by OWEN HATHERLY

An only slightly caricatured version of the cultural arguments of Mark Fisher could be expressed as follows: ‘the future ended in 1979’. In that year, there began a ‘slow cancellation of the future’ (a line from Raymond Williams’s novel Border Country, which Fisher attributed to Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, who had borrowed it without credit). It was in fact so slow that its effects weren’t fully felt until the start of the 2000s, when the formal innovations and novelties of popular music and Hollywood film finally dwindled to a trickle and then ceased entirely. This account mirrored Fisher’s wider contention about the effects of neoliberalism in smashing a ‘popular modernism’ that had productively linked aesthetics and politics for much of the twentieth century. It was an argument built largely around British and, to a lesser extent, American culture, and so it felt particularly strange hearing it discussed in Shenzhen, at the launch in January 2024 of the Chinese translation of Fisher’s first and most famous book Capitalist Realism (2009).

Shenzhen was, of course, founded in 1979, as the first of the ‘Special Economic Zones’ in which the People’s Republic of China could experiment with capitalism, built around the busiest border post between the PRC and the British colony of Hong Kong. It is, accordingly, the flagship city of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, and today one of the biggest and richest metropolises on earth. Shenzhen has more metro lines than London and a high-speed connection to Beijing – nearly 1,500 miles to the north – that has emerged in less time than it took to plan and build Crossrail in London, or the Second Avenue subway in Manhattan. It is impossible not to use the word ‘futuristic’ in appraising its cityscape: with its nighttime play of LED slogans and images, its seemingly endless ranks of skyscrapers, its flyovers and overhead walkways, its cleaning robots sweeping and mopping vast plazas, and its unexpectedly excellent public infrastructure, it fulfils the science-fictional promises of the 20^th century with the technologies of the 21^st. It is an entire future whose creation dates from the exact moment when the future was supposedly cancelled.

NLR for more

by JOE LAURIA

Sixty-two years ago this week, John F. Kennedy broke with the Cold War in his American University speech and warned against humiliating a nuclear weapons power, words that resonate more than ever, writes Joe Lauria. 

In his momentous speech at American University in Washington 62 years ago this week, in which he controversially sought peace with Soviet Russia and an end to the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy said: 

“Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy — or of a collective death-wish for the world.”

Twenty-eight years later, the Bill Clinton administration and every U.S. administration since, culminating in perhaps the most reckless, has proven the bankruptcy of U.S. policy by doing the exact opposite of what Kennedy advised, namely displaying a determination to humiliate and bully nuclear-armed Russia.

Today that most frightening moment has arrived, one dreaded by generations. The United States, under the Biden administration, in November continued to provoke Russia with American and British missile attacks on Russian soil fired from a third country with American and British personnel, ignoring Moscow’s unequivocally clear warning  that this could lead to nuclear conflict.  

By firing directly into Russia with its ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, the U.S. and U.K., which Russia has not attacked, have given Moscow “a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.”

And then just last week, almost certainly with U.S. and British involvement, Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear bombers in a brazen, if mostly symbolic, stab at Moscow’s nuclear deterrence.

Beginning at the End of the Cold War

The humiliation of Russia began with the end of the Cold War that Kennedy had sought, but not on the terms he envisioned. Despite George H.W. Bush’s vow not to engage in triumphalism, that was in full swing once Clinton took power.

Talk of a peace dividend and a common Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok was swept aside. The U.S. considered themselves the victors and were poised to claim their spoils.

Wall Street and U.S. corporate carpetbaggers swept into the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, eyed its enormous natural resources, asset-stripped the formerly state-owned industries, enriched themselves, gave rise to oligarchs and impoverished the Russian, Ukrainian and other former Soviet peoples.

The humiliation intensified with the decision in the nineties to expand NATO eastward despite a promise made to the last Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in exchange for reunifying Germany.  

Consortium News for more

by SYEDA ZAHRA SHAH SUBZWARI

Every year, we mourn the tragedies of the past and the violence of now and walk in processions

Another Muharram approaches. Once again, we will gather and mourn wearing black while remembering a tyrant’s violence and a family’s sacrifice. But let this not be another year where we ritualistically grieve Karbala and then return to silencing our women. Let this not be another Muharram where we cry over Yazid’s cruelty while enabling our own.

Because if not for a woman, Islam wouldn’t have survived. Not the Quran you recite. Not the Hadith you forwarded. Not the faith you gatekeep while violating every principle it upholds. Islam would never have made it past its earliest trials, political boycotts, economic starvation and rebellions, if it weren’t carried on the backs, in the arms, and through the voices of women.

Before Islam had a following, it had Bibi Khadijah (RA), not just a supporter, but the first believer. A businesswoman. A strategist. A financier. The one who bankrolled the mission of the Prophet (PBUH) when no man dared. When Quraysh exiled him, it was her caravan, her gold, her unwavering faith that sheltered him.

It was Bibi Fatima (AS) who bore the lineage through which the Ahlul Bayt lived on. The axis of legacy. The embodiment of strength in grief. It was Aisha (RA) who brilliantly narrated over 2,000 hadith and debated scholars. Her voice helped shape the jurisprudence we now cite while refusing to let women speak in the same rooms.

And then came Bibi Zainab (AS), shattered, shackled, but unafraid. After Karbala had become a graveyard and her brother Imam Hussain (AS) lay slaughtered in the sand, it was she who rose, not with weapons, but with words. Dragged to the court of Yazid, surrounded by mockery, she did not ask for mercy. She gave a sermon. She didn’t break. She broke him. She was not just surviving. She was defying.

And yet today, in a land that recites their names in every sermon, we silence their daughters. We call it modesty when we erase them. We call it culture when we kill them. We turn their resistance into relics, then light candles at their graves. As though mourning without action ever saved anyone.

In 2024 alone, over 5,200 cases of gender-based violence were reported in Pakistan — murders, rapes, forced marriages, suicides, disappearances. We call our daughters Zainab, but fear their fire. We call them Aisha, but shush their speech. We call them Khadijah, but question their independence. We call them Fatima, but scorn their principles. We want them quiet. Covered. Passive. We fear their intellect, police their tone and question their clothing.

