Now, with the release of a report from the UN-formed Independent International Commission of Inquiry saying Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces, she has just one question for world leaders: “Where have you been?”

“Did you not see these kids as kids because of where they were born? Did you not think the 20,000 kids that were killed and the countless others under the rubble who died of starvation and other causes that would be so simple to treat,” asked a visibly upset Accurso in a video shared to her Instagram page.

She questioned whether those in positions of power realised the children of Gaza “had beating hearts like your kids”. She quoted parts of the report saying 151 children had died of starvation and mentioned “the deliberate targeting of children”, including an incident in which a breastfeeding baby was killed by quadcopter while inside a tent.

She wondered aloud what the leaders of the world had to lose by speaking up for what is right and asked how they were able to “go to sleep at night knowing you didn’t say anything”.

Accurso has been extremely vocal about the dire conditions facing children living through Israel’s barbaric war on Gaza. Her online advocacy has landed her in trouble with pro-Israel groups who have accused her of anti-semitism.

The YouTuber is a global ambassador for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) and supports their activities in the United States with donations and by spending time with children the PCRF brings to the US for treatment. She’s developed a particularly strong friendship with Rahaf, a four-year-old double amputee from Gaza.

Mahnoor is the fourth Pakistani to be granted the honour and only the second Pakistani woman. Her win comes six years after the last time Pakistan won, Mahwari Justice said in a press release.

The awards, which are meant to celebrate young people’s contributions to development, are given out annually. One winner is selected from each of the five participating geographical regions and out of the five winners one is named Young Person of the Year.

As a regional winner, Mahnoor will receive a grant of £3,000 to help her organisation achieve its objectives. The Young Person of the Year — Ugandan solar-energy pioneer Shifra Ainomugisha for 2026 — will receive £5,000.

Mahnoor’s Mahwari Justice has made it a mission to spread awareness and education on menstrual issues and improve access to care for menstruating women.

The organisation was founded in 2022 in response to devastating floods and focused initially on providing feminine hygiene kits to flood-hit communities.

Since then, Mahnoor has worked on period education, developing a disability-inclusive guide on menstruation and having it translated into braille. The guide is now being produced in sign language.

She was also a strong advocate for the removal of taxes on feminine hygiene products, mobilising 10,000 signatures for the cause.

Her efforts and those of legal activists like Mahnoor Omer and Alisha Shabbir came to fruition earlier this month when taxes were withdrawn as part of the Federal Budget 2026-27.

Weinstein’s third trial in New York state court over an allegation that he raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann ended in a mistrial in May after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Mann accused Weinstein of raping her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 while Mann resisted and repeatedly said, No. Weinstein, 74, had pleaded not guilty to one count of third-degree rape and has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.

A representative on Thursday said Weinstein was relieved by the outcome and believes the charge never should have been brought. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said on Thursday that testifying before two grand juries and three trial juries had been an “extraordinarily taxing ordeal for Mann and that she did not wish to take the stand again”.

Bragg’s office also said it asked the court to sentence Weinstein to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting one-time production assistant Miriam Haley. Weinstein was convicted of raping Mann and assaulting Haley at his first trial in New York in 2020, but the state’s highest court overturned the conviction after concluding that he did not get a fair trial.

Weinstein, an Oscar-winning film producer and Miramax studio co-founder, has remained behind bars since his conviction was overturned due to his conviction in another case. More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment or misconduct, allegations Weinstein denies.

Originally published in Dawn, June 26 , 2026

The two posted a reel on Instagram on Friday, talking about the virus and how freely available treatment can help patients and society.

In the clip, Munawar tells viewers that people infected by HIV can opt for free treatment in Pakistan. He said getting treated can bring patients to a point where the disease becomes “undetectable”.

He explained that this meant individuals who get treated can’t transmit the disease to others. “In three months, the viral load in your blood can drop to zero and a large portion of your blood can effectively be cleaned.”

Bhutto said the safest person, from a medical point of view, isn’t the one who’s never been tested, it’s the one whose viral load is suppressed.

Munawar said people stayed away from testing and treatment out of a fear of society and their ignorance. He said people often die because this fear prevents them from getting diagnosed.

“If this disease is not treated in a timely manner, a patient can die within 10 years,” the actor said.

Bhutto said, “The more you know about HIV, the safer you are.”

HIV and the stigma around the condition remain a serious problem in Pakistan, with the health ministry saying in May that nearly 20,000 patients had “gone missing” after discontinuing treatment.

