My general query to the members on the third-world-women mailing list had brought in quite a few responses and comments on the issue of women's publishing in Asia. I was particularly happy to hear from Saadia, a student at the university of Cornell in the US. She described herself as a 'lurker' but the project had made her interested enough to respond with news about feminist publishing in Pakistan. She had written about ASR and Simorgh.

We had already done the page on ASR by then. ASR (to be pronounced Ass'r) which means IMPACT in Urdu is a non-profit, non-governmental resource centre. It was set up in 1983 as a multidisciplinary, multidimensional group working towards socio-political transformation. ASR's point of departure has been to reexamine and redefine the political and developmental processes which people themselves identify, articulate and struggle for. Sue and Renate knew Nighat Said Khan and had met her at a recent conference on women and violence in England.

ASR

SIMORGH

Simorgh, a Women's Resource and Publication Centre located in Lahore is mainly concerned with women and development and women and religion. Started in 1985 as a part-time initiative and formalised as a full-time organisation in 1995, Simorgh is a non-government, non-profit, feminist/activist organisation.

We have also received information about Shirkat Gah, a resource centre based in Karachi. Established in 1972, the group was set up as a pressure cum lobby and consciousness raising group. It was later expanded to include women's development concerns, networking, income generating projects and non-formal education. Some of the issues it focuses on are violence against women, work and women's health and environment.

Their publications include The Woman not the Womb: Population Control versus Women's Reproductive Rights by Cassandra Balchin, Mumtaz Khawar and Farida Shaheed. The authors of this paper highlight the conceptual problems and shortcomings in the official population policy and review women's status in Pakistan, their reproductive health and rights. Another important publication by them is The Haven Becomes Hell: A Study of Domestic Violence in Pakistan by Yasmeen Hassan. This paper presents a comprehensive picture of the domestic violence situation in Pakistan and explores some of the avenues for protection open to Pakistani women who are victims of violence.

Shirkat Gah can be contacted at:

208-Scotch Corner, Upper Mall
Lahore
Pakistan

Tel:092-42-5760764/5759372/5713718
Fax:092-42-5713714
Email:

sgah@sgah.brain.com.pk

The Institute of Women's Studies, Lahore, emerges from a recognition of the need for a teaching and training institute located in the reality of Asian women's experiences and contributions.

INSTITUTE OF WOMEN'S STUDIES, LAHORE

Give peace a chance. Kalpana Sharma and Ayesha Khan, Fellows at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in Chicago, U. S., expressed "...the shock, bewilderment and anxiety that echoed around the world, and in our countries, when India - and later Pakistan - conducted nuclear tests."