Katie Finn is a philanthropist from the United States who has traveled with volunteer organizations through different countries. During her travels, she visited Bosnia and met refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries, who are living in life-threatening conditions. These individuals are engaged in a perilous endeavor known as "the game," where they risk their lives attempting to cross into Europe in search of better opportunities.

This episode was recorded in early 2021, but was only published in 2024. THe situation in Bosnia has not changed much, Katie says, and the crisis remains unresolved.

Want to help? Here are some resources from Katie:

Katie worked for No Name Kitchen in Bosnia. "They help People on the Move all over Europe with medication, first aid, critical supplies, food and advocacy, all for free. They are awesome, grassroots and do everything through donations. "
https://www.nonamekitchen.org

"The next link is to my nonprofit in Tennessee that helps refugees and immigrants who are brought here or who settle here and need any kind of help. We deliver food, home goods, translation, diapers, transport, English classes and spiritual support to Muslim immigrants by connecting them to mosques and providing transport. "
https://tennesseeresettlementaid.org

Katie is also happy to help you directly! Feel free to email her [email protected]

Follow the Balochistan times on Instagram.

Further reading on the issues:

• Written by Sheraz: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2022/02/reducing-environmental-social-costs-chinese-investments-pakistan/
• https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/22/resolving-the-baloch-issue-is-in-pakistans-political-and-economic-interest
• https://thediplomat.com/2016/08/balochistan-and-the-killing-of-akbar-bugti-10-years-later/

Sheraz also shared some books at the end of our episode listed here:

• The Baloch National Struggle in Pakistan: Emergence and Dimensions by Jan Muhammad Dashti
• Balochistan: At a Crossroads by William Merck

Watch this Episode on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/AckWixGbzdQ

Kennedy Horton was born in America, but from the ages of 7 to 15, he moved with his family to Sindh, Pakistan. Afterwards he moved across Thailand, China, and he now resides in Ireland. In this episode Kennedy shares a bit about his life in Pakistan, going to school and growing up there, and more.

Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at [email protected]

Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord  

Each episode of Pak-Cord takes several hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

A fantastic conversation with Dr. Shabana Mir, from Chicago, U.S., who is here to unpack some of her knowledge and thoughts about various issues affecting Muslims and Muslim women today.

Shabana Mir is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the American Islamic College, based in Chicago, IL. She teaches Islamic Studies, Gender Studies, Research Methods, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Muslim American and Muslim World Literature. She is the author of the award-winning book Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity, published by the University of North Carolina Press (2014). The book has received the Outstanding Book Award from the National Association for Ethnic Studies and the Critics’ Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association (2014).

Follow Shabana on Twitter: @ShabanaMir1

Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at [email protected]

Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord  

If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon!  

patreon.com/pakcord 

A really thought provoking discussion about the most common challenges that affect our Pakistani youth today - lack of opportunities, fear of failure, family and parental pressure, anxiety, and more. Our guest, Mehmooda Shah from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, breaks this down with her own story, and shares her experience on dealing with obstacles, failure, and disadvantages in life.

Email Mehmooda: [email protected]

Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at [email protected]

Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord  

If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon!  

patreon.com/pakcord  

Each episode of Pak-Cord takes between 4 to 7 hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

Ayesha Wahidi was born and raised in the midwest, U.S. Earlier in 2020, she moved to Korea for a teaching-abroad program. She shares her experiences in and out of Korea and her perspectives on common life struggles.

Feel free to reach out to Ayesha !

[email protected]

Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at [email protected]

Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord  

If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon! Each episode of Pak-Cord takes between 4 to 7 hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

Watch the video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/5NSALKYBjz0

21 year old Noor-ul-Ain from Dubai went viral on TikTok after sharing her personal traumatic story of an ordinary wedding / shaadi visit to Pakistan gone wrong. Essentially , Noor and her family flew to Pakistan from dubai to attend her cousin's wedding, and unexpectedly, she found that she was getting engaged against her consent, at the age of 12, by her parents. Her TikTok video has over 1.5 million views as of this recording, and now, Noor is here to share her full story in detail with us, as well as her thoughts and learnings from this story of her life.

Forced marriage of children (particularly girls) under the age of 18 is still a major issue in many countries, including Pakistan. Lawmakers and activists have made efforts over the last several years to alleviate this issue, with some (but not nearly complete) success.

Noor's TikTok Username : @noor.ul.aiin

Noor's Instagram: @noor.ul.aiin

Noor's TikTok Part 1 : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAx7SuR/

Part 2: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAxxTSA/

Questions? Feedback? Email us at [email protected]!

New - support Pak-Cord at Patreon. We are not generating revenue with this podcast currently, and would love to get your support to keep this show running and bring you more and more awesome episodes with interesting guests! Visit patreon.com/pakcord

Bilal Junejo was born in Pakistan, but grew up living in the southern region of Africa, namely the countries of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Bilal gives us a glimpse of his life over there, including the people, the food, and the places.

Meet Fareeha, living in Japan. She hasn't spent a lot of time in Pakistan, grew up in Saudi Arabia, and then moved to Japan for her studies to a city called Sendai, and has been living there for 9 years, currently working at a lab while pursuing her PhD.

Fareeha is an avid listener of the podcast herself, and is here to tell us all about her life in Japan. A very fun discussion with jokes and insights!

Feel free to follow Fareeha on Instagram - @farri1002.

Note: this podcast episode exists in video form on our YouTube channel. We strongly recommend watching the video version, as it has more visual context around this topic. Find the video version on our YouTube channel or use the following link:

https://youtu.be/D4cL62ulDDc

Recently TikTok and other social platforms have exploded with viral memes of Pakistani kids taking pledges on stage at a school event. Popular lines include: "To sacrifice my own life for Pakistan!" "I pledge to be a pilot, and help everyone!" These videos have been traced to an event that took place at PISJES (Pakistan International School Jeddah English Section), in 2011. The school has many events that are often meant to promote Pakistani pride. For better or worse, after going viral this particular event has gained international meme spotlight, as well as criticism due to some of the messages.

In this podcast episode we talk to Areej Khalid, who was one of the students at this school and also was present at this event. Areej answers many of the questions on our minds and offers her perspective on the controversy.

Areej's TikTok Username: areeju.k

IG: jeejskhalid

Meet Anam Khan, a Pakistani American currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. She has moved back and forth between Pakistan and U.S. and spent a significant time living in both countries.

Anam is here to talk about her startup effort, called The NewsRun, which is a free daily newsletter providing short and simple summaries of all the top news in Pakistan. In the episode Anam discusses how she came up with idea, her daily work process, managing work-life balance, and working in Pakistan vs. U.S.

You can sign up for free emails from The NewsRun via their website, thenewsrun.com !

You can also follow them on Instagram, where they also share tidbits of news: @thenewsrun