Every year, we mourn the tragedies of the past and the violence of now and walk in processions. We cry for Karbala and for today’s graves. And then? We go back. Back to honour killings, child brides, acid attacks. To clerics who blame women, politicians who mock abuse, courts that shame victims, and homes where daughters are silenced. We mourn the dead but never protect the living. Guilt has never been enough.

You cannot grieve Karbala and ignore the women being buried in your own neighbourhood. You cannot claim love for Imam Hussain (AS) while tolerating Yazid’s spirit in your own actions. If your grief does not make you just, then it is performance. If your rituals don’t translate into compassion, then they are empty. If you cry for the women of Islam but ignore the pain of living women, then you are the problem.

Because Karbala was not just a battlefield. It was a woman with a voice. And she didn’t whisper. Because Muharram will come and go. But the Yazid of today doesn’t need a throne; he rules from homes, offices, police stations, pulpits, parliaments, WhatsApp groups, comment sections, and benches. All he needs is a gun, a platform, and our silence.

And too many others, like the armies that watched Karbala unfold, just? looked away. Had Bibi Zainab stayed silent, you wouldn’t even have a story to tell. So tell it. Live it. Let this be the year your grief grows a spine.

Express Tribune for more

by MELISSA AMEZCUA

The platform recently launched in Mexico and Brazil, where its fast fashion Chinese rivals already have a stronghold.

• With its future uncertain in the U.S., TikTok Shop is expanding in Mexico and Brazil.
• The company faces stiff competition from rivals Shein, Temu, and AliExpress in Latin America.
• New tariffs have hurt Asian e-commerce giants in Mexico but TikTok Shop has so far skirted them.

Yareth Zuñiga’s boutique in Ciudad Victoria, in northern Mexico, is usually filled with items from Chinese e-commerce sites Shein and Alibaba. In recent months, her stock has dwindled as new import taxes for Asian goods have caused shipping delays. She has instead turned to another e-commerce platform: TikTok Shop. 

Since its launch in Mexico in February, TikTok Shop has drawn sellers like Zuñiga, an administrator at a public elementary school, who is able to make an income simply by promoting products on the platform without having to keep an inventory.

“It helps me grow and reach more people,” Zuñiga told Rest of World. Whereas earlier, TikTok had been little more than a place for her to share tidbits from daily life with her 46,000 followers, its e-commerce feature has now become a lucrative economic opportunity, she said.

Hundreds of sellers in Mexico have flocked to TikTok Shop in recent months, even as the app faces pressure in the U.S. A national security law passed last year requires TikTok to divest its U.S. business from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, or face a ban. President Donald Trump has delayed the ban thrice, with a deadline for this month extended by 90 days.

Facing uncertainty and slower sales in the U.S. because of trade tensions, TikTok has turned its sights to the south, launching first in Mexico, and then in Brazil — earlier than some analysts had forecast. 

The e-commerce marketplace in Latin America is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2027, a 100% increase from 2023, according to Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence, a market research firm. TikTok, with more than 111 million users in Brazil, and 81 million in Mexico — the region’s top markets — has an advantage over rivals Shein and Temu, which have an established presence in the region, said Carlos Corona, chief growth officer at Mindgruve, a digital market agency.

“TikTok Shop already has the organic traffic these other platforms are fighting for,” Corona told Rest of World. TikTok Shop has “a huge competitive advantage” in Mexico, which is among the top five countries with the fastest growth rates on TikTok, he said.

Alongside users, these countries also have fast-growing markets for advertising. Brazil and Mexico are the largest markets for advertising for TikTok after the U.S. and Indonesia, according to media agency We Are Social.

Rest of world for more

by MARJORIE COHN

“Having seen what war does … I simply have to do more than hold a sign at a demonstration,” said one veteran organizer.

As the death toll of Palestinians continues to rise and more than a half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine, U.S.-based Veterans For Peace and several allied organizations have launched a 40-day “Fast for Gaza.”

From May 22 to June 30, 600 people in the U.S. and abroad are fasting and demanding full humanitarian aid to Gaza under UN authority and an end to U.S. weapons shipments to Israel.

Mary Kelly Gardner, a teacher from Santa Cruz, California, told Truthout she joined the fast in memory of her late father, a service member in Vietnam who “staunchly opposed U.S. militarism.” He opposed “the so-called ‘war on terror’ and ongoing U.S. violence against Middle Eastern countries,” she said. Gardner is limiting herself to 250 calories for the first 10 days of the fast. “Then I will switch to fasting during daylight (as Muslims observing Ramadan do).”

Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to survive on 245 calories per day; 250 calories daily is considered a starvation diet, as the body breaks down muscle and other tissues. Prolonged fasting can cause dehydration, heart problems, kidney failure and even death.

Gardner is distressed because her “tax dollars are being used to fund this horrific violence” (which, she noted, constitutes genocide) “in the form of weapons shipments.” She feels the need to speak out. Gardner said her goals are to “get people’s attention with a meaningful action” and “engage in a practice that challenges me to be more personally present with the human suffering taking place in Gaza.” She is “intentionally causing myself some discomfort and inconvenience,” yet “not harming myself.”

For 11 weeks, using starvation as a weapon of war, Israel has blocked all food, medicine and other relief from entering the Gaza Strip, home to 2.1 million Palestinians. Now aid is trickling in under the auspices of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a delivery system established by the U.S. and Israel to bypass the UN, provide a fig leaf of aid and blunt global outrage at Israel’s starvation tactics. Risk of famine comes even as Israel intensifies its military campaign. On May 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported at least 54,056 people killed, including at least 17,400 children, and at least 123,129 people injured in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

On the sixth day of the fast, Kathy Kelly, board president of World BEYOND War, told Truthout:

On day 6 of the fast, limiting ourselves to 250 calories per day helps us focus on Gazans with no relief in sight. But Palestinians face intense risks of aerial attacks, sniper assaults, housing demolition, forcible displacement and genocidal threats from Israel and its allies to eradicate them.

