Anmol Irfan

Last week, I reached out to someone on Whatsapp to schedule an interview. We ended up chatting in Urdu – the actual Urdu script, not Roman Urdu – and I realised just how unfamiliar I am typing in my native script.

I guess it’s not surprising. As so much of our phones and interfaces are in English, I rarely use Urdu online. But as my grandmother would say: these phones have ruined everything. In this case, she’s not completely wrong.

I’m Anmol Irfan, a Pakistani journalist and author of the ei...

Over nine months into the violence that has been ransacking the lives of Palestinians, efforts to help are coming from all corners of the globe. As news outlets and social media feeds are flooded with endless images of violence against children, some in the Global North have expressed a desire to adopt Palestinian children to give them a chance at a better life.
This isn’t the first time that citizens in the Global North have wanted to adopt children from a specific crisis zone. In the late 1...

Earlier this year, Iraq opened three new galleries in the Basra Museum to display artifacts recently returned from the United States and other countries. Many of these objects had been looted and smuggled out of Iraq following the 2003 US invasion. Over two decades later, calls to repatriate these stolen objects were finally met with success, but not without significant effort.
Across the world, there has been an increased push over the last five years to demand the return of looted artifacts...

For years, gender activists have been trying to draw attention to the disproportionate ways in which the climate crisis has been affecting women and girls. Studies show that by 2050, climate change may push 158 million more women and girls into poverty, which is 16 million more women

Cooled Prospects for Gender Justice from COP29
For years, gender activists have been trying to draw attention to the disproportionate ways in which the climate crisis has been affecting women and girls. Studies show that by 2050, climate change may push 158 million more women and girls into poverty, which is 16 million more women and girls at risk than men and boys at the same level. For gender activists, there were small victories at this year’s United Nations COP29 climate change conference...

When 30-year-old Mahnoor Lodhi, who lives in Karachi and is a content creator by profession, was in university, a stalker copied her photos from her personal social media profiles and posted them publicly with her phone number and captions like ‘professional whore’. She says, “Things spiralled out of control. I would get calls, I would get harassed a lot. It made me go offline for a while.”
Mahnoor wanted to create her blog for a while at the time, but this incident rattled her and kept her a...

Over the last five months, there’s been a line drawn within the world of celebrities. A line that’s done little on the ground to be honest, but one that’s there nonetheless.
Since 7th October, most celebrities across the world have used their platforms to speak out regarding the violence in Palestine. Most have taken to what they call ‘neutral’ statements, like Rihanna, clearly playing to both sides, condemning violence without speaking the perpetrators’ name, with some like Gal Gadot openly ...

Aerial fitness influencers inspiring body positivity
Feb 8
social mediawell-beingwellnesspole dancingaerialinfluencersfitnessmental healthexercisebody imageself loveconfidencemovementhealth

When the Oscar nominations were announced in late January, they led to a buzz online. Usually that’s pretty standard every year but this time things seemed a little bit different.
Along with the usual discussions and opinions being shared on who should and shouldn’t have been nominated, a lot of Oscar “discourse” focused on the fact that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig weren’t nominated for Best Actress and Best Director respectively.
Many viewers felt that Robbie and Gerwig had been shunned, ...

01.18.2024
As social media personalities continue to push online shops, affiliate links, and ultra-fast fashion brand deals, consumerism is reaching a new peak. But where do eco-content creators advocating for more ethical lifestyle choices fit into the influencer economy?
Last year, when Mashal Mush posted about her wedding, one thing in particular stood out: this was the first desi wedding I’d seen where the bride was proudly sharing that she’d worn a pre-loved gown. It made me think about ...

The recent hostage deal reached between the government of Israel and Hamas has seen the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons. The framing of these deals is telling, especially as it is another example of a focus on Palestinian women and children which – while important to highlight – also seems to erase the humanity and potential innocence of Palestinian men deliberately. While dehumanisation isn’t new, t...