Summer Qassim
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Summer Qassim is a writer and commentator on global affairs and culture. Her work has appeared internationally in business, arts and culture publications and academic journals from Beirut to Los Angeles. She currently teaches Arabic and works as a freelance writer in Pakistan.

Blog Entries by Summer Qassim

Karachi Is Bizarro

Posted December 24, 2010 | 04:06:58 (EST)

Bizarro World, a DC comics invention, is ruled by codes which attest to its supreme opposite-ness of Earth, beginning with its name Htrae, or Earth backwards. Bizarro World is ruled by maxims like "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to...

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Pakistan Needs More Facebook Friends

Posted May 21, 2010 | 05:27:37 (EST)

Pakistanis -- despite what you may hear these days -- are not without senses of humor. A few months ago, Pakistan's version of the Onion, the Maila Times posted about China not being Pakistan's BFF anymore on Facebook, because of all the wall posts by U.S. diplomats....

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Who Has the Akbar Zib?

Posted February 10, 2010 | 16:00:59 (EST)

The Saudis rejected Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zib as Ambassador (at large?) on the grounds that his name translates to 'biggest dick.' I alternate from feeling sorry for the guy, to marveling at reading the words 'Pakistani', 'diplomat', and 'biggest dick' all in the same sentence.

These types of...

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Beard Feared, Sheared

Posted November 29, 2009 | 15:50:19 (EST)

There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless--boys and women--and I am neither one."- - Greek saying

A woman with a beard looks like a man. A man without a beard looks like a woman. - Afghan saying

Please set aside notions of a carnivalesque...

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