On day 6 of the fast, I am wondering about Ron Feiner, the Israeli reservist sent to prison three days ago for refusal to go to Gaza. How is he faring? He told the judge who sentenced him to 20 days in prison that he couldn’t cooperate with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s sabotage of ceasefire agreements. We acutely need his witness. I’m hungry for solidarity.

On day 6 of the fast, we’re remembering the names and ages of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar’s children. Their charred corpses came to her as she worked a shift in the pediatric ward of Gaza’s Khan Younis hospital. Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, her spouse, was gravely injured in the Israeli military attack on their home — an attack which left only one child surviving.

Kelly listed the names and ages of the al-Najjar children: Yahya, 12 years old; Rakan, 10 years old; Eve, 9 years old; Jubran, 8 years old; Ruslan, 7 years old; Reval, 5 years old; Sadin, 3 years old; Luqman, 2 years old; and Sidar, 6 months old. Eleven-year-old Adam, the sole surviving child, was critically injured in the Israeli bombing.

US and Israel Provide Gaza With a Mere Fig Leaf of Aid

The fast comes as the U.S. and Israel have launched a plan in concert with the GHF. The plan is to be carried out by ex-Marines, former CIA operatives, as well as mercenaries connected with Israeli intelligence. GHF has come under increasing criticism from the UN and dozens of international humanitarian organizations.

Ten people have been killed this week and at least 62 were wounded by the Israeli military as starving Palestinians gathered at a GHF aid distribution site in Rafah in southern Gaza. Although Israel says that 388 trucks entered Gaza during the past week, that number doesn’t come close to the requisite 500-600 trucks that entered daily before Israel cut off all aid on March 2.

In January, after spending months making unfounded accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Israel banned it from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. UNRWA is the agency that has provided food, health care and education to Palestinian refugees since 1949. UN Secretary General António Guterres has said that “UNRWA is indispensable in delivering essential services to Palestinians,” and “UNRWA is the backbone of the United Nations humanitarian relief operations” in Gaza.

Aid is trickling in under the auspices of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a delivery system established by the U.S. and Israel to bypass the UN, provide a fig leaf of aid and blunt global outrage at Israel’s starvation tactics.

Guterres slammed the GHF, saying the aid operation violates international law. In a joint statement, two dozen countries — including the U.K., several European Union member states, Canada, Australia and Japan — criticized the GHF model. They charged that it wouldn’t deliver aid effectively at the requisite scale and would tie aid to military and political objectives.

A leaked UN memo reportedly warned against UN involvement in the GHF, saying it could be “implicated in delivering a system that falls short of Israel’s legal responsibilities as an occupying power.” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher called the scheme “a deliberate distraction” and “a fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”

The GHF was established after Israel charged that Hamas was looting aid trucks, a claim refuted by Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and widow of Republican Sen. John McCain.

“Right now, we have 500,000 people inside of Gaza that are extremely food insecure, and could be on the verge of famine if we don’t help bring them back from that. We need to get in, and we need to get in at scale, not just a few dribble [sic] of the trucks right now, as I said, it’s a drop in the bucket,” McCain said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Truth Out for more

by B. R. GOWANI

Speech to Overseas Pakistanis

From April 13 to 16, 2025, First Annual Overseas Pakistanis’ Convention was held at Jinnah Convention Centre (JCC) in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city.

Most important events in Pakistan are incomplete without the presence of the COAS (Chief of the Army Staff) Asim Munir, the current COAS, was in attendance. He is the first Hafiz army chief (memorized the Quran) and is also a Muslim communalist. In May, after the four-day war between India and Pakistan, the government promoted Munir to the rank of field marshal. Some Pakistanis sarcastically quipped Munir should be named “Qaid-e-Azam” or “Great Leader,” the honorific by which Pakistan’s founder M. A. Jinnah is known. Pakistan’s The Express Tribune editorial praised Munir that he deserved it for ensuring “Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and for his courageous defense.” This was absurd exaggeration of a minor conflict. Victory or perceived victory always benefits the ruling elite, hence, the army image got a boost in the Pakistan Gallop poll where 93% respondents said their view of the army had changed positively.

On April 15, Munir addressed overseas Pakistanis (OPs) in a fiery fanatical speech. Before, during, and end of the speech, the audience erupted in applause and shouting slogans such as “Long Live the Pakistan Army,” There were also chants of: “What is the meaning of Pakistan — la ilaha illa -llah’ or There is no god but Allah,” “Long Live Pakistan.”

Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on the army, observed:

“It has made the general stronger than any other previous generals. He is a hero now.”

“It’s an Islamist general [Munir] versus [Modi] a religious strongman.”

(Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Hindu communalist and a very vengeful person who instructs various government agencies to hound journalists and human rights activists. One of them is Teesta Setalvad. Her crime: she has doggedly pursued Modi, under whose watch Gujarat riots happened where most victims were Muslims.)

Praising OPs

Munir began by thanking overseas Pakistanis for the sentiments expressed for the armed forces. He told them they are the “ambassadors,” “warriors,” “soldiers,” and “light of Pakistan which shines in many countries of the globe.” He also touched on their love for Pakistan in the form of investments and remittances.

Munir conveniently avoided the mention of all the Pakistanis who died on the seas or crossing borders, as many of them couldn’t make it in their own country or had desired a better life. They tried for a better way of life, but couldn’t make it and were swallowed by the seas. They couldn’t be the “ambassadors,” “warriors,” “soldiers,” and “light of Pakistan;” thus were lost in the dark depth of the oceans. (In June 2023, more than 300 Pakistanis drowned off the coast of Greece when an overcrowded fishing trawler sank. While Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, 44 Pakistanis died in January 2025. At least 16 died off the coast of Libya in February 2025.)

“Superior”

Munir called OPs “our beloved” and reminded them that they resided in countries with “different civilizations and cultures,” but that they should always remember that Pakistan’s ideology and culture are “superior.” This kind of racist mentality in leaders has always led to discrimination and violence towards minorities and people who are different. Modi is doing the same thing to minorities in India.

