Pakistan
Ameera Javeria
Ameera Javeria is a Pakistani journalist, whose advocacy for women's rights was seen a challenge to Sharia (Islamic law). Unable to continue working safely in Pakistan, she chose to leave her country. In Pakistan, she worked for The Frontier Post and The Friday Times, front-ranking national publications. Before coming to Canada, she worked as a research scholar at the University of Michigan and received a graduate scholarship from its Women and Gender Studies department. Ameera won a Hellman/Hammett award - which Human Rights Watch administers - in 2005. Currently a PEN Canada writer in residence at the University of Saskatchewan, she is
working on her book, In the line of Fire, that analyses the relationship between crimes against women and religious sanction. Apart from her writing, Javeria teaches courses in journalism writing and gender studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
Tahir Aslam Gora
Tahir Aslam Gora is a Pakistani writer, novelist, poet, journalist, editor, translator and publisher with over 20 years of experience in the media industry. Tahir Gora founded Gora Publishers in 1987, which published more than 200 works of literature and books on the social sciences. He also served as editor-in-chief of the socio-political weekly journal, Hafta, and the literary journal Rujhanaat. He was active in several literary and cultural organizations in Pakistan and was a noted critic of religious intolerance in that country. He fled to Canada in the spring of 1999 following threats to his life. He published and edited weekly Urdu language newspaper Watan from Toronto during 2000-2003. He has published three collections of short stories, one novel and two collections of poems. Some of his work has been translated into Russian and Uzbek. He translated Irshad Manji’s book The Trouble with Islam Today in Urdu in 2005. He is translating Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book Infidel in Urdu. He contributes biweekly column for The Hamilton Spectator. He also contributes as freelance to various European and American media outlets. His second novel in Urdu is in the process of publishing. He is currently at work on two manuscripts; one about Islam, other ‘Understanding Canadian Multiculturalism’.
