that Hafeez was arrested and sentenced to death.

Sirajuddin further threw light on Hanif’s writings, saying that he used comedy as a weapon, a tradition that went back to the Greeks. She also mentioned his book, Red Birds, and read excerpts to the crowd, commenting on how it drew from experiences in flying.

Child marriage

A session on ‘Child Protection and Interventions against Early Marriage in Pakistan’, was held at the Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest happening at Alhamra Arts Council where speakers explored various aspects of child marriage in the country.

Jennifer Malton from Unicef said: “80 per cent of children in Pakistan experience violence, 26 million children are out of school, eight million are engaged in child labour. A strong legal framework is there but there are gaps in it”.

She talked about child abuse and children might be better protected from it. She added that children were very important and it was important to listen to their wishes and thoughts. Children, she said, need quality education, nutritious food and for academia and students to amplify their voices.

Justin Jones from Oxford University talked about child marriage, saying that according to statistics, 21pc women were married off as children in Sindh, southern Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some parts of Balochistan. He added that the outcome of such marriages was often negative and that domestic violence was often connected to child marriage.

He underlined the need to review the birth registration process as a measure against child marriage and discussed the roles of Nikah Khawans and registrars in the practice.

Sara Malkani, a lawyer from Karachi, explained the legal framework around child marriage, saying Sindh was the first province to fix the legal age for marriage at 18. Earlier, she said, boys had to be 18 to be wed, while girls could be married off at 16.

Later, other provinces also followed this age bracket. She said when it comes to laws against child marriage, implementation in Sindh was very weak. She said many minor girls were choosing to marry minor boys by eloping together. She stressed that rethinking the legal framework for addressing the issue was important.

Muhammad Faisal Khalil, also from Oxford, discussed the negative role of Nikah Khawans and registrars in the case of child marriages. He said the birth registration rate was very low and investment was needed in the welfare of children and old people.

Originally published in Dawn, January 24th, 2026

Cover photo: ThinkFest/Instagram

Mattel announced the launch of the doll with a press release on Tuesday as part of its Barbie Fashionistas line of toys, which includes dolls of different skin tones, body shapes and dolls with medical conditions like diabetes and down syndrome.

The company’s global head of dolls, Jamie Cygielman, said, “Barbie has always strived to reflect the world kids see and the possibilities they imagine, and we’re proud to introduce our first autistic Barbie as part of that ongoing work. The doll, designed with guidance from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, helps to expand what inclusion looks like in the toy aisle and beyond because every child deserves to see themselves in Barbie.“

The doll itself has additional joints in its wrists and elbows to allow it to make gestures like stimming and hand-flapping, which many members of the autistic community use to process sensory stimuli and express excitement.

It comes with a fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones and a tablet with various autism-friendly applications as accessories. The dress, too, a loose-fitting dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt, is meant to provide minimal fabric-to-skin contact in line with the preferences of many people with autism.

A research study commissioned by Barbie at Cardiff University found that playing with dolls activates parts of children‘s brains associated with empathy and social processing skills, according to the brand’s statement. Recent research, it said, supports the notion that doll play helps children — including those with neurodivergent traits — develop social skills.

To celebrate the launch of the new doll, Barbie is donating 1,000 units to pediatric hospitals that provide specialised care for children with autism. The dolls are available for purchase on the brand’s website and at major international retailers.

Cover photo: Mattel

The black-and-white pins displayed slogans like “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT,” introducing a political angle into the awards show after last year’s relatively apolitical ceremony, according to Independent.

While giving an interview on the red carpet, Ruffalo stated that this act was Good, and for the people of US who are “terrorised and scared today.”

“I know I’m one of em, I love this country and what I’m seeing here happening is not America.”

Talking about why he chose to speak up on the incident at the Golden Globe, Ruffalo expressed that the situation isn’t normal anymore.

“And so I don’t know how I can be quiet.”

On Wednesday, the 37-year-old woman, Good, was shot at point-blank range in her car by a US immigration agent amid an enforcement surge, marking the latest violent incident during President Donald Trump’s crackdown on migrants.

The incident triggered widespread outrage in the city, with thousands of protestors on the frigid streets of Minneapolis, with city and state leaders rejecting White House claims that the victim was a domestic terrorist and calling for a full investigation.