One can wonder why didn’t Munir asked overseas Pakistanis to cancel their return tickets and enjoy the homeland’s superior culture and ideology. But Munir knows stoppage of remittances and investments would further screw up the country.

Brain-drain

Then he sarcastically questioned those who say “brain-drain” is happening in Pakistan: Munir asked: is it not the “brain-gain” that’s occurring? This is twisted Munirian logic where brain drain = brain gain! He added, “if this is the brain-drain, then we would like to continue this brain-drain indefinitely.” At least, Munir accepted his real desire– the almighty dollar should keep flowing into the country.

Every now and then, Pakistan asks the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and China to renew previous loans or asks for more loans. Pakistani leaders, including Munir, regularly go to Saudi Arabia and UAE to kiss the leaders’ asses for a billion or couple of billion dollars. So, of course, he would want Pakistanis to stay overseas indefinitely and remit dollars till they depart from this world.

Communalist mentality

Munir wants OPs to tell their children how Pakistan was created, their forefathers beliefs and sacrifices so even the fourth or fifth generation OPs remember it:

“Our forefathers thought that we are different from the Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different. Our traditions are different. Our thoughts are different. Our ambitions are different.”

“… we are two nations, we are not one nation.”

Almost 78 years after Pakistan’s creation, with population of over 95% Muslim, why was it necessary to bring up the two nations rhetoric? By the way, it is actually three nations now: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

In 1971, West Pakistan army’s atrocities, rape, and war on East Pakistanis, provided India an excuse to enter the war to aid East Pakistan, resulting in the formation of Bangladesh: the Indian subcontinent’s third country.

For more than one thousand years, Hindus and Muslims had lived together. It was only after M. K. Gandhi‘s religious ideas that penetrated politics on a national scale thus allowing secular M. A. Jinnah, a couple of decades later, to use Islam and demand a separate homeland: Pakistan. Britain ruled India, then and divided it into Pakistan and India. (Ironically, it was Britain who had consolidated the patchwork of kingdoms that existed before 1947 by direct or indirect rule into the nation of pre-partition India. Before the British, the Mauryan empire 321–185 BCE was able to control most of the Indian subcontinent and almost 1900 years latter, the Mughal dynasty achieved that feat.)

Jinnah’s vision was a secular Pakistan for people of all religions, as well as, non-religious people.

Munir talked about religious difference between the Muslim-majority Pakistan and the Hindu-majority India. But then, weren’t over 80% of the East Pakistanis Muslims too? The Pakistan army indulged in mass butchering of Muslims (and Hindu minority). Where was the Muslim brotherhood then? Muslim and Hindu women were raped on a large scale. Muslim women were raped to implant Islamic seeds because many of the Bengali Muslims were not considered proper Muslims in the eyes of the West Pakistan ruling class, due to their cultural affinity with India’s state of West Bengal.

(Over 14% of India’s population is Muslim. East Pakistan had more than 18% Hindus, but since becoming Bangladesh, the percentage of Hindus has dwindled to 8%.)

In his two nations speech, Munir touched upon customs, traditions, thoughts, and ambitions of Muslims, which he said were different than Hindus. Culturally, East Pakistanis identified more with the bordering Indian state of West Bengal, than their compatriots 1,000 miles away. Muslims from north and west parts of India who migrated to West Pakistan in 1947 were linguistically, culturally, and one should add, in thoughts and ambitions too, closer to their Hindu, Sikh and Christian counterparts in the Indian states they were forced to leave.

About the present: when Munir next visits the US to pay obeisance to his masters, should visit OP work places and small retail businesses to see Pakistanis and Indians (Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians) employing each other or being employed by each other. Many of them, without religious distinction, think about big money and some are also ambitious to reach the heights of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires. Of course, there are many hardcore Modi supporters from India and many extreme Pakistani nationalists, too.

Munir should think of the Hindu and other minorities in Pakistan, about 2%, who already live in fear, and how much more his speech would frighten them. About 1,000 Hindu and Christian girls are converted to Islam annually and are married to their abductors. In Sindh, a rogue leader politician Mian Mitha is involved in lot of conversion cases.

Tariq Ali states that Munir is unique among the top Pakistani dictators:

“The address was clearly designed to make clear to wealthy overseas Pakistanis that the Army runs the country. Some in the audience must have been hired to give standing ovations to the Army Chief’s unprecedentedly crude, uncouth and ignorant remarks. I cannot recall a single military dictator of the country ever speaking in such a fashion. Sandhurst-trained General Ayub Khan was bland and secular. General Yahya Khan was highly entertaining when drunk and avoided public appearances. General Zia-ul-Haq was a religious sadist, but desperate for a deal with India; denouncing Hindus was not his style. General Musharraf was essentially secular, relatively cultured and very keen on a rapprochement with India.”

In Pakistan, the army had been attacked for a long time, especially by Imran Khan’s supporters on social media. Imran Khan, who came to power with military blessing in 2018, was removed in 2022 by the military when he tried to be independent of them. Khan has been in prison since mid-2023 despite the fact that he is the most popular politician in Pakistan. Like Munir, Khan is obsessed with Islam. He talked of turning Pakistan into “Riyasat-i-Madina,” the city where Prophet Muhammad settled after his introduction of Islam in Mecca, and where his religion was not accepted by the majority of Meccans.

There is no deity but Allah

Like former US president George W. Bush, Munir may have had a revelation from God when he disclosed there are two states created in the name of Kalima (Shahada): first one was “Riyasat-e-Tayyiba” (or Riasat-i-Madina) and, 1,300 years later Allah created Pakistan. This idiocy is not new. In the past also he has talked about “Riyasat-e-Tayyiba and Riyasat-e-Pakistan.”

So did Allah create Pakistan and give the key to the army who has sole authority to decide who’ll have to leave the country and who will be allowed to stay. Also, that the army would determine who’ll be out of or in prison at any given time, and who’ll be permitted to speak, or be prohibited, and who’ll loot most i.e., of course, the army.

