Questions? Comments? Feedback?
Email with Subject line: Letter to Editor, to: editorial@sapannews.com.
Founder, Chief Editor
Beena Sarwar
Beena Sarwar is a multi-media journalist, editor, and documentary filmmaker from Pakistan who focuses on human rights, gender, media, peace, extremism, violence, and South Asia.
Coordinating Editor
Regina Johnson
Hailing from the Bronx, New York, Regina began her journalism career at the Potomac Almanac in northern Virginia covering local issues, and went on to cover national and global issues for various publications. She has extensively reported on America’s energy policy at S&P Global, Washington, D.C. She has also covered the financial advisory market, written human interest stories about parenting and education, as well as women in business. Her stories were published in LATINA Style Magazine, Advisors Magazine, Inkstick Media, and Thrive Magazine.
Associate Editor
Pragyan Srivastava
Pragyan Srivastava, an Indian journalist and former Fulbright-Nehru Master’s scholar, has extensive experience in digital storytelling, social media, and television production. She is passionate about creating authentic and powerful stories about Southasia*, aiming to foster understanding and connection through her compelling narratives.
Contributing Editor
Saman Shafiq
Saman Shafiq is a digital journalist, visual storyteller, and researcher from Lahore. She recently completed her Master’s in Digital Journalism and Media Innovation from New York University.
Lead, Strategy & Development
Sarita Bartaula
Sarita Bartaula is a passionate advocate for youth empowerment and social change. She is a founding board member and former treasurer of the National Voter Rights Forum Nepal, and a board member of Bikas Udhyami Nepal.
Web Developer
Rizwan Ahmed
Rizwan Ahmed is a web developer at Sapan News, based in Pakistan. With a degree in computer science from Karachi University, he brings technical expertise to Sapan’s mission of storytelling and peacebuilding. In addition to his work with Sapan, Rizwan runs his own digital marketing agency, where he helps businesses enhance their online presence and reach their goals.
Acknowledgments
This project began with support from journalist Aekta Kapoor and researcher Priyanka Singh.
Huge thanks to all our volunteers and supporters, including Aekta Kapoor in New Delhi for building both websites and contributing valuable editorial expertise for over a year, and Abdul Hamid in Vancouver, Canada, for designing the logos for Sapan News and Southasia Peace Action Network.
Many wonderful volunteers have helped edit Sapan News pieces since our soft launch in August 2021 including Aekta Kapoor, Aisha Gazdar, Furqan Sayeed, Malinda Seneviratne, Marlon Ariyasinghe, Priyanka Singh, Rafiq Kathwari, Shailaja Rao, Vishal Sharma.
Web developer Nasha Kanga in London has helped with the website.
Sapan News volunteers include journalists, activists, academics, professionals, and students. We support the vision of Southasia Peace Action Network, or Sapan, regionalism, peace, and dialogue, essential for prosperity in the region.
Contributors
(in reverse alphabetical order)
Zulfiqar Ahmed is a writer from Pakistan based in New York.
Zakia Sarwar is a prominent English language teaching expert who co-founded the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers in Karachi 1984 and has conducted groundbreaking research on teaching large classes with limited resources as well as teaching English as a foreign language.
Zafar Masud is a development and social impact-focused banker and writer. He is one of the two people who miraculously survived an air crash in Pakistan in May 2020.
Yasmin Whittaker-Khan is a youth worker, writer, presenter, film producer and social activist based in London. She is the director of the human-rights organisation Insaan Culture Club.
Waqas Nasir is an educationist working as a senior project officer at Science Fuse, a social enterprise in Lahore that works to improve the quality of science education in Pakistan. He hosts an online talk show, JALI Talk Show.
Urvashi Butalia is an acclaimed feminist publisher and writer based in Delhi. Among her publications is the groundbreaking award-winning oral history The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, Penguin, India, 1998; Duke University Press, 2000.
Urmi Chanda is a peacebuilder, culture writer, and interfaith research scholar based in Mumbai.
Upasana Goswami is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interests include South Asian feminisms, indigenous movements, and social change in Northeast India and the South Asian diaspora. She can be reached at upasanakohuwa@gmail.com.
Uditha Devapriya is a writer, analyst, and researcher who recently authored Ravindra Randeniya’s biography, ‘Ravi’, (Ravindra Randeniya and Fast ADS Pvt Ltd, 2024). He is the Chief International Relations Analyst at Factum, an Asia-Pacific-focused foreign policy think tank based in Colombo. He is also one of two leads at U & U, an informal art and culture research collective. Email: udakdev1@gmail.com.