The ministry said an estimated 369,000 people were living with HIV in Pakistan, while only 84,000 cases were currently registered, highlighting a significant detection gap. In 2025 alone, 14,000 new cases were reported.

The country reeled in horror in April, when an exposé from the BBC revealed severe medical malpractice in Punjab’s Taunsa which led to a surge in HIV infections among the area’s children.

At the time, Bhutto said medical malpractice “accounted for the majority of major outbreaks” and the victims were “victims are almost always children”.

“Prejudice against the disease must stop so these children can live full and happy lives,” the activist said.

Khan, who is a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) goodwill ambassador, urged people to remember that “When one family finds safety, we all share in a more hopeful future.”

The star, while undertaking her duties with the UNHCR, said she had met Afghan refugees “who were forced to leave their homes and rebuild their lives from nothing”.

Seeking asylum is “not an abstract idea”, she said. “It is the moment everything changes for a family.”

She said there were refugee parents she had interacted with who were “working every day to give their children a future” and young people “determined to continue their education”.

Despite losing everything, she said, refugee families continued to hold onto hope.

The actor said she had “seen resilience in places where life has been incredibly hard” and how “safety can change what tomorrow looks like”.

Khan was appointed UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador to Pakistan in 2019, when she said she was proud to have come from a country that had a long history of hosting refugees.

She joins a handful of Pakistani celebrities who serve as goodwill ambassadors for different UN organs; Saba Qamar works with the UN agency for children while Shehzad Roy works with the Office on Drugs and Crime. Fawad Khan is the goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Programme and Hania Aamir recently joined the list last October with UN Women.

Afghan refugees who sought asylum in Iran and Pakistan have been returning to Afghanistan. According to figures from the UNHCR, over 5.5 million refugees had returned between October 2023 and February 2026.

In a reel on her Instagram account, Ansari said, “I’ve been hearing for about two months now that Somali pirates had captured our compatriots along with some Indians and Bangladeshis. These men who left their homes to work hard for their families are in dire straits.”

The actor said she had seen a few clips on the internet and thought the seamen must have been rescued by now, “Obviously, all their countries must be making efforts for their safe return, but how do we actually save their lives? Their children, their families are so worried.”

Talking about the squalid conditions the hostages are kept in, Ansari said she had seen videos of them drinking visibly unsafe water and was worried if they were able to charge their phones to maintain contact with their loved ones.

“Please, take this seriously. It’s a matter of life or death… I was under the impression this had been resolved, but then I saw a clip of this little girl who was missing her dad, my heart hurts so much [for her],” the actor said.

Ansari said these men had gone to sea to earn an honest living; they weren’t trying to break the law or immigrate illegally.

She requested the Foreign Office to “please do something for them” because it didn’t seem fair to these hard-working men and the families they left behind at home. “Maybe one of them is sick, God forbid… We don’t know” she worried.

Eleven Pakistani sailors were part of the crew of the MT Honour 25 which was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia in April. Foreign office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that Islamabad had been in touch with the vessel’s owners and the government of Somalia to secure the crew’s release during a press briefing last week.

He recalled that the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had been in touch with the Somali Foreign Minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali over the issue.

A statement from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs on June 8 also said they remained in touch with the foreign ministry and the embassy of Somalia to facilitate rescue efforts.

Cover photo: Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

In an Instagram story posted on Tuesday, the actor asked why people began to call for dog culling whenever they heard of a dog with rabies.

“When we don’t punish all people for the sins of any one person, we shouldn’t punish all dogs because a few carry rabies. Only people with thoughtfulness and compassion will understand this,” Farooq said.

Addressing the haters, she said she prayed for “God to soften your hearts one day”.

On Monday, the actor had put up a post from Lahore-based animal rights activist Uswa Ahmed on her story. In the video, Ahmed can be heard asking sanitation workers from the Suthra Punjab project why they had killed dogs.

They were moving a trailer full of dog corpses which sparked the activist’s reaction. The workers denied having killed them and drove away with Ahmed in pursuit.

The comments under the post were largely supportive, but some questioned the activist’s priorities for speaking up for animals. Others made fun of her for referring to strays she cares for as her “children”.

The Lahore High Court has barred authorities from culling dogs, instead directing them to use more humane methods of controlling stray animal populations as prescribed under the Punjab Animal Birth Control Policy 2021.

Despite the orders, there are reports of The dog culling in the city with guns and poison as of last month.

In his speech, the minister said the government would be withdrawing taxes placed on contraceptives and sanitary pads. The move was hailed as a win for women and an important step in providing safe and affordable menstrual care to the public.

