March issue 2011

Newsline‘s March 2011 issue will hit newsstands in just a few days. It’s our Women’s Day Special.

The Women’s Day Special section carries articles, interviews and profiles. ”Pakistan’s Suffragettes” looks at the status of women-related legislation in Pakistan. Interviews with Dr Fouzia Saeed, chairperson National Implementation Watch Committee and AASHA (Alliance Against Sexual Harassment), and Anis Haroon, chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) are also included.

Also in the March issue, case histories of women who have suffered violence and have yet to get justice: Mukhtaran Mai, a gang rape survivor; Shazia Masih, the domestic help employed at a leading attorney’s home, who was allegedly beaten to death; Samia Sarwar, who was shot dead in Asma Jahangir’s office; and Fakhra, the victim of an acid attack by her husband Bilal Khar, son of former Punjab governor, Mustafa Khar.

Newsline profiles Mai Jori, a hari woman from Balochistan who contested the by-elections in March 2010 against feudal lords. Also featured in this issue are Yasmeen Lari and Sadiqa Salahuddin. Look around on the website for features, articles, interviews, profiles and reviews on women’s issues and by women on other subjects.

Our cover story this month: The Raymond Davis case has increased the mistrust between Pakistan and the US, and the ISI and the CIA. Read Ayaz Amir’s story, “Spy vs Spy,” and Talib Qizilbash’s “The New Cold War.”

Rahimullah Yusufzai writes about Colonel Imam’s death, whose murder at the hands of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan would have one believe he was a spy for the ISI, but the military’s half-hearted efforts to secure his release indicate otherwise.

Salmaan Taseer’s assassination was followed by the assassination of another PPP stalwart, Shahbaz Bhatti, who was equally vocal about the need to amend the Blasphemy Law. “Another Martyr to the Cause” traces his life.

More on fashion, art, books and movies in Newsline‘s March issue. Look out for it!