Tridivesh Singh Maini is a policy professional and Visiting Faculty at the OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat (India). He is the author of South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs (Siddharth Publications, 2007).
Tariq Alexander Qaiser is a Karachi based architect, film maker, poet and an environmentalist.
Tamanna Syed is a public healthcare consultant, writer, and digital media expert on healthcare communications and advocacy. She makes films about healthcare access for marginalised communities, addressing environmental racism, COVID-19 disparities, and education. She has published a poetry collection, ‘The Falcon and the Dove’ (2021) and directed ‘No Budget for Bullets’ (YEAR) a documentary on the police killing of Arif Sayed Faisal.
Sushmita Preetha: Journalist based in Dhaka.
Suraj Budathoki, born in Bhutan, is a founder-member of Peace Initiative Bhutan and a doctoral student in Transformative Social Change at Saybrook University, California.
Sugeeswara Senadhira is a former Sri Lankan diplomat, a political and strategic affairs commentator. These are his personal views. He can be reached at sugeeswara@gmail.com
Suanmuanlian Tonsing is an indigenous Phd student at the School of Information, University of Michigan-Ann Arbour, interested in the intersections of technology and indigenous life in South and Southeast Asia.
Steve Minkin is a researcher, historian and language interpreter based in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA. A friend of Bangladesh who has worked on floodplain ecology, public health and nutrition in the country for over five decades. He has authored numerous articles and a recent book of poetry.
Sofia Ahmed is a multimedia journalist reporting on immigration, equity and race in New York City. She was trained at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and is a 2023-24 reporting fellow for Central Desi, a newsletter covering the South Asian community in New Jersey.
Siraj Khan is a Karachi-born, Boston-based connoisseur of Southasian film music, and a global finance and audit specialist by profession. He is the Managing Trustee of the OP Nayyar Memorial Trust and manages the official OP Nayyar website from Karachi.
Shri Ram Shaw is a New Delhi-based journalist. He was a Senior Copy Editor at The Times of India. Email ramshaw1@gmail.com
Sher Afgan Tareen is a historian of religion who specialises in the study of 20th-century Islam in America. His research interests lie at the intersection of religion and feminism, exploring insights from Muslim practices of motherhood to understand the interplay between intelligence and emotional cognition and developing culturally responsible technologies. Originally from Quetta, Pakistan, he is based in South Florida.
Sheeba Aslam Fehmi is a writer, columnist and research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
Shazman Shariff is a Pakistani-born freelance writer based in Bangalore.
Dr Shalini Mullick is an author and practising pathologist based in Gurgaon, India, and a frequent guest on audio and video podcasts. Women’s identity forms a strong core of her writing. She is also a columnist, panellist, and technical expert and resource person for publications and organisations addressing topics related to writing, gender, and medicine. Email authorshalinimullick@gmail.com
Shahram Azhar is a professor of Economics at Bucknell University and musician trained in the North Indian classical tradition. He is the founder and former lead singer of the Laal band that produced the album Umeed-e-Sahar in 2008. His second album, Banbaas, consists of a series of ghazals by Jaun Elia, Parveen Shakir, and Iftikhar Arif.
Shaeran Rufus is a Karachi-based independent journalist passionate about human rights, social issues, and minority advocacy. With a degree in media studies from Bahria University, she has worked at Capital TV and Express Tribune. She is a Fellow of the Pakistan Press Foundation. She tweets at @ShaeranRufus
Shailaja Rao is Board President, Tasveer, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring social change through thought-provoking storytelling, art, and film in Seattle, WA. She is a strategic advisor for Dhanak of Humanity, a nonprofit working for human rights in India.
Shahid Nadeem, a lawyer based in London, was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan. He is a dedicated human rights and peace activist committed to social justice, and cross-cultural understanding. He is an elected Councillor on the Southend-on-Sea City Council who chaired the organising committee for the town’s South Asia Heritage Month celebrations. He is also an active member of the Southasia Peace Action Network.
Sehba Sarwar is a novelist (Black Wings, Alhamra Books, 2024, Veliz Books, 2019), poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Aleph, Dawn, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. She is a recipient of multiple awards, including serving as Altadena Co-Poet Laureate, and her papers are archived at the University of Houston.
