Zoya Rehman

researcher-writer ꩜ running on fumes

[Zoya Rehman @pind_wave]

an op-ed written with frankness + rooted in a personal place. have intentionally omitted many details out of respect for those who have borne the weight of personal costs:

https://t.co/vekZpP1h2h

[South Asian Avant-Garde @SAAGanthology]

Some feminist groups in Pakistan are shifting from symbolic protests to quieter, embedded collective work.
@wdf_pk’s Behnon ki Baithak on 8 March 2025 was one such experiment. @pind_wave on "After the March":
https://t.co/Zh7Df24DHf

[VoxUmmah @VoxUmmah]

Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo issued a directive dated 1 June 2026 calling for the standardised use of the term “comrade” across the public administration, in all written correspondence, public speeches and official addresses , as part of the country’s Popular Progressive Revolution proclaimed by President Captain Ibrahim Traoré in April 2025, which draws directly on the legacy of Thomas Sankara. 

The directive states that official language must reflect the spirit of equality, fighting fraternity and active solidarity between the leadership and the Burkinabè people engaged in building a new Burkina Faso. 

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

❤️ Love the Wayback Machine? Some publishers and news organizations are blocking it from archiving journalism—cutting off access to the public record and future accountability.

Want to tell them to stop blocking web archiving? ✍️ Sign the open letter to support keeping journalism preserved in the Wayback Machine ⤵️
https://t.co/fUrdNz60RD

@fightfortheftr #SaveTheArchive #DigitalArchive #WaybackMachine #TruthMatters

[Umair Javed @umairjav]

AI can't do fieldwork (yet). It can't do archival work either. Plenty of interesting qs waiting to be asked and answered by actual effort. Don't let the anxieties/aspirations of quant scholars/secondary data merchants get to you.

[Ayesha @avgayesha]

A fellow batchmate Mehrab Khalid has been abducted late at night in lahore on 29th May. While others were later released after interrogation, whereabouts of mehrab still remained unknown.
#releasemehrabkhalid

[umer @umerashar_]

Urging the government for extension of this tax percentage while simultaneously fucking over freelancers by suggesting a higher tax rate for their services is what you're doing. These big associations and conglomerates are exploitative by choice.

[H™ @MahatmaaGanji]

This is the main part everyone is glossing over.

PASHA wants the 0.25% tax rate to stay for “genuine independent exporters” i.e., their own software houses, but want to tax anyone working independently at normal salary rates.

Why?

[H™ @MahatmaaGanji]

Because they are no longer able to exploit talent at peanut salaries because the smart ones land remote roles and break out.

This proposal is their answer: Instead of paying their own employees better, they would rather make remote-work less viable for everyone but themselves.

[Abdul Rauf @armujahid]

Lolz, this will just accelerate brain drain. Remote workers aren't tied to one geography anymore. A lot of them can simply relocate to another country and continue earning remotely while benefiting from better tax policies and stability.

[Taha @MrTaha]

2. A rose by any other name is just as sweet - or, put more directly - just because a position claims to be progressive and is defended by progressives does not mean that it is indeed so. This is a very obvious point that will surprise nobody but bears endless repeating.

[Iftikhar Firdous @IftikharFirdous]

The suicide bomber of the Quetta bombing has been identified as 25-year old Bilal Shawani, by the proscribed BLA. He is said to be a resident of Killi Sardi, Sariab in Quetta.

[Iftikhar Firdous @IftikharFirdous]

The deaths from the suspected suicide bombing have risen to 23. The bodies have been brought to the civil hospital in Quetta, around 47 injured as well. These are only partial figures as official are still busy with rescue efforts. Initial investigations say that the train had stopped at the paramilitary installation to attach new bogeys to the train for families of personnel returning home for Eid. Most of the casualties are women and children.

[K. @RotiKholDeyo]

the guy who rents an apartment at One Constitution Avenue thinks that a poor laborer who takes one day off in a week instead of two, doesn't take off on usual public holidays unlike him (like Labor Day, Kashmir Day), doesn't see his family for months, is not working enough.

