Reclaim love
“When love becomes a stigma, all the vices are considered virtues. Let’s say no to parallel lives, no to hypocrisy. Love is not a stigma, intolerance is!” says London-based Pakistani human rights lawyer Rubab Mehdi Rizvi.
This Valentine’s Day, she wants to “reclaim love” by remembering our folk heroes and heroines like Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal and others. A most relevant message for both India and Pakistan where conservatives and extremists often use force or violence to prevent people from celebrating an event that is not part of “our culture”.
Cross border V-Day video special
A web television show by India Post Live media will produce a special video for Valentine’s Day, featuring messages from Pakistanis and Indians to each other. Those wanting to participate can send their 30-45 second video message to producer Subha Roy at the email address:
Cricket World Cup: Together against terrorism
Pakistani civil society activists who have been agitating for action against terrorism in the country have given a call for solidarity on the cricket field for this cause.
A Facebook Event page hash-tagged “Together Against Terrorism CWC15” states: “We may be opponents on the Cricket Pitch but we are together against Terrorism. We are together for regional harmony and for a prosperous future for both countries and for our children.”
The event organisers invite people all over the world wherever they may be to “wear black arm bands to the Pakistan India Worldcup match in Adelaide and its screenings on 15th February 2015 to remember the school children of the Army Public School in #Peshawar who we lost to terrorism on 16th December 2014.”
Indian and Pakistani cricket fans and peace lovers have responded positively to the suggestion online, with over 1.2 k ‘likes’ online within a day of the event being created.
Calling Pakistani students for Nagpur MUN
Registrations for the first Nagpur city Model United Nations (MUN) are now open. Nagpur MUN invites college as well as high school level participants to join the conference on May 30-31, 2015, billed as “An Indo-Pak Youth Peace Conference”.
The MUN venue is the Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur and the event will feature three UN committees: General Assembly, World Health Organisation, and Human Rights Council.
“We at Nagpur International Model United Nations believe that now the time has come for peace to prevail. This can only be achieved if the youth of both the nations stand together united. We also believe that any Line of Control between us cannot divide the latent bond of cultures and traditions that both the nations inherit,” say the organisers, who are particularly reaching out to Pakistani participants.
Website:http://amankiasha.nagpurmun.org