Netizens applauded the government for taking the step which will have an immediate, positive impact for the country’s women.

One user pointed out how Pakistan was set to join a lamentably small group of countries that don’t tax menstrual hygiene products.

Others felt the whole idea of taxing such essential goods was “ridiculous”. They were happy to see the taxes go.

There was also acknowledgement of Mahnoor Omer, the women’s rights activist who filed a case in the Lahore High Court against taxing menstrual hygiene product in September. She was later recognised as one of TIME magazine’s Women of the Year for her efforts. Another petition was filed in the Sindh High Court by Karachi’s Alishba Shabbir in November.

Not everyone was convinced this was enough, especially when it came to the adoption of contraceptives in a country severely burdened by overpopulation. One user said the withdrawal of taxes wouldn’t do make to increase their acceptance in Pakistani society.

The removal of the taxes is expected to be implemented in the coming fiscal year, which starts from July 1.

In an Instagram post, the movement called Tribeca out on its “racist double standards” and “choice to continue programming complicit Israeli films during apartheid Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.

BDS said the festival had barred Russian participation in the aftermath of the country’s invasion of Ukraine but failed to maintain the same principles when it came to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its actions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Iran and Syria.

In fact, the movement said, three Israeli films were platformed this year. One of the companies involved in these films, United King Films, was highlighted by the UN as “involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”.

The comments that started the firestorm for Tribeca came from US comedian Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Savetsky whose interaction on the red carpet of Gold’s film went viral for all the wrong reasons.

Gold spoke to Savetsky about his film, saying it was “a really big deal” for his Israel-made film to be screening at the Tribeca Festival. He then joked that he was “only raped by two Israeli dogs”, to which Savetsky countered, “I thought they only raped Palestinians.”

The festival later issued an apology saying the remarks were “offensive and unacceptable”.

“Sexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimised,” the statement read. It said the remarks “do not reflect the Tribeca Festival’s values” and the organising team regrets “the hurt they have caused”.

BDS objected to the statement not mentioning the anti-Palestinian nature of the comments and not cancelling subsequent screenings of Gold’s film. The movement said this “erasure of Palestinians” and the lack of Palestinian representation at the festival were “examples of Tribeca’s systemic anti-Palestinian racism”.

The post from BDS said film festivals were “no place for genocidal Israeli propaganda”.

“There can be no celebration of independent film, free expression or solidarity without ending complicity,” the movement said.

In a video posted on Instagram, an exhausted Hocane said that while ‘they’ say “not all women”, it is always a woman who is subjected to such cruelty and expected to walk out of it unscathed.

“It’s always a woman surviving what was meant to destroy her. It’s always a woman asked to forgive before she has even healed. It’s always a woman rebuilding herself [after suffering] from someone else’s cruelty,” the actor said.

She asked why this was something we glorified. “Why is survival a woman’s greatest achievement?”

Hocane joins a number of her industry colleagues in condemning violence against women, especially after a brutal acid attack on Dr Mahnoor Nasir in Quetta. She suffered burns on 70 per cent of her body when a man threw acid on her. The man was later killed by police while attempting to flee the city.

Saturday’s acid attack wasn’t the only case of patriarchal violence in the news last week, with people similarly horrified when a 64-year-old man admitted to killing his wife after she refused to go to bed with him. What was even more horrifying was a video of lawyers surrounding the man and telling him he wasn’t to blame.

With people defending women’s murderers and trying their absolute hardest to blame the victims for being attacked, Hocane’s questions sting hard. Why is it always women who have to carry the burdens of crimes committed against them and when will we make criminals and abusers pay instead?

Organisers said the comments, which made fun of sexual violence against Palestinians in Israel, were “offensive and unacceptable”.

“Sexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimised,” the statement read. It said the remarks “do not reflect the Tribeca Festival’s values” and the organising team regrets “the hurt they have caused”.

On Saturday, Gold spoke to Savetsky about his film, saying it was “a really big deal” for his Israel-made film to be screening at the Tribeca Festival. He then joked that he was “only raped by two Israeli dogs”, to which Savetsky countered, “I thought they only raped Palestinians.”

Variety reports that while Gold was on the red carpet as a cast member, Savetsky was not part of any project at the festival this year and was instead invited as a guest of the team behind The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan).

While the joke was obviously offensive, it was made much more so by reports of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons being subjected to sexual abuse and dog attacks as a method of intimidation.

According to a report from Al Jazeera, Kifaya Khraim from the Ramallah-based Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, said she had spoken to 75 women who were detained in different stations across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. All 75 said they had been sexually abused in prison.