[Zoya Rehman @pind_wave]

literally the only leaves your help gets all year. and it's to meet their families, not even a "vacation" - like you don't go on any. you'll live.

https://t.co/J6bKYu5956

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

Eid coming labor already gone for a holiday. Return in 10 days.

we ALL love a good dramatic lament about poverty 😭💔

Yet the poor? They’re out here living their best lives — taking long luxurious holidays, endless breaks, and sliding into laziness at the first opportunity!

Why work hard for money when you can just… not?

Daily wage laborers refusing to put in extra time for piece rate?

Conclusion: There is no poverty, folks. People are contented. ! 🏖️💅”

[Zoya Rehman @pind_wave]

had my first meal of the day just now. more fieldwork tomorrow. hope my old, withering body can muster the stamina to breeze through it (disclaimer: it will try but it cannot).

[National Commission for Human Rights @nchrofficial]

Through its report, NCHR has charted a pattern of grown women held against their will at rehab centers: a lawyer, a woman who dared to choose her partner. Women who should be independent are instead dehumanised and pathologised only for exercising their agency. @RabiyaJaveri

[Zoya Rehman @pind_wave]

an incredibly harrowing research undertaking c/o my colleague emaan reg the kind of dodgy rehab centers that exist in ICT and how fully grown adults are held their against their will over bogus complaints by their parents.

https://t.co/SJhcm977Mp

[National Commission for Human Rights @nchrofficial]

Full house for the #CagedinCare launch. Read our report here: https://t.co/ScugUFzYdK

[Zoya Rehman @pind_wave]

one of my many failed music dreams (no discipline/time to see them through): wanting to be an RJ. now making this weekly playlist for a party of 1 - more my jam cos i'm defo a solitary listener. this is v2 of the weekly playlist; it changes every week!

https://t.co/VQjGhf4iJD

[Sidrah Dar (سدرہ ڈار) @SidrahDar]

اسلام آباد کی جی 7 کی مسیحی آبادی میں رپورٹنگ کے دوران مجھے تب افسوس ہوا جب میرے پاس ایک لڑکا آیا اور اس نے پوچھا کہ کیا آپ انعم فاطمہ ہیں ؟ میں نے جواب دیا نہیں ۔۔۔کیوں پوچھ رہے ہو ؟ تو اس نے کہا کہ آپ کو دیکھ کر ایک خاتون ڈر گئی ہیں کہ شاید آپ گھر توڑنے آگئی ہیں ۔ میں خاتون کے پاس گئی وہ ڈر کے مارے کانپ رہی تھیں اور ہاتھ جوڑ کر فریاد کرنے لگیں کہ "خدارا بیٹا ہمارے گھر نہیں توڑنا ہم بہت غریب لوگ ہیں کہاں جایئں گے " میں نے انھیں بتایا کہ وہ جو مجھے سمجھ رہی ہیں میں وہ نہیں ہوں صحافی ہوں اور یہاں اسٹوری کے لئے آئ ہوں تب ہی کمیونٹی کے اتنے لوگ میرے اردگرد کھڑے ہیں ۔ جب تک ان سے بات ہوتی رہی وہ روتی رہیں ہاتھ جوڑتی رہیں ۔۔۔۔ وہاں کہ لوگوں نے انعم فاطمہ کو نہیں دیکھا ہوا تھا لیکن ان میں وہ ڈر اور خوف اتنا تھا کہ میں دیکھ کر پریشان ہوگئی ۔۔۔ اتنا ڈر کا ماحول پیدا کرنے پر تمغہ امتیاز تو بنتا ہے ۔
#tamghaImtiaz

[Ammar Rashid @AmmarRashidT]

Psychotic to award honors to bureaucrats for the achievement of making 1000s of working class people homeless. Have met weeping mothers who spoke of how she ripped up court orders & laughed in their faces as their homes were razed. Development as dispossession institutionalized.

[Iftikhar Firdous @IftikharFirdous]

An agreement on the U.S. Iran war would mean an inevitable halt to the Israeli expansion. Graham, a known Israeli lobbyist used the CBS News article to bring forward the real agenda. In these naked influence games, agency has died. Agendas are no longer hidden behind diplomacy.