Rafia Zakaria

Rafia Zakaria is an attorney, a political philosopher and the author of “The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan.”

The Women of the White House

By January 10, 2018
A feminist reading of Fire and Fury.

Bogotá Divided

By September 17, 2013

Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s The Sound of Things Falling explores the imperceptible boundaries and lingering wounds of the Colombian drug wars.

The Tragedies of Other Places

By April 17, 2013

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, a columnist for Pakistan’s largest English newspaper reflects on why violent attacks leave a more lasting impression if they happen on American soil.

Fighting is Forbidden

By November 16, 2012

Recent Islamist politics have turned the holy month of Muharram into a time of battle. Facing mounting violence, Karachi enters the Muslim year 1434 as a city under siege.

The Retired Terrorist

By May 1, 2012

Before Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, he was locked in a house for five months with three wives and over a dozen children.

Steve Inskeep on Life and Death in Karachi

By January 1, 2012
The NPR host and reporter on what Americans miss when they consider Karachi, the city's resilience, and what Jinnah really envisioned in Pakistan.

The Art of Survival

By October 20, 2011
Art and artifacts are expressions of the intangible; they are by definition tenuous and fragile. Pakistani art and music poised at the cusp of actual annihilation is even more so.

City Of The Almost-Dead

By August 25, 2011
What are the consequences of living among constant violence?

A Modest Proposal for Reinventing the Burqa

By June 24, 2011
A satirical suggestion that, under the shelter of the burqa, Pakistani women may discover bitter humor in despair.

Curse of the Bomb

By May 31, 2011
The bomb that was supposed to deter and defeat has been unable to frighten anyone into leaving Pakistan alone.

The Sacred, the Noble, and the Cruel

By April 15, 2011
Was it merely a confluence of chance or circumstance that UN aid workers, from Norway, Sweden, and Romania, would pay for the Pastor Terry Jones’s incendiary acts?

The End of Post-Colonialism

By March 2, 2011
This recent spate of revolutions suggests a move away not only from Islamism but also from the ideological preoccupation with post-colonialism—a move towards a relocation of the power to change within the people themselves.

A Dangerous Narrative

By October 28, 2010
This is the central contradiction that remains invisible to the American public: While the U.S. engages in talks and deals with the same Taliban that Pakistan is accused of canoodling with, the facts are never allowed to impact the narrative of the Af-Pak war.