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Tag: social media

  • Another Pakistani artist receives global praise as Ustad Noor Bakhsh gets featured in Guardian

    Another Pakistani artist receives global praise as Ustad Noor Bakhsh gets featured in Guardian

    Ustad Noor Bakhsh made our hearts swell when a viral video on Twitter showed him playing to an enthralled bar in Berlin. The video received more than a million likes on social media platforms, which is amazing because this was the Baloch musician’s first ever tour to Europe.

    Now, Noor Bakhsh has been featured in the prestigious Guardian, where he opened up about how he came to embrace his musical talent. He revealed that he was born in a nomadic family that herded goats and cattle across Makran in Balochistan. At the age of 12, he was selected by his master, Ustaad Khuda Baksh, to become his pupil. Two years later, Noor Bakhsh began performing at weddings and healing ceremonies, and a year later he was singer Sabzal Sami’s accompanist.

    When Noor Bakhsh was 16, he relocated to Turbat where Sami arranged his marriage so he would stay there- and continued to do so for the next 30 years. Noor Baksh still kept pushing himself to learn to sing by listening to the legendary benju player Bilawal and Misri Khan Jamali, who played the alghoza. He went through tragedies in the meantime, including the death of his first wife and then two sons.

    It was through meeting Ahmed, his manager, who teaches Anthropology at Habib University and discovered him after watching a viral video of him on Facebook, when Noor Bakhsh catapulted to fame. He introduced Noor Bakhsh to British-Pakistani DJ and producer Nabihah Iqbal who was organising the first Boiler Room show in Karachi, and described the Baloch musician as incredible, whom she couldn’t just ignore:

    “His music is just incredible and [his instrument] is kind of unusual, even in Pakistan,” gushed Iqbal.

  • Pakistan’s famous blue-eyed chaiwala opens café in London

    Pakistan’s famous blue-eyed chaiwala opens café in London

    You guys remember the chai wala who went viral internationally after his pictures was shared in 2016 by a photographer Jiah Ali? He went overnight from opening a chai stall in Islamabad, to getting modelling contracts from fashion brands. And now, Arshad Khan is set to make a chai cafe in London, after fans from the UK had requested to taste the karak chai made by the maestro himself.

    The official handle shared by Arshad’s instagram page is @chaiwalauk_ak, and he had shared a video of the design preps to set up the cafe.

    The official website of the page shared that it was Arshad’s love of chai and his hard work that had led him to open three outlets in Pakistan, and now will be opening a cafe in London.

    “Chai has been in his blood (considering the amount of chai that is consumed in South Asia, that could be true!) since he was a young boy – that is all he has seen, smelt and made. From a humble background to a handsome superstar chaiwala overnight, that’s quite some journey! He worked hard, stayed focus and did what he’s best at, which is making amazing chai.

    ‘Cafe Chaiwala Arshad Khan’ has 3 outlets in Pakistan and we are now bringing the first of many international outlets to the UK. Our cafe will immerse you in the traditional ambience with a fusion of culture and elegance. Here you will find a variety of chai with unique ingredients and great tasting food; there is something for everyone.”

    The Instagram page also shared some videos of the cafe and honestly it warms our heart to witness the well deserved reward of a hard working man, who rose from being a street vendor to becoming an international star

  • ‘Qabool hai’ is for the woman too Moulvi sahib, not her father

    ‘Qabool hai’ is for the woman too Moulvi sahib, not her father

    In the wildest twist of events, it turns out that sometimes, even during your Nikkah, women are not asked if they accept the marriage or not.

    A video went viral on Instagram where television host Aisha Abrar was seen sitting for her Nikkah with her husband, where the molvi was seen asking her husband about whether he had accepted the marriage. He did not ask Aisha for her consent. Her husband asked the molvi to ask his wife for whether she had consented to the marriage. Aisha wrote on Instagram:

    “I told him all I really want is to say: “Qubool hai” which I never got to say . I did not only want to sign the papers and be done with it.

    The Maulvi sahab did not give me a chance to say “Qubool hai” so my boyo ensured I get to say something affirmative also. Qubool hai ki bajaaye manzoor hai but hua to sahi!”

    We would like all women to remember that during your Nikkah, it is important for the moulvi sahib to ask the girl and the boy separately if they wish to get married. It’s not the girl’s representative, who answers this question for her.

    The video had received over 30,000 likes on Instagram with many users applauding the husband for taking a stand and acknowledging his wife’s right.

    ‘It’s important to ask the girl herself…glad your partner took a stand for you,” another user wrote.

    Women shared their own stories in the comments section as well of the times they had taken a stand and asked that they are consulted about their consent before signing the nikkahnama.

