Why do We Need a Southasia Union or Region with Soft Borders

In this session, Beena Sarwar will talk about her journey of engagement in peace-building between India and Pakistan – from the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) in the mid-1990s, to Editor, Aman Ki Asha, a groundbreaking cross-border platform jointly initiated by two media groups in 2010, to the Southasia Peace Action Network, or Sapan, an initiative she started in 2021 along with several fellow-travelers. Sapan advocates a Southasia Union along the lines of the European Union or a region with soft borders.

About the speaker:

Beena Sarwar is a journalist, artist and filmmaker who has held senior editorial positions in Pakistan including as founder editor of The News on Sunday, producer special reports Geo TV, and oped editor The News International. She is Editor of the Aman Ki Asha (hope for peace) platform, Founder-Curator of Sapan, the Southasia Peace Action Network and founding Editor Sapan News Network. She has been a Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Having primarily lived and worked in Karachi and Lahore, she is currently based in Boston where she teaches journalism as visiting faculty at Emerson College. She has previously taught journalism courses at the Harvard Summer School, Brown University and Princeton University.