M. A. Jinnah created Pakistan but Jinnah’s name seems to be anathema to this Islamist, who in his eight minute speech didn’t mention Jinnah even once but he made sure to quote a select couplet from Muhammad Iqbal, who is considered Pakistan’s national poet, who died nine years before Pakistan came into existence.

“Judge not your nation on the criteria of Western nations
Special in composition is the Hashimi Prophet’s nation“

But then Iqbal had also expressed his love for India:

You take the stone idols to contain God
Every speck of the homeland’s dust is holy to me

It is thanks to Jinnah’s Pakistan that Munir got this platform to spew hatred, lies, and baloney.

Jinnah was secular and used to drink, eat pork, donned Savile Row suits, married a Parsi (Zoroastrian) girl Ruttie, and was a totally non-religious person. In the late 1930s, he started portraying himself as a Muslim in public for political purposes.

If we suppose that Allah created Pakistan, the question would be why? Was it so that an army could have a country? If such is the case, why is it that Allah-created Pakistan is forcing out Allah’s believers i.e, Afghan refugees, many born and raised in Pakistan, into Dozakhistan called Afghanistan. Out of less than 4 million Afghan refugees, 845,000 have had to go back since October 2023. Presently, others are also being forced to leave. (It may be noted that, Afghan refugees are a product of the US led war against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.) It’s not only the Afghans, Pakistan doesn’t even want to take back 400,000 to 500,000 stranded Pakistanis (Biharis) in Bangladesh since 1971.

By attributing Pakistan’s founding to Allah, Munir seems to be insulting people of all religions in India and Pakistan, who lost lives (one million), all those women whose honor was violated, and all those (ten million) who migrated from India to Pakistan, and vice versa.

Balochistan

Munir challenged the criticism that investors are shunning Pakistan due to terrorism. He conceded that there was a “little bit of terrorism” but terrorists cannot hijack Pakistan’s “destiny” which is “Balochistan” which is “the chandelier of the forehead of Pakistan.”

Terrorism in Pakistan is not a little bit but substantial. The TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban-e-Pakistan) and other extremist groups commit terrorism with a goal to turn Pakistan into a Taliban-style Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Baloch movements are fighting for their rights, include groups who indulge in terror tactics, because their rights are being completely usurped by the government. They can’t be equated with terrorists because Balochistan is being treated as resource-istan with no benefits to them and without any concern for the welfare or rights of the Baloch people. Those who demand justice are imprisoned, disappear, or eliminated by the militocracy. In a new development, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) has avowed war on Pakistan and also on Balochi rebels because IS-K considers their demands for nationalistic programs unIslamic!

Where as TLP (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan), a religious terrorist outfit, is not treated as such?

The treatment meted out to Balochistan is as a foot slipper rather than a “chandelier of the forehead.”

Munir went in bravado mode: can 1,500 Balochi fighters take away Balochistan from us whom the Indian army of 1.3 million couldn’t “intimidate” and “coerce?”

“Even your next ten generations cannot take [Balochistan]. Allah willing, you will see that we will beat the hell out of these terrorists very soon.”

In less than a quarter century after its creation, Pakistan lost the most populous province of East Pakistan, that is, in just one generation. One wonders if Balochis have the suffering stamina to wait till the eleventh generation to go their separate way if they are not accepted as equal citizens and cannot partake in their province’s wealth. Munir’s threat seems to imply a repetition of the 1971 tragedy. One could only hope Munir is not planning to be a second Yahya Khan. (General Yahya became President in 1969 when general Ayub Khan was forced to step down from the presidency after countrywide protests against his rule. East Pakistan became Bangladesh during Yahya’s rule.)

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the former Pakistan ambassador to China, India, the US and head of UN missions in Sudan and Iraq, sums up the suffering of the Balochi people in these words:

“The number of Baloch killed, Baloch crippled and wounded, Baloch tortured, Baloch missing, Baloch families forever traumatized, and the Baloch intelligentsia almost irretrievably alienated has, over the decades, added up to maybe millions.”

Munir labels critics who disparage the army as Pakistan’s “enemy” and declares that “Pakistan needs to be a hard state.” In simple words, more ruthless and violent than it is now.

Quranic injunction

Munir emphasizes: “Isn’t it that there is nothing more truthful than the Quran for us?” Then he quotes Quranic ayat 49:6 (surat al-hujurat), which his religious fervor mislabeled as surat al-ahzab.

“O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done.”

corpus.quran.com

Munir further adds: social media, instructs you to forward the message as received, without investigating it. Yes, a lot of false information and outright lies circulate the internet but there is also a great deal of news and factual data.

If someone questions why the hell does Inter-Services Public Relations media productions, belong to the Pakistani army, that produce so many documentaries, telefilms, songs, game shows, TV serials, and reality shows, would it be considered false news? (Long list here.)

Ayesha Siddiqa points out how the army uses propaganda medium to project itself as a transformative force:

“Works like Alpha Bravo Charlie (1998), Ehd-e-Wafa (“Promise of Loyalty,” 2019), and Sinf-e-Aahan (“Women of Steel,” 2021) depict the army as an agent of transformation that lifts civilians from their rural background and transforms them into members of a modern, urban, English-speaking middle class who are still respectful and egalitarian in their approach.”

One of the songs by ISPR is about Indian atrocities in Kashmir, “Please, leave my Valley alone.” It would behoove the ISPR to also make a song where Balochis are asking Pakistan army to leave their homeland.

The military is wasting public money to project its image as Pakistan’s savior, while also making money for itself, while poverty is rampant, 45% people live below the poverty line, extreme poverty has shot up more than three times to 16.5%, coffers are empty, and Pakistan is ranked 168 (lowest among all South Asian countries) <1>, and is placed in the Low Human Development category, in the UN HDI (United Nations Human Development Index) 2025 (p. 16). Will this be considered rumor by the army?

The army runs businesses, bakeries, banks, controls 33% of heavy manufaturing, owns 12 million acres or 4.8 million hectares of public land, would the undesirable above facts be considered by the army to be fake news?

