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We propose a decolonial-posthuman pedagogy for contemplating the idea of 'womanness' in postcolonial Pakistan. Since posthumanism disbands anthropocentrism while decoloniality subverts Westcentrisms, we combine them to upend the notions of passivity and muteness attributed to Pakistani women via western feminist discourses. By foregrounding 'womanness' as an ongoing process of self-construction, we enable our undergraduate female Pakistani students of English Literature to rethink their selves as agentic knowing subjects. Through carefully designed activities, our students combined specific decolonial and posthuman theoretics while reading "Frankenstein" as a site wherein their own experiences as Pakistani women could be brought into play. Our approach blended the ideas of Walter Mignolo, Gayatri Spivak and Rosi Braidotti, etc., to posit how Pakistani womanness involves inhabiting other skins so as to raise questions regarding the modes of repression that have historically gone into defining their sense of self.

We propose a decolonial pedagogy in the teaching of English Literature at the undergraduate level in postcolonial Pakistan. We argue that the English literary texts that are taught in conjunction with different supplementary materials retain a West-centric tilt that requires disbanding. Therefore, we administered carefully designed worksheets. These encouraged marginal thinking across the differential socio-historical canvases that outline the prescribed texts, online lectures, supplementary reading materials and the students' situatedness. The students used these resources as tools for practising a decolonial hermeneutics. By directing these tools towards their own lived situation, they intervened within the Western means of knowledge production and undid their alterity and historical silencing. By analysing the students' assignments as sites of decolonial articulation, we propose that decolonial pedagogy can be used to generate an intercultural intellectual solidarity that allows the formerly colonised to rethink themselves in a manner that no longer talks back to the Empire.

Taking its cue from the Islamic Ecological Paradigm, deeply rooted in Islamic religious traditions, which emerged more than 1400 years ago, this paper reimagines the human-nonhuman relationship against the backdrop of the arguably assumed superiority of mankind in (Islamic) theological discourses. Using Qurʾānic narratives as a key point of divergence in the natural superiority of man within the idea of vicegerency, we argue that the Qurʾān's egalitarian ethos presents animals as 'intentional political agents' (Pepper 2021: 30) independent of human intercession. This agency enables them to be key players in deciding the outcomes of political conundrums; in so doing, it also rebuts and destabilises arrogant anthropocentric presuppositions associated with the idea of vicegerency. We particularly read, in 'signs themed' Qurʾānic narratives, a dynamic relationship between humans and animals through the animal's role as Allah's warriors and agents against human oppressors and transgressors. Drawing on the Islamic Ecological Paradigm, Angie Pepper's idea of intentional political agency and Sarra Tlili's de-anthropocentric reading of the Qurʾān, we suggest that the Qurʾān robustly invites humans to reflect on the animal world by foregrounding animals as political agents while epitomising human accountability and responsibility towards them instead of establishing a relationship of dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With post-colonial Pakistan inheriting the British colonial ideological and governmental apparatus, the English literature curriculum implemented at the university level in Pakistan carried the interpellatory baggage of its colonial past. Our interdisciplinary exploration focuses on using deconstructive pedagogy to demystify and subvert the ideological conditioning of Pakistani students that is done through the English literary syllabi taught at the Masters level in Pakistani universities. These pedagogical practices involve genealogical and deconstructive readings of selected English literary texts taught to students pursuing a Master of English degree at the International Islamic University, Islamabad. These practices involve an activation of deconstructive readings through class discussions to unveil the different hegemonic processes involved in the constitution of docile political subjects. They challenge any authoritative interpretation of canonical texts, creating new meanings by activating the play of trace and difference in the re-readings of these texts within post-colonial Pakistan. The class discussions have been transcribed to show how the English literary texts introduced in the colonial era have been extracted out of a Western epistemological closure. In addition, their role in the constitution of colonial and post-colonial subjectivities has been discussed. These discussions raise questions regarding the opaque processes of self-constitution, yet do not aim at re-interpellating the students. They simply revisit the closure within which the students' thoughts and subjectivities are confined, and open up the progression of thought processes so that the functionality of different viewpoints within different communities may be constantly re-visited to defy ideological colonization.

This article challenges Spivak's critique of French feminism by presenting the latter as a tool to theorize the diverse subjectivities of third world women through their operation in an intimate "ecto-patriarchal" space. Using Arundhati Roy's novel The God of Small Things and Ismat Chughtai's Urdu short story "Lihaaf," I indicate their alignment with French feminism as they depict third world women gaining autonomy over their selves and thereby exceeding ethnocentric boundaries without negating their contextual specifications. I mainly argue that French feminism enables third world women to rethink their subjectivities by exceeding self-replicating patriarchal discourses that have historically silenced them through a symbolic clitoridectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching creative writing to second language learners demands a more enterprising approach from the teachers, since in such an environment, there are various literary, social, cultural, as well as historical stimuli (both local and foreign) that can be engaged creatively in a creative writing classroom. Owing to the vast range of its meanings, ekphrasis, in this context, can serve as a means of integrating texts and mixed media in ESL creative writing practices. However, my study does not merely stop at engaging ekphrasis in an ESL creative writing class, it also brings within its ambit the impact of the native culture of the ESL writers. This study, therefore, presents activities that incorporate ekphrasis and subsequently analyses the various nativisation patterns that are engendered in the compositions of the ESL creative writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the post-September 11, 2001 terrorist attack (9/11) identity crisis in H. M. Naqvi's novel "Home Boy." It describes the idea of terrorist and terrorism in line with the focus acquired by Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11. It also examines the search for a new parameter to define identity in terms of being a Pakistani and a Muslim by the protagonist of the novel.

Objective: To compare the level of awareness towards orthodontic treatment among parents and teachers of middle school children., Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2021 to May 2022 in the middle schools of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pak istan, after approval from the ethics review committee of the Foundation University College of Dentistry and Hospital, Foundation University, Islamabad. Those included were middle school teachers and parents of students studying in middle schools. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire that had 6 demographic and 5 sur vey ques tions. The fo rm was digiti zed for easy dissemination a mong parents. Data was analysed us ing SPSS 23., Results: Of the 240 subjects, 120(50%) each were parents and teachers. Overall, there were 165(68.75%) females and 75(31.25%) males. Level of education and professional exposure were not significantly different between teachers and parents (p>0.05). There was no difference in the level of education and professional work experience between th e parents and teacher (p>0.05). Teachers showed a higher level of awaren ess than parents towards the role of orthodontist in tooth alignment (p=0.013), associated habits with malalignment of teeth (p=0.003), and that the most appropriate age for tre atment wa s 10-15 years (p≤0.0 01). Teach ers were more likely of the opinion tha t facial disharmony is treatable than parents (odds ratio: 1.599, 95% confidence interval: 0.572-4.467)., Conclusions: Teachers showed a higher level of awareness than parents regarding orthodontic treatment of children.