I wrote the review of book titled “ Another World is possible “ about a month ago .

Despite my love for this book and hardwork I put in writing its review I kept on postponing its publishing .Mainly I always feel there are so many incredible activists and writers who I feel are doing a way better job then I do by writing and putting in their lives in danger by actively protesting against gross crimes committed against women.

But last week or so shattered me completely when i watched pictures of Dr.Mahnoor after acid attack  as I could immediately understand the conditions in which she was working ,Ishal Fatima on wheel chair , women in Khanawal  who lost her life to marital rape  and the old women who was brutally murdered by her husband because she refused to have sex with him.

I told myself that there is nothing more important then getting this essay edited and published.

Even a small effort against this rising tide of violence against women is huge.

Unfortunately this rising violence against women is not happening in isolation with rise of right wing all o er the world we are seeing extremely hostile environment against oppressed groups of society with women facing the most backlash.

So this review is dedicated to all these women who in these circumstances are holding their ground and are keeping their heads high while working for a better or just society.

As Brandon Sanderson wrote “A woman’s strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses to be, but in the power to choose that role”.

For women choosing how they want to lead their lives is the most difficult step , if you are a house wife you are dumb , mother you are anxious either you are labelled as helicopter mom or total reckless irresponsible one ,working you are fatigued , if you have decided not to get married and have kids then you are a loser n immoral , even if you are patient which you haven’t chosen  and doctor can’t understand your situation you are labelled as difficult and depressed, it’s just a small reflection into the lives of human beings who make half of world population.

When I got the book “Another World is possible “, despite my eagerness to read about his and Ambreen Ajaib work on a subject of women human rights, very dear to my heart I kept postponing it’s reading.

Every  night I came up with a new excuse and it was not because I didn’t want to read it but it was because I knew very well what would be awaiting for me in it “ the truth “  about women  human right condition and the oppression she faces , as most of the times we want to live in our bubble and carry on with life as a merry grasshoppers.

I knew very well that Dr.Khalid Sohail and Ambreen were not writing this book on ideas or ideals but reality of life of fifty precent of world inhabitants who suffer from both seen and unseen prejudice everyday.

Working in oral maxillofacial surgery department of a government hospital had opened my eyes to a new reality of being women which in my own home I never faced. As with  my parents I never encountered any issues of discrimination or prejudice.

I always had best of facilities in education and living.

But my admission in dentistry for the first time made me aware of the bigotry a women face in a society from constant reminder to women can never be as good as a male dentist to patients refusing to get treated by female dentist as it’s haram,  stares and harassment, fixing your dupatta and constantly covering up yourself even in hottest month of summers layer after layer, feeling uncomfortable in our own body just because we were female dentists, constant bullying and mental abuse by not only our peers but also the professors, all happened and we the female dentist being stubborn took it in our stride just to keep working, but problem was our lunch conversations with our friends from gynaecology ward.

Seeing their   terrified faces and listening to their stories of women loosing their lives during birth of 11th or 12th  child or of forced and violent sex on marriage first night to rape victims as young as 5/6 years old was always hard for me and I thanked my starts may times during such conversations that I was becoming a dentist.

Now when I look back I think that how selfish it was of me that I was thinking about myself  and not the victim at that time, but perhaps it was my young age or human nature of thinking about oneself first.

I had to quickly grew out of it as being daughter of Dr. Karamat Ali , I couldn’t escape these stories at home too because of his activism.

He made sure I always stand on the right side of history even it means long late night discussions  and  getting late in the morning. Due this intense  and thorough cleansing process of my mind I grew more sympathetic towards my female patients.

For me the most shocking time was during my duty in oral maxillofacial surgery department as there the patients present from facial fractures to cancer presented.

To my surprise and dismay I learned a new reality that mostly men with oral cancer had full support of their wives during treatment but for women it was not the same case and I could never forget the female patients who usually came  alone or with their mother or sisters as their husbands had  left them at their parents house after diagnosis  and now it’s their parental family or doctors who collect money to pay for the charges and divide duties among themselves from blood donation to taking care of them.

