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Beena Sarwar | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Education | BA, MA |
| Alma mater | Brown University, Harvard University |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, Peace Activist, Artist, Filmmaker |
| Employer(s) | Aman ki Asha, Southasia Peace Action Network, Sapan News Network, Emerson College |
| Website | beenasarwar |
Beena Sarwar is a Pakistani journalist, artist and filmmaker focusing on human rights, media and peace.
She resides in Boston and is currently the editor of the Aman ki Asha (Hope for Peace) initiative, that aims to develop peace between the countries of India and Pakistan.[1][2][3]
The initiative is jointly sponsored by the Jang group in Pakistan and the Times of India across the border.[4]
In March 2021, she founded the Southasia Peace Action Network or SAPAN along with other peace activists from across South Asia.[5] In August 2022, SAPAN informally launched Sapan News Network, a news and features syndicated service in the making. She is its founding editor.[6][7]
Prior to her current position, Beena has worked as an Assistant Editor at The Star, as Features editor at The Frontier Post, and was the founding editor of The News on Sunday in 1993.[4] She has also produced television shows for Geo TV and served as Op-ed Editor for The News International. She holds a BA degree in Art and Literature from Brown University in 1986,[4] an MA degree in TV documentary from Goldsmiths College, London in 2001.[4] She also wrote a popular monthly column titled 'Personal Political' which was published by Hard News, in India.[4]
In 1998, Sarwar created an informal email newsletter on personal and political issues. In 2002, Sarwar started a Yahoo! group, beena-issues. Sarwar has a personal blog, "Journeys to Democracy," which she started in 2009. She was named Teabreak.pk's Featured Blogger in March 2010.[8] Her blog has also been named "Best Blog From a Journalist" at the Pakistan Blog Awards in 2011.[9]
She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2006, and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School 2007.[4] Before joining Emerson College as a faculty in 2017, she taught journalism at Princeton University, Brown University, and Harvard Summer School.[10]
She contributes news and commentary to media outlets around the world including New York Times, Guardian, Boston Globe, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, VOA, and NPR. She has published essays in several nonfiction anthologies and is Editor of Aman ki Asha (hope for peace), a platform launched jointly by the two largest media groups of Pakistan and India respectively. She leads the South Asia Peace Action Network or SAPAN, a cross-border, inter-generational coalition launched in March 2021. In August 2022, SAPAN informally launched Sapan News Network, a news and features syndicated service in the making.[11]
Sarwar was the director/producer in the following selected documentaries: