The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan

The story is about three generations of Rafia Zakaria's family with Pakistan's history as the backdrop. Or maybe the story is about Pakistan with the family's story as the backdrop? Either way, this book is a good read.

The 'upstairs wife' Zakaria's Aunt Amina is forced to live with the ignominy of her husband taking a second wife, moving his first wife upstairs and proceeding to spend alternate weeks with the two wives. Meanwhile, outside the family home, wars, assassinations, massacres, coups, and sectarian violence roils Pakistan's history.

Pakistani women live a cloistered, constrained, demeaning life. Aunt Amina's misery is mirrored in the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto strides onto the stage holding the great hopes of women, but ultimately slinks off - symbolizing the extreme corruption and venality of Pakistan's political life. High expectations unfulfilled.

Zakaria's family emigrates to Pakistan from India after Partition, also full of high hopes of a better life. But life is not better than it was in India, and in many ways it is worse, certainly economically and socially. Immigrants are disadvantaged compared to the native born; for instance educational opportunities favour those whose fathers and grandfathers both have Pakistani residency.

This book is not plot driven but proceeds in a series of vignettes describing external events and family events, as the title clearly describes. I wasn't particularly fond of this approach, but it was interesting nevertheless. I would recommend this book - particularly if you are unfamiliar with Pakistan's history, as I was. It certainly helped me put into perspective modern events.

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Zak Ebrahim: I am Not My Father

Zak Ebrahim is an odd name for a Muslim man. Even odder for the son of a terrorist convicted for assassinating a Rabbi. Changing his name is a symbol of his firm rejection of the indoctrination into hatred that was part of his upbringing.

Ebrahim recounted his path to that rejection. A turning point for him was discovering that a friend he'd made at a conference  was Jewish. It was a revelation to him that a Jew could be a nice person. And ironically, he said that a Jewish media person like Jon Stewart was actually a father figure to him because he gained perspective from watching his show.

His declaration "I am not my father" will ring in my ears for a long time. Ebrahim touched everyone in the room and earned a rousing standing ovation for this talk

Feathered Cocaine

One of the exciting things about attending Hot Docs is that you get to 'meet' many fascinating people, who are committed to - or even obsessed - by topics that you knew nothing about. Alan Parrot is such a man and falcons was such a topic.

Alan Parrot, an American, grew up with a passion for falcons. As a young man, he travels to Iran to pursue his passion, and ends up involved in the extremely lucrative trade of falcons from the north sold to rich falconers in the Arab world. Arab falconers so serious about their sport that they are willing to pay into seven figures for the right falcon. As Parrot realizes that he is trading these birds into a quick death since they can't survive in the desert, and contributing to the falcons becoming an endangered species, his remorse leads him to dedicate himself to stopping the trade.

As he struggles to raise awareness and spark action to stop this trade (allegedly the fourth biggest illegal trade in the world, after drugs, arms, and people), he comes upon another aspect of this sport. Middle East Arabs feels most relaxed and serene when they are in the desert hunting their falcons, and they have what we'd call 'meet-ups' for up to a week of hunting together. Parrot discovers this is a particularly popular pastime of terrorists, particularly Osama bin Laden. The film includes an interview with someone who's spent time in the desert with Osama, and points out this would be when he's most exposed for people searching for him.

Parrot is a striking, tall man, wearing the turban of his adopted religion Sikhism. The movie, and the interview with him after the film, showed a passionate and single-minded devotion to pushing this issue in the US and the UN.