As per the Independent, other celebrities were expected to have the badges on as well.

The idea for the “ICE OUT” pins began with a late-night text exchange earlier this week between Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power and Jess Morales Rocketto, the executive director of a Latino advocacy group called Maremoto, Independent reported.

“We need every part of civil society, society to speak up. We need our artists. We need our entertainers. We need the folks who reflect society,” Stamp said.

The organisers pledged to continue the campaign throughout awards season to ensure the public knows the names of Good and others killed by ICE agents in shootings.

This is not the first time celebrities have worn pins to award shows to raise their voices against injustice. Last year, celebrities like Billie Eilish, Riz Ahmed, Ramy Youssef, Ruffalo, among many others, wore Artists for Ceasefire pin, which was emblematic of an open letter written to US President Joe Biden calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In an Instagram post, the brand announced that on December 5, between 12pm and 1am, visitors at its Dolmen Mall Clifton Karachi branch can use sign language to place their order and receive a free dessert as “a small way to celebrate inclusion and accessibility”. The initiative is being held in collaboration with disability inclusion organisation NOWPDP.

“Let’s make dining accessible for everyone, one sign at a time!” Espresso wrote, sharing a cheerful graphic detailing the offer. The café added that while the dessert itself is free, the tax on the complimentary item will be borne by customers — a standard practice with promotional items.

Though simple, the gesture stands out in a food landscape where accessibility and inclusivity often receive little attention. Encouraging customers to use sign language, even for a single order, normalises communication modes used by members of the deaf community.

NOWPDP, which works across Pakistan to create opportunities for people with disabilities, frequently collaborates with brands to promote more inclusive public spaces.

Back in 2018, the organisation teamed up with local start-up ConnectHear to make election commentary accessible for deaf viewers. On election day, both organisations broadcast live sign-language interpretation of election updates on their Facebook pages, widening access to a national moment that is typically out of reach for the deaf community.

We also have examples of local brands making the effort to be more inclusive. Last year, Bachaa Party’s festive-collection ad featured children with disabilities, including a boy in a wheelchair and another child with albinism. The campaign was praised for treating the children as part of a friend group, normalising diversity rather than tokenising it.

Another notable initiative was Khaas Foodz organising a dining event for people to experience eating in complete darkness, giving sighted participants a sense of what visually impaired people navigate daily.

These are small gestures with a big message. Sometimes, one signed order and a slice of cake is enough to start a conversation about accessibility that should’ve been happening all along.

On Thursday, the Kashf Foundation hosted a launch event in Lahore for the drama, created in collaboration with the Government of Canada. Images was invited to cover the event and hosted by the Kashf Foundation. The evening included the trailer premiere, a cast meet-and-greet, a keynote address by Senator Syed Ali Zafar and two panel discussions exploring access to justice in cybercrime and the creative process behind the series.

For 25 years, the Kashf Foundation — Pakistan’s first microfinance non-profit — has worked to expand financial access for women from low-income communities, supporting more than one million women entrepreneurs. But as its impact deepened, founder and managing director Roshaneh Zafar realised that advocacy also requires shifting mindsets. Storytelling, she told Images, became their most effective tool for that shift.

“Our dramas are not just about stories — they are about changing mindsets and igniting conversations.”

The plot

Airing soon on Geo TV, the drama follows the titular Pakeezah, played by Sehar Khan, whose life crumbles after a manipulated video of her goes viral. The event forces her into a forced marriage and a long battle against stigma, institutions and the digital traces she cannot erase.

Model and actor Amna Ilyas plays barrister Saman, Pakeezah’s lawyer — a strong-willed advocate with her own arc — paired with Gohar Rasheed. Taking a holistic approach, the drama also explores male harassment through the character of Faraz, played by Nameer Khan, shedding light on how society treats male and female victims differently.

The cast also includes Case No. 9’s Noorul Hassan, Hina Khawaja Bayat and Nadia Afghan.

Directed by Kashif Nasir and written by Bee Gul, the drama examines cyber harassment, gender-based violence, coerced marriage and the systemic barriers that prevent women from seeking legal recourse.