Khraim said both Palestinian men and women were sexually abused in prison and both male and female Israeli personnel took part in the abuse and torture of detainees.

The report said Israeli prisons held more than 9,600 Palestinians as of this April.

On Saturday, a man threw acid at a female doctor at Quetta’s Civil Hospital, severely injuring her. Dr Mahnoor Nasir survived, but with 70 per cent of her body burned, according to hospital sources.

On Thursday, a 64-year-old man surrendered himself to the police in Karachi and confessed to killing his wife for refusing to engage in intercourse with him the night before.

After going through the horror of witnessing so much crime, Pakistanis on X asked how many more women have to go through this before something actually changes.

As always, there were people online blaming the victims of these tragedies, claiming there was some reason why they were attacked, as if women aren’t attacked at random. Netizens were not having it and responded by calling out the real culprits: misogyny and male entitlement.

People were understandably enraged at why, after so many acid attacks, acid was still easily available for any potential attacker to buy and even carry with him into a hospital.

While the Acid Control Crime and Prevention Act, 2011 requires sellers to record the personal details of buyers, the substance remains commercially available and is readily used for domestic applications like drain cleaning.

In the case of the man who murdered his wife, a clip of him emerged where lawyers were huddled around the killer telling him they’d represent him and he was “in the right”. Users on X were horrified, with one shocked the lawyers could do so and still face their mothers, daughters, wives and sisters at home.

Many believed men need to be taught how to take no for an answer.

And of course, for many, the main culprit is always feminism. Many netizens rolled their eyes at people at the scrutiny around feminism and what feminists stand for when women “continue to be killed, raped and burned by acid attacks”.

One user put one of the biggest struggles of being a woman in Pakistan into perspective — no woman is safe from attacks by entitled men.

A lot of people were angry.

The prevalence of violence against women in Pakistan signifies a deep, systemic rot in the way society thinks about and treats women. Until attitudes change and everyone starts seeing women as human beings worthy of respect and rights, we can’t expect anything to improve.

The question is: how many more women need to be killed and injured before society finally has had enough?

In an X post addressed to Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi on Thursday, the rapper said, “For the past 45 days, 11 Pakistani citizens have been stranded off the coast of Somalia completely abandoned, without help, food or essential supplies.”

He said these people weren’t just “statistics” and represented 11 Pakistani families. “These are sons, daughters, mothers, and wives waiting in agony for their breadwinners to return home safely.”

Anjum said he realises there are complications and that “these things take time”, but he said those families deserved answers beyond the “generic, occasional statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming they are ‘in touch with Somali Maritime forces’”.

The rapper called on the Foreign Office to set up a dedicated helpline for these families to call for updates and asked the government to form a committee or assign an official of the foreign ministry whose only job is to keep up with the crisis and keep the families up to date, “providing them with the transparency and respect they are owed”.

This is not the first time Anjum has spoken up on this issue; he wrote a strongly-worded message on Instagram days after the vessel was first taken over by pirates on April 21.

In his message, the rapper said one of the captured sailors was “like a brother” to him, so this issue was personal. At the time, he claimed the government “has taken no action” for the safety of the hostage and that he was “ashamed” as a Pakistani at the government’s “non seriousness” and “under the rug policy” when it came to its citizens trapped abroad.

Separately, Andrabi spoke about the hostage situation on Thursday during the weekly Foreign Office press briefing. He said the government was in touch with the ship’s owners who were negotiating for the crew’s release and the government of Somalia — which had jurisdiction over the waters the ship was in — was kept informed.

The spokesperson said any rescue operation was made difficult by the geographic conditions and the explosive nature of the vessel’s cargo. He said Pakistan has called on the ship’s owners and the government of Somalia to push the pirates to provide food, water and essential supplies to the hostages.

Andrabi said resolving the crisis was a priority for the government, but incidents of piracy in this region have taken months to resolve in the past. He said they had received written assurances from the Somali side.

The spokesperson expressed sympathy for the families of the hostages and asked for their patience as the government tried to bring their loved ones home.

With additional reporting by Ameer Hamza

Piker, a streamer on Twitch with over three million followers, was set to speak on a panel titled How the American Left Learned to Speak the Internet. His uncle Uygur, host of the online news show The Young Turks, was set to speak on Techno-Feudalism is Here. Who Are the Lords?.

Both have been vocal in their opposition to Israel after the country launched its devastating war on Gaza in 2023, which a UN report termed a genocide. Almost 73,000 people have since been killed in the occupied territory.

