There is no doubt that a part of the West is Islamophobic. At the same time part of the Islamic world against the Western world nourishes the same phobia is not only beyond doubt, but at the same time a short investigated phenomenon. The distinctions are always due. Always us to say that Muslims worlds are many and varied (and as the more religious and wise say that there are many Muslims, but only one Islam), we are many to debate long on female identity represented from wearing the veil or slavery imposed on those who are forced to wear… read more →
Easter Sunday mixed dangerously two events that took place in Pakistan, few time with the recent dramatic terrorist attacks in Brussels. A suicide bombers blew himself up in Lahore in the public gardens of Gulshan Iqbal, killing 63 people and wounding more than a hundred. On the same day about two thousand people poured into the main street of Islamabad, for a sit-in protest in front of parliament. The origin of it was the death sentence, executed in late February, of Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of the former Punjab Governor Taseer Salmaam, “guilty” of wanting to undo the crime… read more →
This article has been published on the last number of the magazine Leggendaria (www.leggendaria.it) The question is simple, the answer is not at all. Why the Kurdish fighters are so successful? Obvious the first observations that come to mind: because they are fighting for independence of their homeland, they are community leaders, they did not hesitate to take up arms to fight. They have become in no time an icon of contemporary, brave in battle as in social media. The world loves them, no harm. At the same time the iconography of this present time shows many other images of armed women:… read more →
Two days ago the Interior Minister of Pakistan Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, on the sidelines of a meeting with the German ambassador Ina Lepel, said they had all good intentions of cooperating with the countries of the European Union to ensure the return of illegal immigrants and bring them to justice. The issue was not as simple as it sounds reading the newspapers. After the terrorist attack in Paris there have been many controversies and criticism of Islamophobia by the West, which have as a direct consequence of the increased control over the citizens of Islamic origin and the restrictions… read more →
It has been somehow a holy week. In Lahore last weekend there was the most famous festival of the spring season, the Mela Chiraghan or Lights Festival, celebrating the death of the Sufi poet and saint Shah Hussain. The festival is held in the sanctuary dedicated to him and in the beautiful Shalimar Gardens. It is called the Light Festival because people carry lighted candles at the shrine and illuminations are placed in the park and along the canals. The sanctuary is located in the old part of the city, streets clogged with stalls of food vendors, necklaces of flowers… read more →
To M, who will not sleep this night Islamabad, the Spa of a large hotel, the best known of the city. We go there in many, Pakistanis and expatriates (already own those “ex-patria”, which change the country every time they change jobs or destination and never know how they feel). It has a very nice outdoor pool and although it is still cold here, you swim in heated water; and then there are gym, sauna and turkish bath, everything as expected. In these non-places there is no control over the mode of behavior: I mean been secular, Christian or Muslim,… read more →
Civilization is the corpse lying on the world’s pavet. All civilizations are under fire: so Mohsin Hamid, Pakistani writer known for “The reluctant fundamentalist” has opened his speech at Lahore Literary Festival 2015, which saw 75.00 visitors in three days, from 20th to 22th of February. The number is not a joke, in an armored city, which reacted in this way to suicide attack that took place in the days before and the many others who almost daily hurt Pakistan. The other truth is just as dramatic: the rights and wrongs of the dead do not talk, in fact, the… read more →
Monday evening while cooking, I am listening SkyTg24: the main news is about the suicide of a Moroccan woman in Rome, she first killed her children as they slept. Her husband was wounded by the same wife, he went to the hospital (leaving the kids at home alone with her?), saying that he had been assaulted in the street, and then admitting he was lying “to protect his wife.” A third daughter is still serious suffering after a long surgery. The investigation has just begun; we will understand later as it is consumed this family drama. While listening, the… read more →
