Do we not bleed?

by Mehr Tarar

Reflections of a 21st century Pakistani

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Anil Swarup · Rating 3 out of 5]

By author's own admission "the book is about the real Pakistan, Pakistan that is not propaganda of its worst critics, or the dire consequences of its bad policies". The book begins on a very promising note as Mehr admits that "religious persecution of Christians, Hindus, Shias and Ahmedis made it impossible for Pakistan to become the pluralist society envisaged by its founder". She goes on to quote Jinnah to drive home her point. There are also some extremely riveting stories, like the one of Muniba, as she condemns the political and social narrative in Pakistan as "linear, rigid, regressive, repressive and very limiting". However, the book meanders. Wish it could have sustained the profundity and the depth it began with. The author has taken pains to write a number pages on her fondness for Amitabh Bachhan. What has he to do with the "bleeding" of Pakistan? Her desire to bring India and Pakistan appears to be extremely well intentioned but it does not gel as a part of the book.

[Swarnima · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a compilation of stories every day around us, reading this I realised borders don’t create such differences as minds do. It’s the daily struggles of survival that makes the most infamous of places sound so relatable, stories like these give the real pictures and not the glamorised ones.

[Chaahat Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has stories based on subjects like Religious Prosecution and honor killing .Stories offers a glimpse on condition of these women’s , who are victim of patriarchy and socio-religious stigmas.
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Sharing few things from the book,spoiler ahead.
There are thousands of woman’s killed every year by their own family members because they brought shame to their family in some way or the other.
There is a story of a young girl who was burned to death with the help of her own mother because she was outspoken and would not give in to men who ill treated her and then there is story of Qandeel Baloch who was killed by her own brother because she chose to show off her sexuality online.
Author has also talked about ,Salmaan Taseer the governor of Punjab who was killed by his own security commando in 2011 because he wanted to bring changes in the strict law on blasphemy which makes a life sentence or death mandatory for ‘usage of derogatory remarks , spoken and written”. There are few inspiring stories as well in the book , like that of Muniba Mazari , the Iron Lady of Pakistan.

[Ashok Choudhary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with very good and hard-hitting stories.

[Dhananjay Kulkarni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather repetitive and a bit melodramatic. I did not complete the book.

[Nelofer Halai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not like it. Could barely finish it.