Gul said the hope was that if the drama generated even “a little bit of empathy” for victims, it would have achieved its purpose. Among many messages, the makers attempted to educate families on the importance of their support for victims.

“I just want you to understand that you are an individual, you are a part of a family, and if something has happened to a family member, be it a woman or a man, then what can you do?” she said.

Nameer echoed the plea during the event. “No matter what kind of challenges you face, you should be supportive of your wife, you should support her decision, whatever decision she is making. Not to run away whenever a difficulty comes upon her. Support your sisters, mothers, the women around you. Go an extra mile for them.”

He also urged viewers to empathise with the characters rather than just watch it for entertainment.

Director Nisar emphasised that while the legal process is part of the story, the drama focuses on behavioural and societal responses to cybercrime. It shows the difficulties one faces on the journey of seeking help.

“Agar apko kahin jana hai, remedy leni hai, tou wahan janay se pehle apko bohat roka jata hai (If you want to go somewhere to seek remedy, you face a lot of barriers even before reaching),” he explained.

Gul noted that while the drama was not based on a single event, it was “loosely based” on multiple real incidents she had heard of.

“I have read a lot of such stories, heard them, people have told me about it. I have heard it through journalists. So, I think that somehow, very unconsciously, I might have knitted all those into one.”

The narrative traces the victim’s experience from the moment the crime occurs — the initial family reaction, stigma and isolation — long before any legal process begins.

“This whole play is addressing [the fact that] after the incident happened, after the crime, how does a girl struggle to reach to the court? Access to justice comes later, whatever happens in court happens much later. Before that it is about what will you say at your house? What will your mother say? Your brother, your father, your neighbourhood. How they [make you a] outcast. How they make you feel that you can’t show your face to anyone now.”

The process

When you choose to deliver stories that are meant not just to shift but shape societies — stories that bring out the ugliness of a society and put it on display for the entire world to see, stories that take charge of holding people accountable — you shoulder a lot of responsibility.

The idea of centring cybercrime for their next drama emerged during the shoot for the Kashf Foundation’s previous award-winning drama Zard Patton Ka Bunn in Bahawalpur.

Starring Sajal Aly and Hamza Sohail, the Zard Patton Ka Bunn revolves around Meenu, a spirited village girl with dreams of becoming the first doctor from her village.

“We were sitting and debating. We’ve done popΩulation control, we’ve done girls’ education, and we’ve done a lot of other issues. So now what’s next? We started thinking, and the thing that came out was access to justice. And then cybercrime, which is an issue that’s growing in our society. And nobody’s really effectively talking about it. So we felt that that was really the point,” Zafar said.

According to the Digital Rights Foundation’s eighth annual report, Pakistan recorded 3,171 complaints of tech-facilitated gender-based violence in 2024, with cyber harassment making up 2,741 cases.

Of these 2,741 reported cases, 36 per cent of them “originated from cities where a Federal Investigation Agency cybercrime wing is operational,” according to the report.

Once a broader theme was decided, the Kashf Foundation’s research team compiled extensive data and case studies over the course of months before convening creative workshops with writers, directors and subject experts.

“We do the research first, we have all this [research] which is very extensive, we spend months collecting the data. Then we have a creative workshop where we have the director, the writer, our creative team, and then a few experts on that area. Then we sit down, we look at the numbers, the data, the outcomes, the case studies,” Zafar explained.

“We go and speak to people who have been confronted with or have experienced that issue so that we have real, authentic narrations,” she added.

Gul shared how she not only studied the Foundation’s research but also conducted her own — from consulting young male lawyers to approaching people at the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) while posing as a victim, simply to understand how a woman in Pakeezah’s situation would truly be treated in the real world.

An example of this ‘undercover research’ she gave was her describing Pakeezah’s case to the officials and lawyers and them asking some very interesting and technical questions.

From proof of evidence to details of the story to the nature of the video, she would be asked all types of questions.

“Then they’d ask what kind of video is it? You know, there were questions like these, and I would share some details from my story with them and then they would guide me,” she told Images.

“One said that it would be very difficult. You can’t do this [can’t win the case]. And it will take a lot of time,” Gul recounted the officials telling her.

