Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "sex"
Manto: An Author of Tales for Children
By: Josh Shahryar It was with much sorrow that I learned that Saadat Hasan Manto has been posthumously awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest civilian honor. Too late? Maybe. However, that news opened too many old wounds in my heart. Wounds that I had to write something about if I was to find some closure. You see, to the rest of the world, Manto is a fearless story-teller, who spoke to adults, aiming to open their eyes to endemic oppression around them. To me, though, he will forever be a writer who spoke to children. The news of the posthumous – and might I add tragically late – recognition he received from the government of Pakistan took me back down memory lane to the moment I first encountered his words that seemed so out of … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture, Literature, Pakistan, Writers
Sex is no laughing matter in Pakistan
SHAZIA MIRZA April 18, 2010 IN ALL the countries that I have travelled to to perform stand-up comedy – the US being a regular destination – I have never been held up or interrogated at customs. Or I hadn’t, until I arrived in Pakistan. I spent six hours at Lahore customs, as I did not have a visa in my British passport to enter the country. The people who organised my gig had mistakenly assumed that because my parents were born in Pakistan and I, too, am brown, they would automatically let me in. The customs officer asked: “Are you Pakistani?” Yes. “Where were you born?” England. “That makes you a foreigner.” He looked through my passport, which is filled with US visas. He said: “Are you a spy?” No, I’m a stand-up comedian. … Read entire article »
Wolf is still at the door
Dr. Tahir Rauf New sexual harassment legislation, an amendment to the Criminal Law was passed in the National Assembly and later signed by the president Asif Ali Zardai this week. The bill provides protection to “working women at workplace” against harassment and intimidation. The offence is punishable with either three years imprisonment, Rs.500, 000 fine or both. Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances and the victim(s) may be a woman, or a man or a child. In a civil society, the victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct or associated with the victim or offender. However, many women rights groups and NGOs have expressed an overwhelming response to the legislation. Without a doubt, this passage of legislation advocates limiting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Love And Sex At LUMS 3: Happy Offending
From THE LUMS DAILY STUDENT In the past month that I have been at LUMS, I have come across a whole lot of crazy, as well as new stuff. From building a house, to PDC food, from tiny hostel rooms, to washing my own clothes in non-functional washing machines, from over loaded Zambeel to ever flooding campus mail, BUT, what I hadn’t come across yet, and hadn’t even thought of in the most outlandish of my fantasies was about ‘to love or not to love.’ … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Love and Sex at LUMS 2: 9/11 Destined For Misery
From THE LUMS DAILY STUDENT Friday afternoon I had to read Tajwar’s erotic email and since then I cannot help put picture the three scenarios she had put forth in her email. While I regret not being able to witness these spectacles that have apparently slaughtered the LUMS brand; I cannot help wonder in amusement what the contraire is. It has been a year since I have been in LUMS (touch wood) and I was under the illusion that “making third base home runs” was the LUMS culture. In fact I always thought it was the new black and felt like a pariah the preceding year. While I honor either opinions on the subject of PDA, I am still in shock why would anyone want to picture “………. A girl’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Love and Sex at LUMS 1: The Secret Love Life of LUMS Students
From Dawn Blogs The campus of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is famous for being a bubble environment where risqué fashion trends are explored and high-school soap operas come to life in the midst of hijab-clad women and the bearded folk from LUMS Religious Society. To an outsider visiting LUMS, or possibly visiting Pakistan for the first time, this campus might seem at first encounter like the ideal multicultural environment akin to an ancient city-state where all live in harmony with tolerance. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
London to Karachi: Mohammed Hanif on his homecoming to Pakistan
Mohammed Hanif After living and working in London for more than a decade, I moved back to Pakistan just over a year ago – and soon realised that the Pakistan I knew had migrated elsewhere. Mainly to the front covers of the sombre current affairs magazines you find in posh dentists’ waiting rooms. The world’s media had reached a consensus that I had boarded a sinking ship. Time, Newsweek and the Economist have all written an obituary of Pakistan, some twice over. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Ifti Nasim: Muslim and Gay?