  • Two women allegedly gang-raped, paraded naked in India

    Two women allegedly gang-raped, paraded naked in India

    In a shocking sequence of events, a viral video from May 4 shows two women from Kangpoki district, Manipur, being paraded on the streets naked after being gang-raped in a field. According to the statement posted by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF):

    “…The despicable scene, which happened on May 4 in Kangpokpi district, shows the men constantly molesting the helpless women, who cry and plead with their captors.”

    “The horrifying ordeal suffered by these innocent women is amplified by the perpetrators’ decision to share the video, which shows the identity of the victims, on social media,” ITLF further wrote, appealing to the National Commission For Women and the National Comission for Scheduled Tribes to intervene and arrest the aggressors.

    According to The Wire, the incident happened after tribal clashes between the Meitei and Kuki community in Manipur on May 3. The violence began when tribal groups held a solidarity march against the demand to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community. A mob burned down houses and accosted five people who were trying to flee the violence. Two men in the group were murdered, and the other women were forced to strip.

    The Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani had condemned the incident on her Twitter account yesterday and revealed that she had spoken with Chief Minister N Biren Singh to order the police and investigate this crime to take speedy action against the perpetuators.

    According to Outlook, the Indian government has issued an order to social media websites like Twitter to take down the video

  • Gulistan-e-BTS: Karachi K-pop fan plasters neighborhood with Jung Kook pictures

    Gulistan-e-BTS: Karachi K-pop fan plasters neighborhood with Jung Kook pictures

    BTS army ftw!

    It warms our hearts to see kay aaj kal kay tidday kitnay jazbay say apnay shauq dikhatay hain. Particularly how popular Korean bands are among them.

    A BTS fan Alina, took her love for the Korean musicians to the streets when she promoted Jung Kook’s single ‘Seven’ across the streets of Karachi by posting images everywhere, and we must say this is the kind of planning and task execution even senior officials cannot show!

    Alina, whose Twitter account goes by kimtnam, shared pictures of the posters she had plastered in different areas of Karachi like Dar ul Sehat, Rufi Lake Drive Gate and Pedestal Bridge opposite Karachi University.

    Honestly we love how Twitter users are supporting Alina in expressing her love for Jung Kook rather than shutting her down.

    There was also a rickshaw in Lahore which was promoting Jung Kook’s single, we love how creative this fandom is!

    We love watching this kind of dedication, just as much as we’re loving ‘Seven’!

  • Fawad Chaudhry’s 2019 video misrepresented by Indian media as response to Chandrayaan-3

    Fawad Chaudhry’s 2019 video misrepresented by Indian media as response to Chandrayaan-3

    A video of former information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, has been circulating on Indian media, purportedly showing him responding to India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission. In the video, Fawad is heard saying that Pakistan did not feel the need to work hard and send a moon mission, which has led to ridicule from Indian social media users.

    However, it is important to clarify the context of this video. The video is dated back to May 26, 2019, during which Fawad Chaudhry served as the Minister of Science and Technology in Pakistan. He was discussing disputes over sighting the Ramzan and Eid moons and announcing the release of a 5-year lunar calendar with the assistance of the science ministry. His statement was related to the moon sighting for the Islamic festivals and was not a direct response to India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission.

    During the TV show in May 2019, Chaudhry was referring to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s viewpoint on the sighting of the Eid moon. He stated, “We have a point of view in the Ministry of Science and Technology. Wherever the moon is, it is visible. Its location is known. It is known when the moon birth is taking place. Where it will be at what altitude, it is known exactly.” This statement had no connection to Chandrayaan-3, as it predates the mission by more than 4 years.

    Unfortunately, some Indian media outlets published this old video without proper research and presented it as a recent interview related to the Chandrayaan-3 mission. This led to misinterpretation and ridicule of Fawad Chaudhry on Indian social media platforms.

    In summary, the viral video of Fawad Chaudhry is not related to India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, but rather pertains to moon sighting for Islamic festivals and dates back to May 2019. The claims of his recent mocking of the Chandrayaan-3 mission are not accurate and should be treated with caution to avoid misrepresentation.

  • Buzzfeed’s AI-generated Barbie Dolls article faces backlash for racial stereotypes

    Buzzfeed’s AI-generated Barbie Dolls article faces backlash for racial stereotypes

    Popular website Buzzfeed published an article featuring AI-generated images of Barbie Dolls from every country around the world. The piece has received extreme backlash for promoting racist micro-aggressions and cultural inaccuracies, which prompted the website to delete the article from all of their social media pages.

    Buzzfeed had given a brief disclaimer before the article that they acknowledged the biases and stereotypes demonstrated by AI models, clarifiying that these depictions should not be seen as accurate or comprehensive portrayals of human experiences.

    The article featured Barbies from all around the world, including one from Pakistan, who looked more like she stepped out of an Arabian fantasy book rather than from the streets of Lahore or Karachi.

    And the Barbie from India looks a lot more like subcontinent’s colonial masters than Deepika Padukone, the ACTUAL Barbie.

