Name and Remind: Nasim Zehra’s silence on Shia massacres in Pakistan – by Mustafa
Not unlike Nazi Germany's silence on holocaust, there is a culture of collective silence on Shia killings in Pakistan.
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The present post is the first in LUBP’s series of Name and Remind articles aimed at encouraging and reminding progressive media persons to pay attention to the ongoing, silent genocide of Shia Muslims in Pakistan.
Realistically, we do not expect columnists and anchors to cover each incident of attack on Shia Muslims. However, we suggest they should think about covering this topic in a column or talk-show after every 10 Shias killed. We hope we are not asking for too much.
Of course, we expect progressive authors to cover all major massacres (e.g., Khanpur attack on 14 January 2012 killing 34 Shias, or the Parachinar massacre on 17 February in which at least 46 Shias were killed), which is not only their ethical duty but also professional responsibility.
We will publish a glaringly detailed article on each progressive columnist/ anchor who is silent on Shia genocide. Let history be witness.
…………
Nasim Zehra is a senior Pakistani journalist who is currently working as Director Current Affairs of Pakistan’s News TV Channel Dunya TV. She writes articles for Pakistani newspapers eg, Express Tribune, Daily Times etc. She also hosts Current Affairs program on Dunya TV with the name of “Policy Matters”.
During the 14 months between November 16, 2010 and January 24, 2012, Nasim Zehra wrote 10 articles for the Express Tribune.
Below is a catalogue of the issues she discussed in her articles:
January 24, 2010: Nasim Zehra writes about blasphemy laws, Aasia Bibi Case. She even speaks for minorities. Take a bow!
February 5, 2011: Nasim Zehra writes about Salmaan Taseer’s assassination, blames PPP for much of what happened.
February 14, 2011: Raymond Davis everywhere!
July 26, 2011: Nasim Zehra writes about Pak-India relations.
October 24, 2011: Nasim Zehra pens an obituary on Lady Nusrat Bhutto.
November 28, 2011: NATO attack on Pakistan Army check post.
December 01, 2011: Another article on the NATO border attack.
January 12, 2012: Nasim Zehra eulogizes the ‘free media’, understandably so!
January 19, 2012: Nasim Zehra feels the country is heading towards constitutional rule because the Supreme Court made sure it dragged the PM to the court.
January 24, 2012: Nasim Zehra writes about the petition pre-empting PM’s assumed sacking of Army and ISI Chiefs.
(Nasim Zehra also wrote two articles in Daily Times in September 2011. They were written in defense of Sherry Rehman and Moeed Yousuf, justifying the disgraceful Jinnah Institute report)
During the same period, hundreds of Shias were killed in Pakistan. They were targeted on the streets; their processions were bombed; common men, students, professionals, scholars, all were targeted; individually and in groups. On several occasions, they dragged out of buses, made to stand in queues and shot. None seemed to have bothered Nasim Zehra.
During the same period, Balochistan continued to receive gifts of mutilated bodies, but Nasim Zehra seems unaffected. She doesn’t care about the genocide of Shias, Pashtuns and Balochs. She might be a security analyst, but her approach seems to have been restricted to a tunnel. May be she too, like the self-professed (and obsessed) Ejaz Haider, is a realist. Although in case of the latter, we are sure that it is all pomp and no substance: or chicly packaged dung!
Nasim Zehra, we might not be omnipresent and omnipotent as you people consider the ISI to be, but remember still, we are watching you!
Kia tum bhool gaye? Pakistani media’s silence on Shia genocide
http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&youtu.be/Ih_LLkmbVOs
Or maybe she wants to live?
Ever given that a thought?
Naseem Zehra may have skipped the topic for what so ever reason perhaps her life but plenty of others named in the previous article have picked up a cause they want to focus on. Most of them are doing good work particularly Marvi Sirmed, Kamran Shafi and others.
So may I suggest that this defamation campaign be stopped at once which would result in only further fragmentation of liberal minds.
This campaign is an insult on liberal values and a disgrace to LUBP.
LUBP should not expect anyone to write on particular topic and expecting integrity from Nasim Zehra is bit too much , let her do her fox news style kargil reporting and let her defend policy of strategic depth and Jinnah institute report .
LUBP should not defame those honest journalists in Nazi Germany who wanted to write on Jewish holocaust but instead kept conveniently quiet because they wanted to live.
Collective silence is a universally accepted norm, which must be accepted and celebrated. Those who highlight and confront collective silence must be ashamed of themselves.
Shia genocide is not the only bad thing happening in Pakistan. What if Shias are the most target killed faith group in Pakistan? When sectarian biases are deeply ingrained in majority of Pakistanis’ sub-conscience, confronting silence is nothing but an insult to liberal values.
People are writing on other important issues such as Maya Khan, Veena Malik and of course memo. This is their right which must not be challenged. LUBP has no right to challenge those who are exercising their right to be silent. Hail Liberalism.