By Bradistan Calling Ifti Nasim also known as Iftikhar Nasim is a pioneering Pakistani gay poet who now lives in the U.S. He has written many books of poetry in Urdu and English languages. He has also written prose in both languages. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Crafts, Books, culture, Dance, Identity, men, minorities, Pakistan, Politics, Rights, sex, Urdu, USA, Writers
Celebrating the Body: Sexuality over Spirituality*
Will we not be better off, if we bypass the priest and the therapist,and pray at the altar of the body and stop confusing it? By Saeed Ur Rehman All that gazes, seeks rapture in the other, dances, decorates itself to flaunt its untapped vitality, pulsates, throbs, runs in our veins, and yearns for eternity by multiplying itself is confused with one word: love. Love is an effect of biological vitality not its cause. We do not desire another human being because we feel love but rather we humans have assigned taming metaphors to what our flesh induces in us. By assigning abstract concepts to all that is life-giving, we, the metaphysical animals, have created an elaborate prison of metaphors for our healthy bodies. … Read entire article »
On being a Pakistani man
Imaduddin Ahmed Another Independence Day has gone! Yes, we lost our more democratic half and there’s quite a bit of turmoil here and there, but we’e here and we can say “Up Yours India!” and that’s what counts, right? Well, besides being here, what do we Pakistanis have to show for ourselves? Two things that spring to mind are a few sporting achievements (a confidence booster for Pakistani male virility) and the Muslim-nuclear bomb, coupled with a few missiles – which means we’e good at erecting phallic tools that cause massive explosions (testimony to the fact that we’re not afraid of showing India how large our collective might is). One wonders what the state might have accomplished had our army-worshipping culture not been so preoccupied by male sexual insecurities. But it sheds a … Read entire article »
Sexually frustrated Pakistanis:There is a brothel where the brain should be
We are posting this provocative piece by Qandeel Sham, a regular contributor at the Pak Tea House. The views expressed here are Qandeel’s and the purpose of this series of posts is to examine the unspeakable problems of our society – sex or lack thereof, being one of them. As Qandeel puts it: “We keep our mouths shut; we’re good at pretence, all for the sake of social propriety…” Further contributions on this subject are welcome. I’m told by reliable sources that there are villages in Pakistan where Rs. 20-50 can buy you sex with a cow. You also have sheep, goat, dog, donkeys, etc. Others prefer their mammals more aquatic, and perhaps someone ought to inform WWF that zooerastia is the reason dolphins have become so endangered along the Indus River. I … Read entire article »
Bhutto Protegee Tackles Sex Harassment in Pakistan
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed WeNews correspondent A second-term member of the Sindh provincial assembly is pushing Pakistan’s first effort to outlaw sexual harassment in the workplace. Two years ago her draft bill fizzled, but this time she thinks it could become law within a month. LAHORE, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)–Humera Alwani drafted a workplace sexual harassment bill in 2006 when she was a first-term member of the Sindh provincial assembly. But as a member of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party she didn’t get very far. This year, after taking her oath of office for a second term on April 5 and with her party now in control, she’s confident the bill has a better future. Sindh’s chief minister has approved the draft law for presentation to the provincial cabinet, Alwani says. Within a month she expects it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Sex at Pak Tea House – no brothels here
Raza Rumi Two esteemed bloggers, visitors at the Pak Tea House (PTH) complained that PTH through its laissez faire comment policy was turning into a brothel. A piece from an international publication on the booming sex trade in Pakistan was posted here. Now it is true that the term sex invites attention and clicks by the browsers. Google figures have time and again shown the enormous searches for the term ‘sex’ emanating from the Land of the Pure. It is therefore an issue that concerns Pakistan at its core: the hypocrisy relating to sexual desires and the frustrations that are part of the baggage. We in no way wanted to invite readers to leave their numbers, email and chat IDs for nocturnal secretive activities. But it happened. I have removed almost all the … Read entire article »
In Pakistan, a Sex Industry Has Begun to Boom
SEX IN DEPTH In Pakistan, a dark trade comes to light By William Sparrow BANGKOK – Prostitution in the Islamic nation of Pakistan, once relegated to dark alleys and small red-light districts, is now seeping into many neighborhoods of country’s urban centers. Reports indicate that since the period of civilian rule ended in 1977, times have changed and now the sex industry is bustling. Early military governments and religious groups sought to reform areas like the famous “Taxali Gate” district of Lahore by displacing prostitutes and their families in an effort to “reinvent” the neighborhood. While displacing the prostitutes might have temporarily made the once small red-light district a better neighborhood for a time, it did little to stop the now dispersed prostitutes from plying their trade. Reforming a neighborhood, instead of offering … Read entire article »
Big populations of young people linked to violence
* Do large groups in young people ages 15-24 increase the risk of armed conflict, terrorism and riots? Daily Times Monitor KARACHI: It has frequently been suggested that exceptionally large youth groups or cohorts, the so-called ‘’youth bulges’’, make countries more susceptible to political violence. Henrik Urdal from the Centre for the Study of Civil War, The International Peace Research Institute, Oslo examined this in a study titled ‘A Clash of Generations? Youth Bulges and Political Violence’ in 2006. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, human rights, Politics, poverty, psychology, Rights, Society, Terrorism, youth
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