Brookings Institution: Madiha Afzal
Date and Time
Feb 4, 2018 5:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Feb 4, 2018 5:00 pm
450K
Madiha Afzal is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is also an adjunct assistant professor of global policy at Johns Hopkins SAIS and was previously an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. She writes regularly for Pakistani and international publications and has been a consultant for the World Bank and DFID. For her writing on education in Pakistan, she was named to Lo Spazio della Politica’s list of Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2013.
In recent years, Pakistan has been defined exclusively in terms of its struggle with terror. Breaking away from this one-dimensional approach, Madiha Afzal uses survey data, interviews, historical reporting, and her own intuitive understanding of the country to present a complete picture of Pakistan’s relationship with extremism.
In Pakistan Under Siege, Afzal lays out Pakistanis’ views on terrorist groups, jihad, non-Muslims, America, and their place in the world. She examines the rhetoric and actions of the military, civilian governments, and Islamist parties and how regressive laws instituted in the 1980s shaped citizens’ attitudes and led to mob violence. Finally, Afzal explains the impact the educational regime has had on Pakistanis’ attitudes about terrorism and the rest of the world, offering suggestions on how Pakistan can change course.