Representatives of the Home Office confirmed to Variety that both of their Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) were revoked “on the grounds that their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good”. The representatives said to refuse or cancel an ETA on these grounds is based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society.

Uygur decried the step as “oppression” in a post on X, saying he had been “banned from the UK” when he was set to go and speak at events in London and Oxford.

Piker quoted the post in his own, saying his visa had also been revoked. The streamer said the West was “betraying liberal values for a genocidal fascist foreign government”.

SXSW also issued a statement acknowledging two of its speakers had had their travel permissions revoked, but said the event remains committed to its spirit of dialogue.

A spokesperson for the event said, “We are aware that Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker are unable to travel to the UK following a decision by the Home Office. Decisions on entry to the UK are a matter for the Home Office and the individuals concerned. SXSW London’s role is to convene a broad range of diverse voices and perspectives. We remain focused on delivering a programme this week fostering open dialogue and exchange of ideas and featuring more than 800 speakers, artists and screenings.”

“Both the lawmaker and the actor spent quite a good time at the NCCIA Lahore office, along with their lawyers, and recorded their statements before a team of investigation officers,” an official told Dawn.

He said the actor levelled serious allegations of harassment and hurling death threats at her by the PML-N lawmaker from Chiniot, while the latter claimed that he remained friends with her for a long time and this was not a matter of harassment.

A source told Dawn that the NCCIA moved swiftly after Momina’s social media appeal went viral and drew the attention of senior PML-N leadership, especially Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

On Thursday, the Punjab police even provided security to Ms Momina, as confirmed by her sister.

In her online post, tagged to the PML-N leadership, Ms Momina alleged that she had been subjected to “online harassment, cyberbullying, and death threats for a long time”.

“A member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N has been threatening me for an extended period. Instead of ensuring justice, attempts were allegedly made to suppress my complaints. Even individuals associated with the office of the chief minister tried to discourage me and silence the issue rather than allowing a fair investigation,” she claimed.

On Thursday Momina’s sister Advocate Rimsha Iqbal, who is fighting her case, told reporters that hurdles were being created in the marriage of Momina that was going to take place next month and even threats were hurled at her would-be husband.

“We have evidence to the claim Momina made against the MPA and presented it to the NCCIA,” she said and expressed the hope her sister would get justice.

On the other hand, counsel for MPA Chadhar, Mian Ashfaq told reporters that his client and Ms Momina had been friends since 2020-21.

“Both came close to marrying but couldn’t. Mr Chadhar provided massive social, administrative and financial benefits to Ms Momina during the last five years. We will provide the details of these benefits to the NCCIA,” he said and added that harassment allegations leveled against his client by the person who remained in relationship with him for such a long period of time did not make any sense.

Saqib Chadhar is an electable. He defeated both PML-N and PTI-backed candidates in PP-97, Chiniot, in the last polls held in 2024. After winning the seat, he joined the PML-N.

Originally published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2026

Families said they have been struggling to find new wedding dresses and many search instead for places that refurbish gowns and other kinds of clothes for their children.

Importers cite delays, high shipping costs, and restrictions on materials, ​such as the crystals encrusted into the elaborate wedding dresses, as key factors behind the shortages and ​price hikes.

Many workshops have also been damaged during the conflict.

“We try to reuse the ⁠old gowns that we have, produce them by fixing them a bit, work on them, wash them, arrange them, ​shape them,” said Rantisi, adding that work initially relied on a bicycle-powered sewing machine due to electricity shortages.

Rantisi said ​she used to buy the fabric for about 120 to 150 shekels ($41 to $51) before the war, but now pays around 500 shekels ($171).

“This has caused a big rise in the cost of bridal dresses and children’s gowns. We are living in a vicious circle from ​the war that affected us,” she added.

Cogat, the Israeli military agency that controls access to Gaza, said in ​a statement it “allows and facilitates the entry of various clothing items, in accordance with requests submitted by aid organisations and the international ‌community.”

Cogat ⁠said that it was not aware of any restrictions being imposed on materials such as crystals.

Most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people have been displaced, many now living in bombed-out homes and makeshift tents pitched on open ground, roadsides, or atop the ruins of destroyed buildings after two years of war with Israel.

High prices beyond reach for ​most in Gaza

Despite the ​hardships, some couples still find ⁠ways to celebrate, with mass weddings held in Gaza offering a rare moment of joy amid the devastation.

Still, shop workers say those celebrations come at a price.

“Before the war, ​prices were reasonable for everyone,” said Rawan Shalouf, an employee at a bridal shop.

“But ​now, given the ⁠circumstances we’re in, the price of a dress is ridiculous.”