People in Balochistan are protesting Pakistan’s security forces killing of three young Baloch men and concealing their bodies, will it be labelled fake accusations? The authorities harassed the protestors. The bodies were just dumped in graves without shrouds. After great effort by Balochis, they were permitted to exhume the bodies which they then buried with proper funeral rites.

Disrespecting corpses has been a usual habit with the authorities in power. More than two millennia ago, Sophocles’ Antigone underwent the same agony when one of her brothers’ body was not allowed to be buried by King Creon, her own maternal uncle.

One could go on but suffice it to say that Munir is not worried about the idiocies and so called cancer-curing formulas on internet but is deeply concerned, along with his colleagues, about saving themselves from people exposing their looting of public assets and silencing, disappearing, and eliminating critics.

Kashmir

On Kashmir, Munir declared:

“It … is our jugular vein. … And we will not leave our Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle that they are waging against the Indian occupation. We have fought three wars for Kashmir.”

Carotid artery is the more appropriate term, than “jugular vein.”

Both India and Pakistan had, for a long time, recognized the LoC (Line of Control) between Pakistan Kashmir and Indian Kashmir. Then on August 5, 2019, Modi revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which had granted semi-autonomous status to Kashmir. It was an extreme and provocative move by Modi to please his Hindutva base at the expense of peace and further alienating the Kashmiris. (Historical background to Article 370 is here.) The Indian Supreme Court upheld the Revocation decision in December 2023, as could be expected under Modi-raj.

Anyways, once the temperature cools down on both sides, the prudent thing would be to discuss reinstating Article 370, increase trade, issue visas, and improve relations rather than both spewing hateful vitriol and nonsense.

Gaza

In his over 515 seconds speech, this Muslim leader had only 13 seconds to spare for Gazans and only two things to say: Pakistan has offered “every kind of support” and have used the “strongest possible words” in support of the Palestinian “Muslims.” Why not include Palestinian Christians and other religious minorities too?

“Every kind” just meant humanitarian aid, not weapons etc. to fight back Israeli forces. “Strongest possible words” are dime a dozen. What is needed are not vague sentences, but some concrete action which could stop the ongoing 20 month genocide.

Munir, along with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and other officials, spent two days in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and pay homage to MbS. (All of them have attended Hajj before, so it was sheer waste of the poor country’s foreign exchange.) The door of Kaaba was opened for Munir and Shehbaz where they offered prayers for Gazans and Kashmiris and thanked Allah for victory against India.

Munir could have utilized his visit, he could have tried to draw MbS’ attention towards Israel’s expansionist and colonial mindset accompanied by its advanced technology which could prove dangerous for the region and leaders whose policies differ from Israel’s. Munir could have added: It would be better if peace is established in Gaza through ceasefire <2>.

Pakistani actor Taqi Ahmed did something daring. He climbed the Tiger Peak mountain range at 20,000 feet with his eight year old daughter (a first) and displayed the Palestinian flag at the top:

Pakistan is rising

Munir ended his speech by emphasizing that “Pakistan has already started rising” and advised people to conquer the hardship and “chart out” the way “Allah has promised you,” and we’ll attain it.

Allah must have whispered the promise only to Munir because no one else seems to know about this.

Pakistan can soar, only if …

If Munir and the politicians are serious to see Pakistan as a successful nation than certain things need to be done:

Verbal Viagra of any amount is not going to help Pakistan stand on its own feet and no bullshitting about Allah’s promise is going to pull Pakistan out of the mess it is in:

• Curb import of luxury items and thus save the country from borrowing more dollars.
• Try to do business with neighbors and other friendly countries, as much as possible, thru barter system or in each others’ currencies rather than dollars.
• Improve relations with India. (Same advice for India, too.)
• Try to work on TAPI (Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India) Gas Pipeline which would be beneficial for the energy sector.
• Economic relations usually lead to better relations in other fields and many times lessen tensions.
• …

Secularism: Behave in a secular manner and use secular language in speeches because the country is not the private estate of any one color, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, or religion but belongs to all citizens: believers of all religions, agnostics, and atheists unlike Modi who treats India as a Hindu state.

No PDA: no public display of Allah. Keep Allah, Islam, Muhammad and Quran in your heart which is the safest, warmest, and loveliest place for them — no one can abuse or burn.

Avoid religious theatrics: The generals and politicians must avoid religious theatrics. Before opening mouth, they should think about minorities and how frightened they are when the leaders use religious terms or symbols reminding them that Pakistan belongs to Muslims only. Pakistan has become too Islamized.

Imran Khan was dreaming of turning Pakistan into Riasat-i-Medina; the army put him behind the bars. Now he must be dreaming of turning the prison cell into his Bani Gala mansion. (Size-wise, the prison cell and his mansion are proportionally roughly, equivalent to Medina and Pakistan, respectively.)

Sahir‘s couplet comes to mind:

I had desired the stars and the moon / but the night’s darkness is what I got

In February 2024, the Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz (ex-PM’s daughter and current PM’s niece) stopped on her way to the Punjab Assembly to cover the head of a female security officer whose stole had slipped. If that officer’s head was not covered, that could mean she didn’t want it covered. Maryam should be worried about her duties first. It’s difficult for these leaders to understand they represent the entire country, not just the conservative Muslims they’re trying to please. Maryam is different in her personal life where she doesn’t cover her head and looks natural especially when she joins a singer to sing a Bollywood song. It would be nice if she stayed the same when in public, too.

A shrewd cleric and shrewder politician, JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, other religious parties, and the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) recently objected to the passing of a long-needed Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill requiring the minimum age for marriage to be 18 and over, calling it “unIslamic.” Pakistan has four provinces (states) and three territories. Sindh is the only other province that passed this law in 2014.

Jinnah once told Tej Bahadur Sapru, a liberal friend and a fellow politician:

“I think I have a solution for the Hindu-Muslim problem. You destroy your orthodox priestly class and we will destroy our Mullahs and there will be communal peace.”