Sara Arshad is a writer and teacher based in Lahore.
Sandeep Pandey is an educator and peace activist in Lucknow, a recipient of the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay award. He has organised several peace marches for better relations between India and Pakistan and for communal harmony in India. He is the General Secretary of the Socialist Party, India.
Salima Hashmi is an artist and art educator based in Lahore. She is a founding member of the Southasia Peace Action Network (SAPAN) and a board member of the South Asian Foundation.
Dr. Saeed Ahmed Rid is a longtime supporter of cross-border regionalism and dialogue. He is Assistant Professor, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, and is a founder member of the Southasia Peace Action Network and its Advisory Council.
Sabahat Ashraf is a technical writer in Silicon Valley — a ‘Californian, Pakistani-American, Karachiite/Muhajir, Awadhi by culture, Nigerian by birth.’ He has worked in technology and media in Pakistan and has extensive family and close friends in both India and Pakistan.
Rumi Nagpal is a high school student in Colombo, Sri Lanka, who was deeply moved by the ‘Aragalaya’. To address structural poverty in Sri Lanka, he developed and implemented solutions for the economic crisis by placing land titles on a blockchain server, an impenetrable digital file cabinet, and improving collateral accessibility for the poor. Rumi has delivered a TEDx talk on his blockchain-based solution. After university, he plans to work in Sri Lanka to give back to the country that has given him so much.
Rukshana Rizwie is a Sri Lankan Correspondent for Asian Dispatch. Her work covers an intersection of media technology, human rights, crime and defence. She is a former CNN producer and has worked extensively in the Middle East.
Rob Vreeken is the Istanbul correspondent for the Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant. He is the author of three books: ‘Bombay hyperstad’ (2006, about life in the Indian megacity), ‘Baas in eigen boerka’ (2010, about women in the Islamic world) and ‘Een heidens karwei’ (2023, about the failed Islamization of Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan).
Reema Amin is a Pakistani educator and steadfast advocate for peace in Southasia who supports the Southasia Peace Action Network. She has also been actively involved with the Aman ki Asha Initiative, which fosters cross-border dialogue and deepens mutual understanding between India and Pakistan. An avid reader and passionate student of history, she lives in Delhi with her Indian husband.
Ramu Kharel is an assistant professor at Brown University, an emergency medicine specialist focusing on public health, tropical diseases, and improving emergency care in rural settings and disaster areas. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, he formed the grassroots nonprofit Health Advance Programs to Serve All, HAPSA Nepal. He loves basketball and Urdu poetry and uses social media to raise awareness about public health issues.
Rajeev Soneja is an IT professional in the greater Boston area. Born in Bombay, he grew up in the 70s and 80s listening to Kabir’s ghazals and bhajans that formulate the auditory basis of spirituality in Southasia. His ancestors from Sindh settled in Quetta, moved to India in 1948 after the Partition, and settled in Bombay. He would love to visit Pakistan someday.
Rahul Mukherji is an entrepreneur and management consultant in Kolkata, who actively advocates sport and Olympic values as a tool for peace.
Pragya Narang is a communications consultant, researcher, and peace activist in New Delhi who writes for various publications including Aman ki Asha, United Religions Initiative, eShe magazine. She is a team member/consultant for Aaghaz-e-Dosti, Indialogue Foundation, and Nirmala Deshpande Sansthan.
Pragyan Srivastava is an Indian journalist and former Fulbright-Nehru Master’s scholar at Rutgers University, 2024. With extensive experience in digital storytelling, social media, and television production, she is passionate about creating authentic and powerful stories about Southasia*, aiming to foster understanding and connection through compelling narratives.
Priyanka Singh is a data analytics consultant and researcher from Delhi, India, studying in Cambridge, UK. She is a founder member of Southasia Peace Action Network and Sapan News.
Pallav Jain is an environmental journalist based in Madhya Pradesh, India. He covers environment and health issues from a rural perspective.
Padma B. is a healthcare worker based in the greater Boston area and a volunteer at the Boston South Asian Coalition.
Noor e Emaan is a high school student in Lahore, Pakistan. She is passionate about sports and women’s rights.