Across Gaza, brides and families are struggling to afford even basic wedding needs. Shahed Fayez, 21, is due to marry in about four days but has been searching in vain for ⁠a ​dress.

“I don’t care about its style, what’s important is that it’s new,” ​she added.

“The cheapest dress is $1,000 or more, that’s the minimum, and all we have is less than $200. The entire dowry does not cover the ​price of a dress.”

The National Chamber of Italian Fashion (CNMI), which organises fashion week, has been under pressure from animal activists to ban fur at the shows — something fashion weeks in London, New York and various others have already done.

But the guidelines published on Friday fell short of activists’ demands, making the request not to show fur voluntary.

“The CNMI believes that the most effective approach does not consist in imposing bans… but in issuing a request not to present, during the Milan Fashion Week shows, clothing, accessories, or any other item made of fur,” the body said.

The new guidelines, to come into effect starting in September, include the chamber not using fur in its communications.

According to the chamber, materials excluded from the guidelines include shearling, vintage fur and fur obtained “by indigenous communities through traditional subsistence hunting practices”.

Most fashion names who show at Milan Fashion Week have already gone fur-free, including the Armani Group, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada, but a major holdout has been Fendi, which began as a furrier.

In her first show for the brand, new Fendi designer Maria Grazia Chiuri showed a collection that included “remodelled” furs, or pieces from old furs reworked into new designs.

In March, anti-fur activists demonstrated during the women’s shows, unfurling banners that said “Milan Fashion Week Go Fur-Free”.

Animal activists noted that CNMI’s new guidelines fell short of the flat-out bans on fur seen in other fashion weeks, but nevertheless called it progress.

“Without a fur-free policy like those in place at New York and London Fashion Weeks, there is no guarantee that cruelty will be excluded from Milan’s runways,” said Emma Hakansson of Collective Fashion Justice.­

Originally published in Dawn, May 16th, 2026

The actor posted a story on Instagram on Wednesday saying she had come across the individual at work and was able to make an excuse and get herself out of that situation because she had her wits about her.

Altaf said she had informed the production team about the incident, but it was “heartbreaking” to see the “cost of being a working woman or just a woman who’s breathing in this country”.

She said it was “exhausting” having to be vigilant at all times and lamented that “being smart” was the “primary survival mechanism” for women who didn’t have “a basic right to feel secure”.

She called on women to bring the change they wanted to see and “fight collectively” against these challenges. “We cannot afford to stay silent or let these moments slide,” the actor said.

She urged women to trust their instincts, act when needed and demand accountability whenever they are wronged.

“We shouldn’t have to live this way, but until things change, we must stand together,” she said, concluding her message.

Altaf is unfortunately not the only woman facing harassment at work in the entertainment industry. Another case came up in 2021 when actor Mehar Bano faced harassment on set by a member of the sound crew.

In what was a true display of the solidarity Altaf is talking about, the situation was resolved by Saba Qamar, who intervened on Bano’s behalf and had the crew member kicked out of the project.

Bano said this was the first time she had seen someone take such a “strong stand” against harassment for her.

There have also been attempts to bring the issue into the public discourse, most notably with the drama Case No. 9 which showed Qamar as a survivor who takes her boss to court for raping her.

The drama received critical acclaim for bringing a serious issue and its associated legal know-how into Pakistani living rooms with a sensitive yet powerful portrayal.

The actor posted a video message on Tuesday decrying recent reports of dog culling in Lahore. She asked why court orders against the practice were being disregarded and what gave authorities the right to kill innocent animals.

The actor started by acknowledging the problem of stray dogs biting people was present, but asserted this was because authorities had failed to apply the trap, neuter, vaccinate, release (TNVR) method, which she said was the humane way to control stray animal populations.

Lamenting that they had instead resorted to shooting dogs and poisoning them, Sarhadi asked why humans felt it was okay to exploit and abuse nature. “Why do they think they have a right to use living things? Donkeys are used for work, dogs are killed at will, horses have been used for work, elephants are used for pleasure. Zoos have been built where animals are not cared for properly; they are simply taken out of their habitats and imprisoned.”

Humans are the “cruelest” of all animals, the actor said. She contended that the increase in aggression among stray animals was also a result of human activities. “They’ve been abused and pelted with stones all their lives, they are just defending themselves.”

Sarhadi said she had been to areas in Pakistan where treating animals with kindness was part of the local culture and as a result humans and animals co-existed peacefully.

The actor said she couldn’t understand why TNVR protocols were not implemented, musing that perhaps it was cheaper to shoot dogs so they tried to save a penny or two.