It is well known that for a long time now, the three As, Allah, Army and America have played a major role in putting Pakistan in the state it is in today. It is high time they should go back to their assigned places: Mullahs to the mosques, army to the barracks, and America to take care of its own people working two jobs to survive, and to myriad other problems.

Back to barracks. Munir and his army should go back to the barracks. Their excuse to stay in politics is that civilians can’t handle the country. History shows that it was the army that lost half the country and 55% of the population in 1971, when East Pakistan decided to secede and become Bangladesh.

Abolish blasphemy laws. In Crisistan, Muslim fundamentalists are on the loose and every now and then kill someone in the name of blasphemy or some other religious pretext. That should stop immediately.

Look forward. Try to figure how Pakistan’s problems can be solved in today’s world with present day knowledge and technology rather than fooling people with promise of replicating the Medina of 1,400 year ago. The total population of Medina and Mecca, Pervez Hoodbhoy reminds us, was less than the population of a typical neighborhood in Karachi (Pakistan’s largest city). Today, Pakistan has over 241 million people.

Women. Women need to be treated as equals and must be given equal opportunities in all government departments and private sectors. The Global Gender Report 2025 ranks Pakistan in this regard as being near the bottom of the list.

Speaking at Islamia College for women, Jinnah had stressed the importance of women’s total participation:

“ I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.“

Education

Education is one of the most important pillars that, if used properly, could put a nation on path to success. The current national literacy rate in Pakistan is a mere 59%, one of the lowest in South Asia. India has 77.70% literacy rate.)

In the small Hunza District of about 53,000 people in northern Pakistan, the highest literacy rate for both male/female is 97%. Women work, run businesses, and also take part in sports. A 17 year old Nadia Shams told AFP (Agence France-Presse) news agency:

“Every village in the valley has a women’s soccer team: Gojal, Gulmit, Passu, Khyber, Shimsal.”

In comparison to other rural areas, Hunza women have made more socio/economic progress that is attributed to high literacy rate. (In comparison, Indian state of Kerala has a 94% literacy rate (male 96.02% and female 92.07%. However, Kerala’s population is about 35,000,000.)

In Pakistan, 36% of children ages 5-16, i.e. 26 million, don’t attend school. The federal budget, covers only 10% education budget-90% is provided by individual provinces. The federal allocation for education has gone down in four years from a minuscule 1.0% to 0.7% of total budget – a 30% cut!

Defense budget was 20% more in 2025-26 compared to last year. The sectors of education, health, social benefits, women and children’s issues, poverty, etc. require more money. The 20% increase should be cancelled with a drastic additional reduction to the army budget.

Imran Khan should be released from incarceration, because keeping him imprisoned is not serving any purpose.

Balochistan needs an economic and political solution rather than threat of beating hell out of Balochis. Release all political prisoners, including Mahrang Baloch. Negotiate a political solution and let them run their economy rather than it being dictated by Punjab, the biggest and most dominant province.

Notes

<1> Other South Asian countries on the UN HDI: Afghanistan is 181. Bhutan is 125, both Bangladesh and India are at 130, Nepal at 145, and Myanmar at 150 are in Medium Human Development category. Sri Lanka at 89 and Maldives at 93 are in the High Human Development. (UN HDI pp 15-16).

<2> MbS doesn’t care about Palestinians, he has to be careful about other Saudis who do. In January 2024, then US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asked MbS if it would be OK if, after Saudi recognition of Israel, Israel were to enter Gaza Strip occasionally. Not during six months after recognition MbS replied. 39 year old MbS pointed to70% Saudis being younger to him who have been exposed to Palestine through this war.

“It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”

He expressed fear for his life and gave Egyptian leader Anwar Saadat’s example who was assassinated for signing peace treaty with Israel in 1977 (by betraying the Palestinian cause and people). A Saudi official described the above part of the conversation as “incorrect.”

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

by ISHA CHAUDHARY

In May 2025, celebrated architect Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first woman in the field, was awarded the prestigious Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Lifetime Achievement Award. With a career spanning over 60 years, Lari has become a global figure in socially responsible and climate-conscious architecture, known for her commitment to empowering marginalized communities through sustainable, low-carbon design.

When Yasmeen Lari began her architectural career in the 1960s, she was already stepping into uncharted territory, Pakistan’s first woman architect, trained at the Oxford School of Architecture (now Oxford Brookes), and eager to shape a modern architectural identity for a newly independent nation. Her early commissions, headquarters, housing blocks, and institutional structures echoed the global language of modernism, translated through the materials and climate of Karachi. Concrete, glass, and steel defined her palette, and the aesthetic was distinctly cosmopolitan.

It was the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that catalyzed this transformation. Watching traditional building methods prove more resilient than many modern structures, Lari began developing a new design philosophy rooted in vernacular wisdom and social equity. What emerged was not just a technical framework, but an ethical one. She embraced a model she calls “barefoot architecture,” an approach defined by its accessibility, environmental responsibility, and refusal to centralize authority in the hands of professionals alone.

Her methodology is centered around a quartet of principles she labels the “Four Zeros”: zero carbon, zero waste, zero donor dependency, and zero poverty.

Innovative Projects and Sustainable Solutions

Lari’s dedication to sustainable architecture can be observed by her multiple designs that use materials that are accessible locally, such as mud, bamboo, lime, and thatch. 

Makli’s Zero Carbon Cultural Centre is a teaching center for disaster-resistant architecture. The institute’s architecture features bamboo buildings covered in mud, resulting in economical and environmentally friendly residential choices. This project has resulted in the construction of around 600 more homes in surrounding settlements.

One more notable invention is the Pakistan Chulah Cookstove, an environmentally friendly alternative meant to mitigate the harmful effects of open-fire cooking. The stove, made of regionally obtained mud and CO2-absorbing lime plaster, decreases fuel use by 50-70% and is raised to stay stable during flooding. More than 80,000 of these stoves have been made and painted by villages, encouraging both environmental sustainability and women’s empowerment.

Parametric Architecture for more

by ROMILA THAPAR

Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid on the Somanatha temple in 1026 did not create a Hindu-Muslim dichotomy. Indeed a rigorous historical analysis of five different narratives or representations of what happened yields surprising new insights.

