Featured Writings
Sparrow
Reem Arshad Khan
'Sparrow' is a prose poem that uses vivid imagery and symbolism to examine childhood trauma, dissociation, and learned control, revealing how love, fear, and innocence become dangerously entangled.
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Hussain Aamir
Cancel My Subscription by Hussain Aamir reflects on childhood, memory, and loss, tracing the shift from youthful innocence to adulthood’s grey realities, change, and the ache of unfulfilled dreams.
Gudiya
Izza Khan Niazi
'Gudiya' by Izza Khan Niazi explores motherhood, memory, and emotional fragility, delving into the quiet tensions of domestic life, care, and the subtle complexities of mental and emotional wellbeing.
Desired, Not Known
Iman Shehryar
Desired, Not Known is a raw meditation on longing, self-worth, and the ache to be seen beyond the body. The poem examines desire, vulnerability, and the quiet cost of seeking love without being truly known.
Some Poems Are Prayers
Mahnoor Rehan
'Some Poems Are Prayers' by Mahnoor Rehan is a quiet exploration of faith, longing, and self-expression, where private moments of struggle and hope transform into gentle, personal poetry.
The Constitution of the Mutilated Landscapist
Eman Rehman
The Constitution of the Mutilated Landscapist reflects on land, history, and resilience. It examines colonization, human violence, and environmental scars while tracing the enduring spirit of people shaping and reclaiming their world.
The Work Hair Does
Sidra Nisar
The Work Hair Does by Sidra Nisar is an essay on hair as emotional autobiography—exploring impulse haircuts, cultural codes, gender norms, and class divides through a South Asian lens, revealing hair as diagnostic, not merely decorative.
The Cycle Repeats
Noor-E-Rabi
The Cycle Repeats explores arranged marriage, tradition, and societal expectations, tracing the quiet tensions, hidden emotions, and the subtle dissonance between appearances and inner life.
The Flame and the Verse
Jaza Sultan
'The Flame and the Verse' by Jaza Sultan: dystopian Noorabad tale where a librarian martyrs himself protecting banned books, exploring resistance, sacrifice, and how forbidden words outlive their authors.
Evocation
Abdullah Ali Khan
A profound meditation on love, loss, and devotion, blending grief with reverence as it reflects on memory, longing, and the sacredness found in what remains.
My mother buys vegetables at a roadside stall
Ayesha Saqib
A subtle reflection on love, memory, and the weight of small, unspoken gestures, revealing how everyday moments quietly shape the connections that linger in our lives.
Paparazzi
Marium Ahsan
A meditation on visibility, surveillance, and reclaiming public space. Explores what it means to exist under constant scrutiny and the quiet defiance required to move through the world.
Good girls don’t stare at their own thighs.
Hamda Abbas
An emotional, lyrical dive into longing and identity, tracing the quiet struggle between internalized guilt and the freedom to feel without fear.
Permit Me Not
Abdullah Ali Khan
A contemplative meditation on longing, Permit Me Not by Abdullah Ali Khan traces the tension between desire and restraint, where love becomes both a solace and a burden.
First Love
Haniah Nawabi
A tender set of reflections on firsts—love, loss, and moments that reshape us—capturing the anticipation, ache, and quiet wonder that come with emotional beginnings.
Becoming
Fatimah Binte Rahat
A reflection on feeling lost in your twenties—treading water while others move forward, held together by habit, yet still showing up. Maybe that's enough for now.
This Autumn
Aliha Ahsan
A lament for a heart that has withered too soon. This piece captures the ache of emotional exhaustion and the feeling of losing softness and warmth before your time.
The Women Who Raised the Monsters, Then Wept When Bitten
Anamta Choudhary
Explores the paradox of how women perpetuate the very systems that harm them. A raw examination of double standards, entitlement, and the quiet ways patriarchy is passed down through kitchens and expectations.
Log Kya Kahenge?
Rubab Zahra
A satirical survival manual on navigating impossible expectations. This piece dissects the suffocating contradictions women face at every turn, where every choice is wrong and approval is always out of reach.
Lawn Fever
Adenah Furquan
'Lawn Fever' by Adenah Furquan explores themes of displacement, cultural reclamation, and maternal bonds through Pakistan's luxury fabric obsession, finding small victories and purpose amid upheaval.
Recipe for Izzat
Beenish Farhan
A haunting exploration of violence masked as honor. This piece examines how brutality is justified, celebrated, and passed down as duty while its victims are erased.
The Anatomy of Silence
Ayesha Saqib
In this piece, hidden rooms of memory and grief reveal how survival can be both painful and transformative, where every day carries the weight of what was lost.
The Scale Must Be Lying
Alishba Asif
Confronts the internalized shame and relentless pressure around body image. This piece explores self-worth, societal expectations, and the painful journey toward self-acceptance and compassion.
My body reminds me I'm alive by trying to kill me
Maheen Sohail Malik
A powerful reclamation of bodily autonomy and the shame imposed on menstruation. This piece transforms pain and silence into defiance, rejecting the stigma that surrounds a natural process.
Life Beyond Death
Ahmed Rayan Malik
A contemplative exploration of existence, mortality, and the cycles that connect all life, inviting reflection on presence, change, and the nature of being.