Sarwar, Beena

Beena Sarwar

Getting our issues "out there"

13 August 2011Feature Beena Sarwar

What is it like to work in the mainstream media? What are the opportunities for reaching a wide audience with progressive ideas? These questions and more were put to occasional PN contributor Beena Sarwar - a print and TV journalist working in the mainstream media in Pakistan.

PN: Tell us a bit about yourself, what kind of work you do and what your focus is - in terms of the reports or opinion pieces you write.

BS: I am a full-time journalist with a visual arts background, but over the last decade the painting has been sidelined bymy professional involvement with journalism - as well as activism in human rights issues, which includes, of course, women's issues and peace issues - and, for the past couple of years, television documentary. (I did an…

Justifying violence

3 June 2003Comment Beena Sarwar

Writing from Pakistan, Beena Sarwar believes that violence has become a part of our daily discourse, internalised and accepted as a norm - dictating terms in the region, justifying increased military spending and reducing the pressure to seek other options.

The most dangerous form of violence in South Asia is arguably the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. It colours the statements made by the leaders of both countries and strengthens the extreme right wing in both countries, which feeds off and thrives on the fanaticism of its counterparts next door.

The rhetoric of war, whether it is made by George Bush, Ariel Sharon, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Pervez Musharraf, gives the cue to these elements to indulge in more violence,…