MAHMUD’S raid on the temple of Somanatha and the destruction of the idol has become an event of immense significance in the writing of Indian history since the last couple of centuries. According to some writers, it has been seminal to antagonistic Hindu-Muslim relations over the last thousand years. Yet a careful investigation of the representation of this event and related matters in various sources of this thousand year period suggests that this conventional view is in itself a misrepresentation of the reading of the event in terms of Hindu-Muslim relations.

In 1026, Mahmud of Ghazni raided the temple of Somanatha and broke the idol. Reference is made to this in various sources, or reference is omitted where one expects to find it. Some of the references contradict each other. Some lead to our asking questions which do not conform to what we have accepted so far in terms of the meaning and the aftermath of the event. An event can get encrusted with interpretations from century to century and this changes the perception of the event. As historians, therefore, we have to be aware not just of the event and how we look upon it today, but also the ways in which the event was interpreted through the intervening centuries. An analysis of these sources and the priorities in explanation stem, of course, from the historian’s interpretation.

I would like to place before you five representations of this and other events at Somanatha, keeping in mind the historical question of how Mahmud’s raid was viewed. They cover a wide span and are major representations. The five are the Turko-Persian chronicles, Jaina texts of the period, Sanskrit inscriptions from Somanatha, the debate in the British House of Commons, and what is often described as a nationalist reading of the event.

Let me begin with a brief background to Somanatha itself. It is referred to in the Mahabharata as Prabhas, and although it had no temple until later, it was a place of pilgrimage.¹ As was common to many parts of the subcontinent there were a variety of religious sects established in the area – Buddhist, Jaina, Shaiva and Muslim. Some existed in succession and some conjointly. The Shaiva temple, known as the Somanatha temple at Prabhas, dates to about the 9th or 10th century A.D.² The Chaulukyas or Solankis were the ruling dynasty in Gujarat during the 11th to 13th centuries. Kathiawar was administered by lesser rajas, some of whom were subordinates of the Chaulukyas.

SAURASHTRA was agriculturally fertile, but even more than that, its prosperity came from trade, particularly maritime trade. The port at Somanatha, known as Veraval, was one of the three major ports of Gujarat. During this period western India had a conspicuously wealthy trade with ports along the Arabian peninsula and the Persian Gulf.³ The antecedents of this trade go back many centuries.

Arab raids on Sind were less indelible than the more permanent contacts based on trade. Arab traders and shippers settled along the West coast married locally and were ancestral to many communities existing to the present. Some Arabs took employment with local rulers and Rashtrakuta inscriptions speak of Tajika administrators and governors in the coastal areas.⁴ The counterparts to these Arab traders were Indian merchants based at Hormuz and at Ghazni, who, even after the 11th century, are described as extremely prosperous.⁵

The trade focused on the importing of horses from West Asia and to a lesser extent on wine, metal, textiles and spices. By far the most lucrative was the trade in horses.⁶ And in this funds from temples formed a sizable investment, according to some sources.⁷ Port towns such as Somanatha-Veraval and Cambay derived a handsome income from this trade, much of it doubtless being ploughed back to enlarge the profits. Apart from trade, another source of local income was the large sums of money collected in pilgrim taxes by the administration in Somanatha. This was a fairly common source of revenue for the same is mentioned in connection with the temple at Multan.”⁸

WE are also told that the local rajas – the Chudasamas, Abhiras, Yadhavas and others – attacked the pilgrims and looted them of their donations intended for the Somanatha temple. In addition, there was heavy piracy in the coastal areas indulged in by the local Chavda rajas and a variety of sea brigands referred to as the Bawarij.⁹ As with many areas generating wealth in earlier times, this part of Gujarat was also subject to unrest and the Chaulukya administration spent much time and energy policing attacks on pilgrims and traders.

Despite all this, trade flourished. Gujarat in this period experienced what can perhaps be called a renaissance culture of the Jaina mercantile community. Rich merchant families were in political office, controlled state finances, were patrons of culture, were scholars of the highest order, were liberal donors to the Jaina sangha and builders of magnificent temples.

This is the backdrop, as it were, to the Somanatha temple which by many accounts suffered a raid by Mahmud in 1026. There is one sober, contemporary reference and this comes, not surprisingly, from Alberuni, a central Asian scholar deeply interested in India, writing extensively on what he observed and learnt. He tells us that there was a stone fortress built about a hundred years before Mahmud’s raid within which the lingam was located, presumably to safeguard the wealth of the temple. The idol was especially venerated by sailors and traders, not surprising considering the importance of the port at Veraval, trading as far as Zanzibar and China. He comments in a general way on the economic devastation caused by the many raids of Mahmud. Alberuni also mentions that Durlabha of Multan, presumably a mathematician, used a roundabout way involving various eras to compute the year of the raid on Somanatha as Shaka 947 (equivalent to A.D. 1025-26).¹⁰ The raid therefore was known to local sources.

Fran Pritchett for more

JSTOR DAILY

June is LGBTQ Pride Month, so JSTOR Daily gathered some of our favorite stories to celebrate. All with free and accessible scholarly research.

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the United States, so we’ve collected some of our most popular stories on a range of topics—from pronouns to politics—that highlight the history of the LGBTQIA+ community. As always, links to free JSTOR scholarship are included with each of these.

Livia Gershon April 6, 2025 Lesbian relationships among government workers were seen as a threat to national security in the 1950s. But what constituted a lesbian relationship was an open question.

Sara Ivry September 18, 2024 Portico helps preserve underrepresented community content and collections, including the wide-ranging materials of the Digital Transgender Archive.

Ray Levy Uyeda May 26, 2021 The first DSM, created in 1952, established a hierarchy of sexual deviancies, vaulting heterosexual behavior to an idealized place in American culture.

Livia Gershon February 18, 2023 In the late nineteenth century, historian John Addington Symonds fought back against his colleagues’ refusal to acknowledge historical same-sex relationships.

JSTOR Daily for more