Category Archives: The Daily Discussion

Public Release of “The Sinner”

This is my first feature length documentary film and we–Justice Project Pakistan, with the guiding support of Sarah Belal, Rimmel Mohydin and others at Justice Project Pakistan, are finally releasing it. And we are doing it first in Pakistan. The film takes us into the world of capital punishment in Pakistan through the life of one man; Jan […]

December 5, 2017 – 2:30 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in Just Fun Stuff, Pakistan, Pakistan Justice Project Essays, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Public Release of “The Sinner”

The Polis Project…Is Up And Running

If you can’t join them, then just do it on your own. We launched a new collective focused on research, reportage and resistance. The specific goals and objectives are being developed as we speak, but the idea is a simple one: to collect under one banner a group of individuals from different fields – artists, writers, […]

October 12, 2017 – 6:28 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in Just Fun Stuff, Schedules & Logistics, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on The Polis Project…Is Up And Running

Not Our Men

This habit of displacing patriarchy to the ‘Muslim’, has generated wealth and fame for many in South Asia, so much so that any and all attempts to remind people of the Orientalist lineages of the term, and the racial nature of its application, are often met with disdain and mockery. But the fact remains that […]

April 6, 2017 – 5:29 am | By arafiqui | Posted in Musings On Confusions, The Daily Discussion | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Not Our Men

And, What Is Your Favourite Colour Of Photographer?

Brent Lewis, a Senior Photo Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated has realised that there aren’t enough ‘photographers of colour’ that he can commission for assignments, and believes that other editors have a similar problem. And his solution–classically technocratic and technological–is to create a ‘database’ of coloured photographers and, without ever once questioning or examining the […]

March 2, 2017 – 10:46 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in Photography, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on And, What Is Your Favourite Colour Of Photographer?

Unexpected Journeys Or How Did You Get To San Francisco?

She turns thirteen today. She dances at San Francisco Ballet School’s Summer Intensive programs this summer. It was just two years ago that she had auditioned for the Swedish Royal Ballet’s dance school, only to be rejected at the last stage of the week-long audition. It was just two years ago that I remember waking up […]

February 22, 2017 – 10:29 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in Musings On Confusions, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Unexpected Journeys Or How Did You Get To San Francisco?

Scratching At My Skin

“I have been stereotyped: my life and lived experiences negated by photo editors in the USA in particular. My editors in the USA in particular. I am nothing but my ethnicity, a man from my country of my birth 42 years ago. My name marks me as a ‘Muslim’, my ethnicity marks me as a […]

September 30, 2016 – 10:21 am | By arafiqui | Posted in Journalism, Musings On Confusions, Photographs, Photography, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Scratching At My Skin

The Fall Of Adonis

This was a shockingly bizarre set of responses from a man considered to be one of the great Arab intellectuals of our time. I have read Adonis extensively, and I am frankly really surprised to see him argue that: “If we do not distinguish between what is religious and what is political, cultural, and social, […]

April 24, 2016 – 11:19 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, Poetry, Readings, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on The Fall Of Adonis

A Rainbow Prohibition

Anastasia Taylor-Lind wants more diversity in the photojournalism industry. and has penned an argument that is conventional, unimaginative and banal. She continues the long practice of confusing a lack of diversity in mainstream Western / European photojournalism as only about ethnic, nationalist, or gender. That is, about ‘mixing it up’ and creating the right optics […]

February 23, 2016 – 2:24 am | By arafiqui | Posted in Background Materials, Journalism, Musings On Confusions, Photography, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on A Rainbow Prohibition

What’s Water?

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the […]

April 19, 2015 – 4:15 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in Journalism, Musings On Confusions, Readings, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on What’s Water?

Our Protection Of Frivolous Speech And Our Prosecution Of Political Speech

Our silence is hypocritical – we conflate bigotry with ‘free speech’ and celebrate ourselves, while refusing to fight the more uncomfortable, difficult and problematic acts of ‘free speech’ itself as in this case of the young British citizen. Free speech laws and rights are most in need of defense when speech is problematic and disturbing, […]

January 7, 2015 – 6:30 pm | By arafiqui | Posted in American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, The Daily Discussion | Comments Off on Our Protection Of Frivolous Speech And Our Prosecution Of Political Speech