It’s the uncertainty that makes this hard. If we knew we had a week, a month, or three and that then life would be back to normal, we’d be able to manage better. It would be like a mini-hiatus from…

Silver linings to a virus-shaped cloud Yes, COVID-19 may be causing us fear, uncertainty, isolation, sickness and even fatalities, but I have also been absolutely overwhelmed by the simultaneous expressions of humanity, faith, care, and concern. I have been overwhelmed…

As I ponder the Covid-19 pandemic, I can only humbly defer to intellectuals who addressed epidemics through fiction. I think of The Plague by Albert Camus (1947), where the town of Oran in Algeria is slowly overtaken by an epidemic….

Human Security is National Security: Opening the Pentagon’s coffers to defray the costs of this pandemic This will be a meandering post with a destination, I hope. It’s funny how despite all our powers, for good or bad, nature always…

Dear friends, Back to diary time. I confess, the boredom is already seeping in and I’m used to working from home! But here are three thoughts and a tweet: 1. The governmental responses in the UK and US are indicative…

The César Awards, known as the French Oscars, have been given out every year for half a century. This year, Roman Polanski’s movie J’Accuse was nominated in 12 categories and gained awards in three. This has created a massive controversy…

Recently, a British court reversed a judgment made two years ago in which the high court ruled that a couple’s Islamic wedding could be legally dissolved. According to the new ruling, British law does not recognize religious weddings and therefore,…

When protests against the CAA-NRC, which has implications for the citizenship status of India’s minorities started nobody expected that it would change the way the world would look at Muslim women in India. Supposedly ‘oppressed’ Muslim women have not only…

The world has recently celebrated the annual campaign, 16 days of action against gender based violence: an act of solidarity aimed at the massive social problem of domestic violence and gender stereotypes. Meanwhile, a Chilean protest song about rape culture…

This election will determine the future of the country for decades to come. Our rights, living standards, and the economy will be determined by who comes to power on 13th December – if only via their Brexit policy. Brexit is…

I am a Muslim woman living in a country where Islam is the official religion, though according to the constitution this does not make it officially an Islamic state. I confess that practising my faith can be a challenge. It…