Neha Kirpal is a freelance writer and editor based in New Delhi. She writes mostly on books, music, theatre, travel, art and culture. Details at: http://www.nehakirpal.wordpress.com
Nazish Saad Munchenbach is an investor in cleantech and a business consultant from Karachi, based in Paris. She is a partner at Terre de Couleur, a cosmetic biotech company in Europe. Email: nazishmunch@gmail.com
Namrata Sharma, a freelance journalist in Kathmandu with over 30 years’ experience, has worked in Nepal, the UK, Kenya, India, and Afghanistan.
Nadra Huma Quraishi is an educationist currently based in Bloomington, Indiana, US. She has worked in English-language teaching and teacher training in Australia, Pakistan, Africa, and the USA.
Mridul Bhasin is a longtime social activist, writer and translator. She holds a PhD in American Literature from Emory University, Atlanta and is a co-founder and trustee of the Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety in Jaipur, India.
Michael KC Thanga is a PhD candidate and ad-hoc lecturer, researching the philosophy of psyche.
Meena Menon is an independent journalist and author and currently Visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (LAHRI), University of Leeds, UK.
Mayank Chhaya is a veteran Indian journalist, author and filmmaker, based in Chicago. His authorised biography, ‘Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic’ (Doubleday/Random House, 2007), has been published worldwide in nearly 25 languages.
Mashael Shah is a writer, editor and aspiring journalist in Karachi. She is passionate about women’s rights and working towards an intersectional future. She loves binge-watching TV shows, trying new food and reading trashy novels and non-fiction.
Dr Martha Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, an Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and International Coordinator of the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO). She is also an advisor to Southasia Peace Action Network.
Mansi Chandna is an Indian-origin peace activist from Jaipur, with a Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Manchester. She is currently based in Manchester and is a volunteer with Sapan.
Manisha Sharma was born in Dehradun, India, where she grew up, and has lived in the Boston area for over two decades. She works as a consumer insights professional and attempts to stay engaged with South Asian issues, causes, and culture.
Mandira Nayar is a journalist with over two decades of extensive reporting experience from across Southasia, and was until recently Deputy Chief of Bureau at The Week based in Delhi. A Charles Wallace scholar, she has been the chronicler of tiny details and people who are footnotes in history. She earlier worked for The Hindu and The Telegraph. She is a founding member of the Southasia Peace Action Network (Sapan).
Maheen Mustafa is a journalist, global strategist and founder of MTG, a Seattle-based media outlet and production house that aims to elevate and amplify BIPOC and immigrant narratives and perspectives. She focuses on social impact, wellness, business, culture, climate, race and global news. Twitter: @MaheenM_.
Madhuri Peiris is a freelance writer in Sri Lanka covering the arts, travel, finance, and the environment. She has worked as a full-time editor and journalist at leading Sri Lankan newspapers. She has a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Delhi, India, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Lubna Jerar Naqvi is a freelance journalist in Karachi, Gender Coordinator – Pakistan for the International Federation of Journalists, Vice President of Karachi Union of Journalists, a Member of IFJ’s Gender Council, and East West Center Fellow 2022.
Laxmi Devi Aere is Senior Assistant Editor at The Press Trust of India, Delhi.
Komal Rehman is a student of fine arts at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.
Kavita Srivastava is a human rights worker, presently with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India. Based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, she is a founder member of the Southasia Peace Action Network, Sapan, and loves music and culture. Email her about your festivals at: kavisriv@gmail.com
Kathy Gannon is a longtime former correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and a member of the Sapan News Advisory Council. She and photographer Anja Niedringhaus were the first Western journalists to embed with the Afghan army.
Katherine Abraham is an author, legal journalist, and advocate for peace and human rights, having been awarded the prestigious global Rex Karmaveer Silver Award. She is the Associate Editor for the India Business Law Journal and an editor-at-large for Red Penguin Books in the USA. She is also a research associate for the Indian parliamentarian and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Dr. Shashi Tharoor.
Kanika Gupta is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker from India, currently based in Germany. She writes about human rights, women’s rights, and humanitarian issues in conflict zones. Email: kgupta12@gmail.com.
Kanak Mani Dixit is a writer and activist based in Lalitpur, Nepal. He is the founder-editor of Himal Southasian magazine and is on the Advisory Council of Sapan News.
Jim McManus has worked as a journalist in Washington D.C., Hong Kong and Boston. He has been teaching Law & Ethics for Journalists at Emerson College in Boston, since 2017. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois and a Juris Doctorate degree from Suffolk University Law School.
Javed Khan is a senior reporter in Peshawar with over 25 years of experience covering conflict, war, and terrorism in the region.