For young medical professionals it could be a surprise or a shock but not for our seniors as they knew the harsh realities of life very well and now it’s a documented truth in form of research papers and articles that how for a women it’s an act of loyalty to stand with their sick husband and for men it’s a moment to move on as wife gets a chronic disease .

The most pathetic excuse would usually be that how he could  survive without someone taking care for him , I have seen enough of these man child in my career.

And this is not the only cruelty  women face suffering from different diseases.

Medicine as a profession has been shaped around men most of the disease manifest differently in men and women but what we learn as diseases hallmarks is its symptoms in men due to highly invested research generally revolves around men so usually women when suffer from such diseases their symptoms get ignored or they are labelled as anxious or depressed and these are documented facts.

So for me I knew what was coming in this book and the letter carrying his article “ Do you love your wife too much “ was the hardest for me to read .Though in it Khalid Sohail wrote about his experience of looking after marital rape victim during his residency in Gynaecology ward of Peshawar hospital in 1970 ‘s  the reality has  not changed a lot even after 50 years .19 year old Shanti resident of Layari Karachi lost her life due to severe physical abuse n marital rape on 23rd July 2025 only weeks after her marriage.

The only silver lining in this is that at least the culprit was arrested but could we see him prosecuted according to his crime is a thing to watch  as who can forget that the rapists of Mukhtaran  Mai case got free even it was a high profile case.

In 2024 alone 32000 rape cases have been reported with a conviction rate of mere 0.3 percent and despite having laws against marital rape only one case was reported last year showing the taboos involved in it.

For me these are not mere names or numbers they are the real breathing human beings who went through hell and then walked the path of fire to see their offender  in jail.

Today even right now we are seeing the culprits in rape and murder cases are being defended using the pretext of immorality on part of girl and full character assignation campaign being launched against the victim just because she is a women .But there are many who have never lived to report as they were murdered on mere act of saying no to a marriage proposal like a school teacher Maria from Muree in 2017 , Annie Balide an educated young women who  lost her life to domestic violence or an old women who succumbed to metal injuries on refusing sex and the list goes on and on I felt the lump in my throat reading the section 1 of this book encompassing between two authors .These letter are dealing with these issues which we like to talk only on women day or after some  horrendous crime has happened otherwise we live happily in our cocoons.

For me the letter regarding women living with abusive men was like a first step on the ladder, as it’s not a Pak phenomenon it’s a global phenomenon.

Letter regarding Western feminist movement is the most perplexing for me as I was reading n paying my homage to these brave women  I keep on mixing am I reading about history or present situation as in it Khalid Sohail mentioned in 1833 in Ohio Olberlin college was the first to allow women education along with men and they were specifically educated to become good wives and mothers.

Its interesting as its becoming predominant view in America right wing right now that women should go to college or university to find good men and become good wives and mother and there should be courses and degree with this name on it. It was openly advocated by Charlie Kirk in his speeches to young women in universities and we are seeing trad wives phenomenon on rise in western YouTube content.

The abortion rights which women got after long legal battle in 1973 were overturned by Supreme Court in 2022.

I don’t know it’s circle of life or we are moving in dark ages.

Letter about feminism movement in South Asia compliments Dr. Sohail’s letter while as we haven’t inherited this idea and struggle of social justice and human dignity from our own civilization.

Its  our own organic movement as Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh established first women school in 1848 along with their various social activities for women rights .We don’t owe our freedoms and our ideas to anyone.

This book becomes intense as it proceeds with second section comprising of Dr. Khalid Sohail essays on feminists who made the prominent impact and i can understand the hard time he had gone through in shortlisting the names and their work as I find it even harder to make list of my favourites. Dr. Khalid Sohail remain clear in his selection of feminist for his work , who believe feminism doesn’t exist in vacuum and women can’t have protection from violence and gender discrimination until and unless we struggle for a society where each and every person has access to basic human rights and economically just system , it is a delight to read his work.

His essay on Audre Lorde reflects how women of colour and lower class have to suffer in this so called western liberated society .Where white feminism or girl boss feminism openly allies with male abusers and they themselves are culprit in this abusive cycle which we have seen multiple times in Epstein files survivors senate n court hearings.