The Collective Silence
German Identity and the Legacy of Shame
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Published: January 1997
ISBN: 978-0-88163-263-7
Publisher: Gestalt Press
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Edited by Barbara Heimannsberg, and Christoph J Schmidt.
The silence surrounding the Holocaust continues to prevent healing – whether of the victims, Nazis, or the generations that followed them. The telling of the stories surrounding the Holocaust – all the stories – is essential if we are to understand what happened, recognize the part of human nature that allows such atrocities to occur, and realize the hope that we can prevent it from happening again.
Seeking to shed light on the collective silence surrounding the Holocaust in Germany, the contributors offer compelling accounts, histories, and experiences that illuminate the ways in which contemporary Germans continue to grapple with the consequences of the Holocaust. Denial in the older generations, as well as anger and confusion in the younger ones, comes vividly to the surface in these evocative stories of coping and healing. Told from the vantage points both of therapists and of patients, these stories encompass the psychological plight of all those facing the legacy of genocide – from the daughter of a high-ranking Nazi official to the children of Jewish immigrants, from those raised in the Hitler Youth Movement to those born well after the war.
Table of Contents
Translator’s Introduction – Gordon Wheeler
The Editors
The Translators
The Contributors
Psychological Symptoms of the Nazi Heritage: Introduction to the German Edition
– Barbara Heimannsberg and Christoph J. Schmidt
Chapter 1. Psychotherapy and the Nazi Past: A Search for Concrete Forms – Richard Picker
Chapter 2. Farewell to My Father – Irene Anhalt
Chapter 3. I Too Took Part: Confrontations with One’s Own History in Family Therapy – Heidi Salm
Chapter 4. The Psychoanalyst Without a Face: Psychoanalysis Without a History – Sammy Speier
Chapter 5. Family Reconstruction in Germany: An Attempt to Confront the Past – Margarete Hecker
Chapter 6. Effects of Lingering Nazi Worldviews in Family Life – Almuth Massing
Chapter 7. “How Can I Develop on a Mountain of Corpses?” Observations from a Theme-Centered Interaction Seminar with Isaac Zieman – Wolfgang Bornebusch
Chapter 8. Unwilling to Admit, Unable to See: Therapeutic Experiences with the National Socialist “Complex” – Waltraud Silke Behrendt
Chapter 9. The Dialogue Between the Generations About the Nazi Era – Helm Stierlin:
Chapter 10. The Work of Remembering: A Psychodynamic View of te Nazi Past as It Exists in Germany Today – Barbara Heimannsberg
Chapter 11. The Difficulty of Speaking the Unspeakable: How an Article Entitled “The Nazi Past in Psychotherapy” Was Never Written – Irene Wielptz
Chapter 12. Holocaust Perpetrators and their Children: A Paradoxical Morality – Dan Bar-On
Chapter 13. “Guilty!” Thoughts in Relation to My Own Past: Letters to My Son – Gunnar von Schlippe
Translator’s Afterword – Cynthia Oudejans Harris
Reviews
“We know fragments of the Jewish horrors of the holocaust and the echoing reverberations. We need to hear, post-Holocaust, about the German Nazi dynamics and their echoes in the perpetrators and their children and grandchildren. In The Collective Silence we hear from therapists who dare to struggle with the family throes growing out of the silence of guilt. Read and weep — again!”
– Carl A. Whitaker, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin
Author/Editor Biography
Barbara Heimannsberg and Christoph J. Schmidt have private psychotherapy practices in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/the-collective-silence-9780881632637
She is a daughter of Justice Ikhlaq of Lahore High Court. He was a very notorious for taking bribes and giving wrong verdicts. His corruption went out of bounds and he later sacked. He had multiple wives. He was a third rate man and a dishonest judge. No wonder Nasim is also a dishonest journalist. She is a Yazidi Shia and an ISI mouthpiece.
Unlike Nazi Germany there are many bad things going on in Pakistan. And many of progressive writers mentioned in the list are writing from within and outside Pakistan at the risk of their lives.
Many are writing against establishment (hint: a certain institution I can not name) since they think that is where all the problem begins. They do not condone Shia massacre but they focus on certain equally important matter.
Ayesha Siddiqa focuses on highlighting the tentacles of establishment and importance of rule of law, Mr Shafi is maybe a bit too focused on Goebbels and Marvi Sirmed for secularism. By doing so they are addressing the very root cause that results in these massacres. But the tone of this and previous article is anything but respectful and thus appalls me.
I think i agree with LUBP approach for asking intellectuals about what are they writing. As public intellectuals these people have responsibility to answer questions raised by people.
I dont think it means to force them on write a particular issue. But a public intellectual has a responsibility to adress issues which is of concern to any section of society.
But i would like to suggest one more thing that will be more constructive.
I think we should questions to these intellectuals and ask them what they think about these issues. What is their opinion. If they think they are important or not. Why do they dont adress these issues.
for example we should ask Ms Zehra opinion about what she think about attrocities. Does she even think its happening. If she thinks it is why is she not writing; does she think its not imp? whats her perspective and we should publish it and leave readers to decide