The author, who spent her childhood in Pakistan, underwent a female genital mutilation procedure when she was seven years old. Having lived in the States for many years as a young adult, she reflects on the effects of this procedure on her sexuality and her relationship to her family, especially her mother.
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Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, featuring The Big Roundtable, Down East, The Believer, Pacific Standard, and The Atlantic.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘Good Girls From Good Families Don’t Write About Sex’
Soniah Kamal dared to read—and then write—literature considered explicit by conservative Muslim society. The backlash was intense. Read more from “Girls From Good Families” at The Butter.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A New York Times Reporter's Discovery About Pakistan and Bin Laden
In trying to prove that the ISI knew of Bin Laden’s whereabouts and protected him, I struggled for more than two years to piece together something other than circumstantial evidence and suppositions from sources with no direct knowledge. Only one man, a former ISI chief and retired general, Ziauddin Butt, told me that he thought […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden
Did Pakistan know that Osama bin Laden was hiding inside the country? Carlotta Gall, who’s been reporting for the Times from Afghanistan and Pakistan, investigates: Finally, on a winter evening in 2012, I got the confirmation I was looking for. According to one inside source, the ISI actually ran a special desk assigned to handle […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Ship-Breakers
Bangladeshi men looking for work often end up doing one of the world’s most dangerous jobs: Oceangoing vessels are not meant to be taken apart. They’re designed to withstand extreme forces in some of the planet’s most difficult environments, and they’re often constructed with toxic materials, such as asbestos and lead. When ships are scrapped […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Theorizing the Drone
What does the rise of the drone mean for justice, for the ethics of heroism, for psychology? Most important of all, who is dying and why?
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
Theorizing the Drone
What does the rise of the drone mean for justice, for the ethics of heroism, for psychology? Most important of all, who is dying and why?
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Suit Who Spooked the EPA
John Beale could always be counted on to get the toughest jobs done at the Environmental Protection Agency and garnered respect and admiration from fellow staff members. But when he began taking days off to do work for the CIA while still collecting his full salary, something didn’t add up: The first time anyone broached […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Surge
Health care workers are attempting to eradicate polio by penetrating remote areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan controlled by the Taliban: Because all the Afghan polio cases in 2013 have been reported here in the eastern half of the country, these National Immunization Days have special importance in this region. As with the global campaign writ […]