This scandal of rape and paedophilia  has been hushed  just like in any third world country and the rape victims were asked to prove the crime just like the rape victims of Pakistan , so much for the free world and champions of human rights.

He reinforces this theme in a very subtle way in his interview cum essay of Noor Zaheer.

Her ideas of communism, capitalism , women identity and power to choose roles, marriage, state , religion, role of activist in society, interrelationship of feminism politics and social justice, economic equality , and the way she negotiated the so called peace concept of liberals is a manifesto in itself.

Both of them left no room for minions like me to cherry pick their favourite topics to speak or do activism as we wish either u commit whole heartedly and live with your ideology or leave the highway .

This single interview can be a book itself the questions Dr. Sohail asked Noor and the way she responded is a pure delight for any activist who believes in freedom and justice .The homework Dr. Khalid Sohail has done in formulating the questions show his keen understanding of Noor Zaheer work and background .Her ideas of communism , capitalism , women identity and power to choose roles , marriage , state , religion , role of activist in society , interrelationship of feminism politics and social justice , economic equality , and the way she negotiated the so called peace concept of liberals is a manifesto in itself .While reading that interview I imagined the pure delight on Dr. Sohail face while listening to Noor Zagreb  answers as she answered without any hesitation and fear .Anyone  who is really interested in social cause and want to learn the basic ethics of activism should read this conversation between these two giants  .

 Ambreen Ajaib essays in section 3 of this book are the living reality of the problems faced by women in Pakistan.

These essays reflects her work at grassroots and while writing she remained focus on subject .As when writing about social problems it’s easy to get distracted especially when one is facing too many and everyday.

Anbreen essays reflect her deep understanding of the problems faced by women in Pak.

Even the topics of her essays she wrote reflects the intensity of the problems faced by women everyday.

She had to combine multiple interrelated issues in an essay to portray the reality.

Her essay on gender religious extremism and violence emphatically describes the loss of freedom women in Pak suffered as a consequence to Afghan jihad which gifted Pak the  abundance of moral police and mushroom growth of madrasahs resulting in unfortunates incidents of violence leading to unseen fear and censorship .I am glad she wrote about forced conversions of young Hindu and Christian girls who then forced into marriage with old Muslim men in name of Islam right under the eye of state and this directly relates to the unfortunate situation of Pakistan politics where genuine women representation is scarce and in both politics and bureaucracy where we see girl boss feminism by a display of bodyguards , police , elite fashion sense masking the problems like religious extremism, rape threat , violence and harassment faced by Pak women in everyday life.

Ambreen by writing the essay “Personal reflection on patriarchy within the right based movement “reflects this girl boss feminism phenomenon within the women right movement.  As a young teenager when I heard many feminists on tv or seminars I felt no connection as they were never discussing the issues faced by women in everyday life.

Fortunately my source of information and strength were the common women or the women who worked on grassroots levels like Asma Jhangir , Hina  Jilani , Fehmida Riaz and Niger Ahmad.

The most heartbreaking moments are those when I saw people making money  and fame out of someone misery but on the other hand I have seen people who gave up their lives for their cause .I am happy Ambreen  has strength to reflect on this and want to create a space where true voices from grassroots level can be heard .

As I belong to a country where the common people elected a young woman prime minister of their country in 1989 in face of mountainous aristocracy and religious extremism. I refuse to believe my people are ignorant or “ Jahil “ .This ignorance, illiteracy , poverty and barbaric traditions has been imposed on us so the elite can keep ruling .Pakistani people in general and women in particular have been hostage to state  , religious fanatics and fake liberals at same time .State never really wanted the grass root issues to be solved as the problem discussed are never the problem existed .For religious fanatics more problems more poverty more business and for capitalist liberals they just want to keep dressing the wound instead of looking n treating the cause , never ready to discuss class disparity as they themselves will loose their privileges in it .

Feminism success is deeply interrelated with social political and economic justice and equality. It’s a human right activism not a women alone issue. Feminist movement in general and Pak in particular needs selfless people who are ready to give up their own class privileges, prejudices, self projection and ego for the betterment of poor and marginalized people only then “ Another world can be possible “