She insisted people were cruel to dogs simply because it was within their power. “When a child is murdered by a man, a preacher, a teacher, a father or an uncle — which happens often, more so [than dogs mauling kids] — nobody goes to kill all fathers, uncles and teachers. But we will kill all the dogs. Why? Because we can!”

Sarhadi said she applauds each and every volunteer, shelter and activist fighting for the animals who couldn’t fight for themselves. She said they would have to continue their fight — as would she — if attitudes like this continued.

Reports and eye-witness accounts from Lahore say a mass culling campaign is underway, led by the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MCL), despite orders by the Lahore High Court to implement the Punjab Animal Birth Control Policy, 2021. The policy calls for vaccination and humane population control.

The MCL denies these reports, with Chief Metropolitan Officer Shahid Kathia telling Dawn his teams were “capturing hundreds of dogs” on a daily basis, vaccinating them and releasing them outside the city. He insisted his men were not killing any dogs.

The claims of getting dogs vaccinated were challenged by the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, which said no animals had been brought there for vaccination. This all comes as videos of dog carcasses being left on city streets spread on social media.

The BBC had cited concerns over partiality when declining to broadcast the documentary. It was later aired by Channel 4. The documentary, directed by Karim Shah, was nominated in the Current Affairs and Director: Factual categories. 

According to Al Jazeera, while accepting the award, executive producer Ben de Pear thanked the journalists behind the film and then addressed the BBC. “Finally, just a question for the BBC: Given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?”

Journalist and presenter Ramita Navai also criticised the BBC during her speech, citing findings from the documentary’s investigation into attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, according to the publication. “These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show,” she said. “But we refuse to be silenced and censored. We thank Channel 4 for showing this film.”

According to The Telegraph, the BBC chose not to air Navai’s speech in full and instead presented a “carefully edited version which removed her claims about Israel’s actions”. The Bafta awards are broadcast on BBC One after a delay of two hours.

The BBC’s decision not to broadcast Gaza: Doctors Under Attack came after it faced criticism for another documentary it aired narrated by a young Palestinian boy who was the son of a Hamas official. His father’s profession was not disclosed in the documentary.

Speaking backstage after their win, executive producer de Pear praised Gazan journalists Jaber Badwan and Osana Al Ashi, who contributed footage for the documentary. He said the team “woke up every day wondering if the two journalists on the ground were still alive”.

Cover: Screen grab via BBC

Despite the restrictions, many important subjects of women’s rights were highlighted, including the right to bodily autonomy — the march’s now-signature slogan “Mera jism, meri marzi (My body, my choice)” was raised loudly, proudly and frequently — freedom of movement and marital rape.

Marital rape was especially significant to the organisers this year in light of the death of Shanti, a 19-year-old newlywed from Lyari whose succumbed to her injuries in July after her husband allegedly subjected her to brutal sexual violence just two days after their wedding.

Shanti’s bari (a collection of wedding gifts given by the groom’s family) was laid out on a white sheet at the venue. It was a chilling reminder of her hopes, dreams and a life lost too soon.

Speakers at the march, including Shanti’s sister-in-law who gave a rousing speech in Sindhi, called for the cancellation of bail granted to Dr Rauf Shaikh. The doctor told the victim’s father-in-law he could treat her when staff at Karachi’s Civil Hospital said the nature of the injuries demanded police involvement.

Dr Shaikh is accused of providing improper care to Shanti, with a report from the Women’s Action Forum saying she may have survived had she been treated properly. He was granted bail by the Sindh High Court on January 26.

The right to hold the protest itself was a hot topic, with veteran artist and women’s rights activist Sheema Kermani saying nothing could stop women from exercising their “constitutional right” to protest.

Speaking to Images after the event, she described her own experience being taken into police custody outside Karachi Press Club. “Male policemen forcefully hit my car. They forced the backdoor open and sat inside.” She said this act was actually illegal as opposed to what she was arrested for — attending a pre-arranged press conference.

She described the restrictions placed on the protest as “absolutely nonsensical”. “We resisted Ziaul Haq who told us how to dress, wear this and don’t wear that, we won’t take it from a democratic government.”

The march had a number of performances, including a rap, a semi-classical kathak dance and a rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s resistance anthem ‘Hum Dekhenge’. Maha Ali Kazmi, who performed kathak on stage, said she marched — and performed — to raise awareness, not just among men, but also women who didn’t know what their rights are, who had been conditioned to accept abuse.