That attention to detail extended beyond the writing. During the panel discussion with the cast and crew, the director and writers shared how both lead actors also came in with a list of questions during readings about the small details.

When inquired about the most challenging or emotionally taxing scene, both actors said the same thing: every scene.

“Every scene was challenging,” Sehar said. “I performed after feeling it — and the journey was painful.”

“Emotionally, it was tough to feel all those emotions that no one wants to feel. When you feel it, your empathy towards such people amplifies,” Nameer explained.

Why this is the right time for this story

With over 72 million internet users in Pakistan and nearly 40pc of women reporting online harassment, according to the Kashf Foundation’s research, digital spaces have become an extension of real-world threats. Dramas like Aik Aur Pakeezah attempt to highlight these dangers and encourage behavioural change.

Sehar hoped that after watching Aik Aur Pakeezah, “society changes and people learn how to use social media properly”.

Last month, a fabricated video claiming to show journalist Benazir Shah dancing in a nightclub circulated online, receiving over half a million views before being debunked, which is just one example of the relentless digital hostility women face.

“When you are living through a society, and you are going through situations when such things come to the surface on almost a daily basis, it is stupidity to not talk about them,” said actor and activist Bayat.

“We will be able to resolve these issues only if we talk about them, otherwise, you are going to live in your own Lala Land and suffer for it,” she added.

Despite existing laws, reporting remains low. Of the 3,171 complaints recorded by the DRF, 1,772 were filed by women — only those who found the courage to step forward. Most never report.

Gul pointed out that the first barrier is often not society — it’s mothers. “It starts right from their homes, the first person to stop them is their mother, another woman.”

Ilyas added that many women simply do not know their legal rights, and internalised shame prevents them from seeking protection.

Despite having laws against the crime in our country and being allowed rights, women are often unable to exercise those rights.

Zafar believed that now is the critical moment for such work. “The most concerning issue now is access to justice, but within that, the question of digital rights and the question of cybercrime, because people have now got access to this tool and this information, and because they haven’t been educated on how to use it, the ethics and the morality behind it is not clear. There is a lot of space for going wrong. So, we felt it was important to take up this issue of cybercrime, and also to look at how the overall access to justice for women is configured.”

During the panel Access to Justice in the Age of Cybercrime, Federal Ombudsperson against Harassment Fauzia Viqar spoke about the power of media: I have been trying to educate people about my work for the past 20 years but they don’t register it.

However, now, even her domestic help knows what steps rape victims should take due to dramas such as Case No. 9, which follows woman’s quest for justice after her employer rapes her.

“I am struck by the power of media,” Viqar said.

Kashf Foundation’s evolving media role

Over the past 12 years, the Kashf Foundation has used storytelling as a tool for social reform — one drama at a time. Their productions have tackled child marriage (in their first drama, Rehaai), sexual abuse (Udaari), and human trafficking (Dil Na Umeed Tou Nahi), each sparking public debate.

The shift towards television began after the Foundation saw how community theatre proved effective in changing perceptions. Moneeza Hashmi, author and daughter of renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, encouraged Kashf to step into television, and since then, their dramas have sparked conversations and influenced policy.

“We discovered that rather than sermonising about rights, storytelling worked very effectively, [and] was extremely organic,” Zafar said.

The results have been tangible. When Rehaai aired in 2013, 30pc of Pakistani girls were married before 18. The next year, Sindh passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013 — a reform Zafar credited partly to advocacy and sustained public pressure.

Post-Udaari, research involving 1,200 respondents showed shifts in public attitudes: recognition that harassment often begins at home, and greater empathy for survivors.

“We saw that post-Udaari, this message went out fairly clearly. And then about the issue of abuse versus victim versus abuser. I have lots of anecdotes where people have come to me and said, ‘You know, Udaari was my story. Since I saw the drama, I can look people in the eye and say, it wasn’t, I’m not to blame for this’.”

Now, Aik Aur Pakeezah.

It might not help victims “win” the case, as Gul rightfully pointed out, there is no winning for the victim. Whether you win the case or not, the victim, having lost all those years fighting, comes out a completely different person.

However, what it aims to provide is a conversation starter. A sense of sensitivity towards victims of cyber crime, and a ray of hope for victims who feel completely alone in their fights.