Purifying the Land of the Pure

A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities

Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities

Farahnaz Ispahani salon

Sunday, 11 June 2017

Fieldstead & Company welcomes, author, journalist and former member of Pakistan’s parliament Farahnaz Ispahani, for this discussion on the current state of ethnic and religious strife in Pakistan. Mrs. Ispahani makes clear the complex nature of contemporary Pakistani society, its difficult and at times fraught relationship with both India and the United States and dispels some of the misconceptions regarding the fundamental nature of its religious and ethnic mosaic. Drawing on material from her recent book, Purifying the Land of the Pure: Pakistan’s Religious Minorities (2016), Ispahani provides an unflinching view of the struggles of religious minorities as well as women in Pakistan and what’s been referred to as a ‘slow genocide’ of the former – constituting 23% of Pakistan’s population in 1947 versus a mere 3-4% today. Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians among others, Ispahani argues, have been under assault since the inception of modern Pakistan after its partition from India.

Mrs. Ispahani is a former Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan between 2008 and 2012.

Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities