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Rafia Zakaria

Rafia Zakaria

Dawn

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The spell that spaces cast

WHEN the Catholic armies entered the city of Granada in Spain in the late 15th century, they also took over Alhambra, the palace-fortress complex...

18.12.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Hooked on artificial intelligence

Welcome to the realm of AI as a means of talk therapy, or just some everyday companionship.

11.12.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

‘Thingification’

IT is another world — quite literally. Nasa has been releasing footage taken by rovers on the surface of Mars. Among the most striking clips is one...

04.12.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

On coercive control

IT is not news anymore that women live in a moment where male anger and violence is a constant threat. Everywhere in the world, women are being...

27.11.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Weighed down by urban atrocities

IF the smog is poisoning Lahore, it is perpetual neglect that plagues Karachi. Over the course of the past decades, the original portion of the city...

20.11.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Buried and forgotten history

FOR the longest time, archaeologists forever in search of lost civilisations used to walk the earth, and map and dig areas where they believed ancient...

13.11.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

A vision to behold

OVER the course of its tumultuous existence, the story of Pakistan has been told in myriad ways. In keeping with the debate surrounding its very...

06.11.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

The Palestinian factor

THE state of Michigan sits in the upper Midwestern portion of the United States. Once the hub of the American auto industry the state has since become...

30.10.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Under the sea

WHEN people think of unexplored frontiers these days, they tend to think of other planets and the universe at large. Space exploration, including...

23.10.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Weather worries

ACCORDING to scientists, for 800,000 years of Earth’s existence the amount of carbon in the atmosphere did not exceed 300 ppm (parts per million)....

09.10.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Moments of dread

ONE might say that nothing will happen and that the world will continue just as it has so far. However, after last week and the endless volley of...

02.10.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

As cities heat up

THE news from New York is not good. On Sunday, as world leaders arrived for the 79th session of the UN General Assembly that was set to begin on...

25.09.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Silencing Afghanistan’s women

THERE is no doubt that many have had a role in Afghanistan’s destruction, but the question of who exactly is to blame for the country’s current...

11.09.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Pakistan’s human exports

WHEREVER in the world you go, you are bound to come across Pakistanis in various states of despair. These days, travel to any European capital —...

04.09.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Inner truths

ONE of the hardest things to do in this world is to face and tell yourself the truth. In the world that we inhabit, our roles are more or less...

28.08.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Night duty

THE incident occurred on Aug 9, 2024, hours after crowds in India and Pakistan cheered on their respective contenders for the javelin gold in Paris....

21.08.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Striving to hope

TODAY is Independence Day. On the back of Arshad Nadeem’s victory in the Olympics this one appears to be a bit less grim than the ones immediately...

14.08.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Economy of voyeurism

WITH every year that passes, there are fewer and fewer people who remember a time before social media. In those bygone days, gossip was largely...

07.08.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Time and freedom

IN between the cat videos and scenes of Bollywood dances dutifully performed at various cousins’ weddings are a different set of clips. These clips...

31.07.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Giving up is good sometimes

THIS is not just about the decision of the president of the United States. That is, however, a good place to begin. On Sunday, President Joe Biden...

24.07.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

On writing

ONE of the best gifts an artist — in this case, a visual artist — gave me was to show me what she called her ‘rejection folder’. I had only...

17.07.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

On human suffering

ONE of the most enduring mysteries of life is the capacity of human beings to believe that everything will go well. Most of us grow up imagining that...

10.07.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

King Trump

IF last week’s debate was not victory enough for former president Donald Trump, he had another windfall land in his lap this Monday. On July 1,...

03.07.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

New heights: Pakistan’s women mountaineers will summit much more than K2

https://arab.news/4jt92 On June 25, a Pakistani mountaineering team made up entirely of women, left Skardu on a mission to climb K2, the second...

28.06.2024 50

Arab News Pakistan

Rafia Zakaria

Cruelty to animals

IT has been about two weeks since a heartbreaking incident of camel mutilation came to light in Pakistan. In that case, it was alleged that a...

26.06.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Working children

THEY are everywhere. Sweeping floors in the homes of the wealthy, serving tea at stands, begging outside shopping malls, cleaning car windshields,...

