Martin In The Margins

Pakistani actress Veena Malik, in trouble with religious fundamentalists after her appearance on the Indian version of 'Big Brother...

Here's a few things you might have missed over the past seven days. Khaled Mattawa makes a powerful case for intervention in Libya, w...

I don't believe that any books are 'sacred'. The Qu'ran, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Tibetan Book of the Dead - all ...

Where do you think this photograph was taken: somewhere in Europe or America, perhaps, circa 1960? In fact it's a picture of a record st...

Every now and then I read about someone who has managed to combine in their life elements that remain fragmented and conflicted in my own - ...

The situation of Afghan women and girls is not bad, or oppressive, or exploitative: it is extraordinary. In fact, in thinking about this sit...

You often read about the number of civilian deaths caused by NATO forces in Afghanistan. It seems the US special forces 'have a reputat...

The Tricycle Theatre in north London has commissioned a series of plays about Afghanistan 'in the belief that the history of the countr...

Must-reads on Mumbai: This column  which, with its revelation that hostages were tortured before being shot, confirms the sheer inhumanity o...

What on earth can one say about the horrific events in Mumbai? Reading accounts of this latest massacre of the innocents, I was struck abov...

Restored to the blogroll: Terry Glavin (removed some time back due to prolonged silence), if only for his impressive reporting from Afghan...

This morning I completed an online survey from The Guardian , in which I used the suggestion box to rail against the one-sided nature of its...

In a recent post I described my conflicted feelings about the issue of Tibet, as well as my brief flirtation and ultimate disillusionment w...

You'd think the Burmese cyclone would be one event that really couldn't be blamed on 'the West'. After all, this was an act ...

Gary Thompson, at 51 the oldest British serviceman to die in Afghanistan or Iraq, went back to the RAF as a reservist after a career in bus...

Apropos of this post , in which I shared my conflicted feelings about the Tibetan issue: I see Butterflies and Wheels links to this article ...

Just back from a brief holiday. Normal blogging will resume in a few days, so watch this space. In the meantime, thanks to those who sent go...

Bob has a confession to make about his former dismissiveness towards the Free Tibet campaign, attributing it to youthful secularist zeal an...

This looks it might be good news.

This is the UNICEF Photo of the Year : And this is the caption: He’s forty, she’s eleven. And they are a couple – the Afghan man Mohammed F....