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A graveyard of buried dreams.

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TAKING A TERRIBLE TOLL: the Taliban ban on women's education in Afghanistan. ‘ You are all informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice ,’ said the letter signed by Minister for Higher Education Afghanistan, Neda Mohammed Nadeem. This ban came less than 3 months after thousands of girls and women across the country sat at the university entrance exam.   After 2 years, 50% of the Afghan population still awaits the revokement .   In the early 2020’s a heavy influx of Afghan migrants made their way to Pakistan. A second generation fleeing the brutalities of discord and uncertainties. After Afghanistan’s sovereignty was handed over to the Taliban, the women and girls there waited with a question mark lingering over their future. The memories of past atrocities were still fresh in their minds, but they weren't ready to embark on a journey of exclusion this time.    Immediately after taking over control, of the 80 ...

Ministry Of Utmost Happiness: A book review.

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 Arundhati Roy's decisive remonstration: The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness. Before you commit yourself to this brutally honest, sometimes too bold, and screaming manuscript about identity, identity, and identity, you need to understand that hidden away in those lines, is a truth waiting to unravel. Roy has used her fiction as a witness, one that will make us see more than we want to. It's not one story but an accumulation of many. It freely talks about Anjum who used to be Aftab once, born with an ambiguity that takes her on a lifetime journey. In her somewhere you will see all those you have forgotten. She becomes a disputed land literally, lives through a physical partition, never overcoming the past that haunts her, and still trying to exist in the present.  Then you will be introduced to the beautiful yet tragically haunting valley of Kashmir. You will again see those who are born with disputes running in their blood, this time inheriting a land that demands sacrifice. You ...

Pakistan And The Curse Of Poliovirus

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                     A BATTLE WITHIN REACH We are among the three remaining polio-endemic countries in the world still being haunted by this century-old curse. The sad part? The witches have already cooked up the potion, they have come across the solution and tried it successfully. Pakistan's battle against poliovirus is multifactorial. The intersection between health illiteracy, religious extremism, and violence against the vaccinators have all put a halt to this chapter's conclusion.   THE ENDLESS CAMPAIGN In 1974 Pakistan launched its Polio Immunization Program, but efforts for eradication officially started in 1994. WHO backed the program to combat the six-vaccine preventable diseases. Since then, the battle against this crippling disease has seen many ups and downs . The endemic remained active despite hundreds of rounds of vaccination. Regardless of having one of the largest networks of skilled polio workers in the world...