    And don’t even get me started on what the Afghanistan Barbie looks like. It’s a shame how a vibrant culture is reduced to burqas by racist algorithms

    A lot of the dolls featured in the article from Asian countries like Vietnam and Korea were wearing inaccurate clothing along with white-washed features.

    A Barbie from South Sudan was seen carrying a gun, drawing outrage from users.

    https://twitter.com/wagatwe/status/1677690070445309952?s=20

  • Imran Khan accumulates 27 lac followers in a day on TikTok

    Imran Khan accumulates 27 lac followers in a day on TikTok

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan received a warm welcome by his supporters on TikTok with 1 million users following him in less than 24 hours.

    Imran Khan decided to join TikTok yesterday [Tuesday], with his fans flooding the account with likes and follows. The followers count has crossed two million now and rests at 2.7 m as of Wednesday morning.

    Khan has also uploaded two videos which gathered 4.5 m likes till present. In one video, the PTI chairman thanked people for the love and generous likes and also reminded them to get their votes registered before the elections.

    @imrankhan.pti

    Thank you to all of you on TikTok for the grand welcome. I want you all to verify your vote by sending your CNIC at 8300 via sms today. July 20th is the deadline. These upcoming elections are going to be decisive for our country!

    ♬ original sound – Imran Khan Official

    His supporters have also been showcasing the popularity of their leader on Twitter, sharing the likes and followers Imran Khan got on TikTok in just 24 hours.

  • Groping a girl okay, if it’s less than ten seconds, rules Italian court

    Groping a girl okay, if it’s less than ten seconds, rules Italian court

    Trigger warning: discussion of harassment, victim blaming

    Protests and demonstrations are erupting in Italy after a judge cleared a man of charges of sexual harassment of a teenager because the groping had lasted “a handful of seconds”.

    The survivor, a 17 year old student, took 66 year old Antonio Avola to court when he groped her in school while she was walking up the staircase with a friend in April 2022.

    She recalled her trousers fell from her waist and as she was pulling them up, she felt a hand touching her buttocks and then grabbing her underwear to lift her up by an inch.

    When she turned around, the caretaker brushed off the harassment by saying “Love, you know I was joking.”

    Avola confessed to the groping in court but said it was a joke. Prosecutors were seeking a three year jail term if convicted.

    However, the judge ruled that the grope could not be counted as harassment since it lasted “between five to 10 seconds” and was too short to be considered a crime. The judgement also ruled:

    “Furthermore, it seems likely that the brushing of the buttocks was caused by an awkward manoeuvre of the defendant which, due to the dynamics of the action, was carried out while the subject was in motion.”

    This ruling has outraged Italians who protested by posting 10 second videos of themselves touching private body parts along with the hashtag “palpata breve” (brief grope) and “10 secondi” (10 seconds).

    Speaking to The New York Times, ‘The White Lotus’ actor Paolo Camilli, who had participated in the trend, spoke about how outrageous the ruling was.

    “My first thought was, how can a person measure 10 seconds while they were being molested”, he said, further pointing out that 10 seconds can be an infinity for someone in a painful situation.

    Popular Italian influencer Francesco Cicconetti slammed the ruling in a video shared to his 200,000 followers on Instagram, writing that no man is allowed to turn a woman into their property.

    “Women’s bodies are not men’s property. Owned by no one but women themselves. It’s not the father who wants to hand it over to the husband, it’s not the boyfriend who wants to hide it, it’s neither the mate who wants to govern him, it’s nor the son who wants to protect him, he’s not the brother who wants to defend his honor.”

  • Factcheck: Is Afghan singer Hasiba Noori dead?

    Factcheck: Is Afghan singer Hasiba Noori dead?

    Claim: Afghan singer Hasiba Noori had been killed in Peshawar

    On Monday, social media was ablaze with news that Afghan singer Hasiba Noori had passed away in Pakistan under mysterious circumstances, having taken refuge here after the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Conflicting news reports emerged on social media where accounts said she had passed away in Peshawar, while others said that she had been killed in Quetta.

    A journalist, Izharullah, shut down rumors of Noori’s death in Peshawar, saying that there was no such information available with the police.

    However it was senior journalist Iftikhar Firdous who took to his Twitter account to say that the news was fake, and the Afghani singer is alive and well in Quetta.

    The Current spoke with Firdous on how he reached out to the Afghan singer, and he revealed that he had managed to get in touch with Noori after contacting at least 300 people for 12 hours. Firdous had a video call with Noori, which confirmed that his source was reliable and the news that she died was fake.

    On the viral picture of Noori’s alleged corpse lying in a hospital bed, Firdous revealed that it was taken after a surgery in Karachi, the singer had clarified.

    Currently, Noori is in Quetta, and has informed Firdous that she will post a video to squash these rumors.

    The claim is false.

    The singer also shared a video on her TikTok account to silence the rumors.