She said it was okay and important to talk about these things, despite society telling women not to. “It’s a criminal offence to harass somebody. Domestic violence is a criminal offence, rape is a criminal offence, marital rape is a criminal offence, but talking about our experiences is not a crime.”

One new feature was the Misogynist of the Year awards, a collection of men nominated by the public who had been chosen as representation of all that is wrong with Pakistani men. The honourees included Maulana Fazlur Rehman, writer Khalilur Rehman Qamar, actors Danish Taimoor and Ahmed Ali Butt and podcast host Sahil Adeem.

Huda, who organises marches in solidarity with the people of Palestine, said she was attending her first Aurat March this year to honour all the women before her who couldn’t demand their rights like this. “From my grandmother and my mother’s time, there’s no one who’s been speaking for these things. Everyone’s speaking at home, but nobody is taking it [out onto the] roads, because, as they say, aurton ki izzat sarkon pe nhi aani chahiye (women’s respect doesn’t belong on roads).”

Cherona, a volunteer participating in her third march this year, said she saw the annual event as an entry point for women into politics. “I think this is a great stepping stone for women to get into the political space.”

She said the movement wasn’t just about the annual protest march and its team tries to inform policymaking on women’s issues. The Aurat March is also involved in welfare activities for women in underdeveloped areas and organises free medical camps for women who need them.

She said the march was a safe space for all genders and one for men to interact with women in a way that is civil and non-threatening. She said she was thankful to the police for keeping the march safe and running smoothly.

Police presence at the march was initially scattered, with the odd policeman seen brandishing a baton at the park’s perimeter to scare away disruptive onlookers. When the procession began moving from its gathering point at Beach View Park to Seaview, female police officers escorted the march all the way. Additional mounted units joined the rally at the beach.

Cover via Shakeel Adil/White Star

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of relaying information which allows it to only be viewed by the sending and receiving devices.

The feature was touted as the ‘gold standard’ in privacy by Meta, but received opposition from law enforcement and groups advocating for the protection of children online.

Meta began rolling E2EE out on Facebook in 2019 and completed the process in 2023; it remains the default method of messaging on the platform. It was introduced as an optional feature on Instagram, which appears to be what led to its downfall as the company said it was being rolled back due to underutilisation.

Another messaging platform owned by Meta, WhatsApp, also uses E2EE as its method of data transmission. Apps like Signal, iMessage and Google Messages also use the advanced security protocol as their default setting, while Telegram has it as an optional service.

Meta did not publicly announce the termination of the feature, choosing instead to quietly update the app’s terms and conditions in March.

“End‑to‑end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8, 2026. If you have chats affected by this change, you will see instructions on how to download any media or messages you may wish to keep,” the company said just two weeks after competitor TikTok said it had no plans to introduce the feature.

“We are really pleased,” said Rani Govender from the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to the BBC. She added E2EE “can allow perpetrators to evade detection, enabling the grooming and abuse of children to go unseen”.

Maya Thomas, a privacy campaigner, said her team saw the move as a step backwards and they were “concerned that Meta may be caving to government pressure“.

The model posted a video message on Wednesday reacting to the arrest of classical dancer and activist Sheema Kermani and other organisers of the Aurat March on Tuesday.

“I woke up today to the disgusting, disturbing news that Aurat March has yet to receive their NOC [no-objection certificate] for their peaceful march on May 10. They were fighting for the NOC, but women were dragged… by other women. I think it’s a very very shameful act that we don’t respect our women in our country,” she said in the first of three clips posted to her Instagram account.

Robin, who had shared a reel showing Kermani being manhandled and pushed into a car by the police, said she was appalled at the comments under the post. “Forget men, women are so happy and I am sure these are the same women who get beaten and abused by their fathers and brothers and they continue to adjust and live with them,” she said.

“It’s a really, really shameful act that we can’t breathe freely in our country, we can’t speak freely. If we speak about marital rape, harassment, equal rights, [our speaking up] becomes the biggest issue in the country,” she said in the second clip.

She urged everyone in Karachi who was able to join the march to go and show solidarity on Sunday. For those who couldn’t and those who were afraid to join — something that “totally makes sense because of the current situation” — she said the least they could do was talk about the cause and post about it on social media.

“Staying silent hasn’t really gotten us anywhere, nor will it,” the model said.

In another appeal to “influential” men and women on her story, Robin asked them to “take a moment to acknowledge the women being arrested for peacefully marching for equal rights” amid all the hype around fashion and the Met Gala.

She said spreading the much-needed awareness cost nothing, reminding them that “fashion, glamour and social responsibility can coexist”.

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.