12.06.2024 80

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Pakistan’s first Christian woman brigadier general: A welcome discourse change

https://arab.news/2z67g On June 2, Dr. Helen Mary Roberts of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps was promoted to the rank of Brig. General. Roberts’...

05.06.2024 50

Arab News Pakistan

Rafia Zakaria

Climate catastrophes of the past

IF words could cool people down, writers would be very busy these days. As the heat index rises to previously unheard of levels, it is tempting as an...

05.06.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

The approaching verdict

THE case against former US president Donald Trump is set to conclude soon. Once closing arguments by both sides have been presented the case will be...

29.05.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Warrants for war criminals

JUST as the fog was lifting over the mountains of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan to reveal the remnants of the weekend catastrophe, another...

22.05.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Mysteries of the dead

ON Oct 6, 1802, Ludwig van Beethoven penned a letter to his brothers. The letter reflected perhaps the lowest point in the famous composer’s life,...

15.05.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Most hated country in the world

WHATEVER the Americans may have said on record, the past few weeks of the war in Gaza have proved to be quite trying for them. Central among their...

08.05.2024 300

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

New era of realisation

IT was about two weeks ago that students at Columbia University in New York City set up an encampment on the campus’s South Lawn. Students for...

01.05.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Transported to another era

THE structural foundation of the Roman Empire, history tells us, included the roads that were built. With this communication network, the expanding...

24.04.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

A precarious thaw

THE last few years have been the warmest ever recorded in the Arctic Circle. This means that a large portion of the ice cap is melting, and with it...

17.04.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

The American eclipse

DURING the afternoon of April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse bisected the US. Not everyone sees solar and lunar eclipses as purely scientific events...

10.04.2024 80

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Diminished spending power

IT happens twice a month. Every 15 days the government decides whether or not to tighten the noose around the necks of Pakistan’s masses. Last...

03.04.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Chips in the brain

NOLAND Arbaugh, 29, was a student and athlete at the Texas A&M University when he was paralysed during a diving accident eight years ago. Arbaugh had...

27.03.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Rift over Rafah

THE Israeli genocide in Gaza has stretched into Ramazan. The unspeakable horrors that have been visited upon the Palestinians have now led to the...

20.03.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

No place for medics

IT has been 13 years since the US raid on the Osama bin Laden compound. A CIA-operated fake vaccination drive was used to locate the Al Qaeda chief....

13.03.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Humanitarian women

ON March 8, 2024, the world will commemorate International Women’s Day as it does every year. This year, perhaps much more than other years, the day...

06.03.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Good examples

IN Pakistan, we do things family style, and politics is a part of family. Elections are contested family style — brothers, uncles, sons and...

28.02.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Endless wait for a plan

THERE is no doubt that the first few years of this third decade of the 21st century have been filled by unexpected calamities across the continents....

21.02.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Crass consumerism or love?

THERE was a time when Valentine’s Day and its attendant celebration of love and sweethearts was an event when everyone who was single had to suffer....

14.02.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

‘Liberal’ without gender equality

EVER SINCE Israel began its offensive in Gaza, Israeli propaganda has produced social media content that shows the female soldiers of the Israeli...

07.02.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Abandoning the people of Gaza

FOR months now, Muslims across the world have seen the people of Gaza suffer unspeakable horrors. According to the United Nations, the condition is...

31.01.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Transforming slums

IT is the slum that earned Hollywood millions of dollars. Dharavi, the slum pictured in the 2008 blockbuster movie Slumdog Millionaire, is estimated...

24.01.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

The curse of being busy

THERE used to be a time when the ultimate symbol of a good life was being able to have plenty of time for leisure activities. One can still read about...

17.01.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Trumpistan

JANUARY 6, 2024, fell on a Saturday, marking two years since a furious mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and sent lawmakers...

10.01.2024 100

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

Is this it for humans?

IT has been estimated that 99.9 per cent of all species on our planet died out. One of the things that Charles Darwin said about human beings or Homo...

05.01.2024 200

Dawn

Rafia Zakaria

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