Irfan Chowdhury is a public sector policy analyst and adviser based in Australia. He writes opinion columns in Bangladeshi dailies and online platforms, like The Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune, and Alalodulal. A believer in diversity, he advocates for minorities and women’s rights and indulges in discussions involving Southasia and beyond.
Imran Zahid is an Indian actor and the Director of a Media School in Delhi and Mumbai, known for his work in both theater and Bollywood. He has been active in theater for nearly 15 years, performing in various stage productions, including notable adaptations of Mahesh Bhatt’s films like Arth, Daddy, and Hamari Adhuri Kahani, as well as the acclaimed play The Last Salute. In cinema, he was the lead actor in the film Ab Dilli Dur Nahin. His versatility across theater and film has earned him recognition for his contribution to the arts. Email: syimza@gmail.com
Himali Dixit is a researcher, educationist, and freelance writer based in Kathmandu.
Geet Chainani is a Mumbai-born, US-based volunteer physician who spent three years working in various districts of Sindh after the 2010 floods. She co-founded Life Bridge US (501c3) and Life Bridge Pakistan Trust with Sabyn Zaidi, focusing on Sindh. They work on medical camps and vaccination campaigns, maternal and child health clinics and COVID response.
Faheem Akhtar is a freelance journalist based in Gilgit, Pakistan, and covers environment and health.
Ershad Mahmud is a researcher focusing on Pakistan’s politics, the Kashmir conflict, human rights, and peacebuilding. Currently based in Canada, his contributions have been featured in various publications, including The News Pakistan, The News on Sunday, and On X (Twitter) @ErshadMahmud. Email: ershad.mahmud@gmail.com.
Dimantha Thenuwara is an explorer and a climber, and an IT professional with more than 13 years of experience with the world’s leading companies. He has a BSc Honors in Information Technology (First Class), Middlesex University, UK and an MBA (Distinction), Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK.
Chaman Lal is a leading authority on Bhagat Singh, and recently retired as a professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is Honorary Advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi, and has authored and edited several books on Bhagat Singh, including The Bhagat Singh Reader (2019) and Understanding Bhagat Singh (2013).
Bina Sarkar is the editor-designer-publisher of Gallerie, the award-winning global arts and ideas journal she founded 1997. Her seven books of poems include Fuse and recently ‘Ukiyo-e Days… Haiku Moments’, besides the Chapbook ‘If Stones Could Speak’, both by Red River Publisher. Her poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Greek Mandarin, Arabic, Telugu, Urdu and Tagalog. She authored the acclaimed ‘Big Book of Indian Art’, 2024, and has received several awards, including ‘The Women to Watch, 2024, Award’ for excellence in her work.
Bidhi Adhikari is business administration student in Nepal
Anusha Dwivedi is a communication specialist, based in New Delhi, India
Anuradha Bhasin is the executive editor of the Kashmir Times, Jammu, and a Senior Knight Fellow at Stanford University
Ankita G. works in the health sector and is a member of the Boston South Asian Coalition, BSAC, a coalition partner of the Southasia Peace Action Network.
Anjum Altaf is a South Asian living in Lahore. He is the author of Transgressions (2019) and More Transgressions (2021), both volumes of poems inspired by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Amit Basole teaches Economics at Azim Premji University, Bangalore, and is passionate about Urdu poetry as well as the history and architecture of the Indian subcontinent.
Ali Zaidi is an Indian by birth, Pakistani by migration and British by chance. He is an artist, a massage therapist, and now a chicken daddy, living in London. Website: http://www.alizaidiarts.com
Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed is Distinguished Professor and the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, and Wilson Center Global Fellow, Washington DC. He was the former Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland.
Aidan Harper is a recent graduate of Emerson College, where he studied film and journalism. His thesis was on business models that increase stakeholder ownership.
Prof. Dr. Ahmad Bilal is Director, Postgraduate Research Center of Creative Arts, University College of Art & Design, University of the Punjab. He holds a PhD from the School of Art & Design, Nottingham University, U.K.
Abishek Budhathoki is a Nepali film director, activist and critic who has studied and worked in India. He was a volunteer coordinator at the FSA festival in Kathmandu
Abdullah Zahid is an aspiring journalist studying mass communication at the University of Karachi.
A. B. Arisar is an award-winning journalist based in the historic Hindu-majority district of Umerkot bordering India and reports for the English daily Dawn newspaper.
