Op-ed

By Rida ArifThe words ‘summer’ and ‘productivity’ should be oxymoronic, or at least they used to be when I didn’t know what the word ‘productive’ meant.If you close your eyes and think of summer, do you imagine a fluorescently lit office, Excel sheets, and the burning blue light from a work computer? Seemingly, that’s what our student body dreams of — a glowing resume is the ultimate oasis. At the end of my sophomore year, my aspirations for the next few blazing months were very simple: watch movies, go ‘up North’, and read. What I did not anticipate was the guilt that followed.I felt the achievements of my peers creeping up on me like goosebumps in the cold: sneaky and uncomfortable. Every refresh of my Twitter timeline birthed more tweets about new internships, interesting coworkers, and...

By Laiba Ahmad With Illustration from Maha Nauman (@mahnau on Instagram) TW: Mentions of harassment and violence against womenThree days after Noor Mukadam’s case broke out in the media my mother sat me down and said that if a man ever harassed me in public, I was to keep quiet and move on because we never know what men are capable of. What frustrated me was not the statement but how easily I accepted it. Gone was the raging sixteen year old who would have argued: “No. Men like this need to be put in their place.” I don’t know when it started, but my anger was seeping out and fear was crawling in.It was this moment of realisation which compelled me to explore how we, as women, are made to unfairly hold our rage in or abandon it in fear. From this exploration rises th...

By Hajrah Yousaf TW: Body Dysmorphic DisorderHashim describes it as being hypnotized.As much as he wants to stop looking into a warped version of himself in the mirror, he just can’t stop. No matter how exhausted he gets (and exhaustion is always a given), he can’t look away. The vision in the mirror is a snake charmer, and boy is Hashim charmed. No, “charmed is the wrong word,” Hashim says. “It’s more like being repulsed yet still transfixed. If I could look away, I would.”Hashim suffers from Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), which is a psychological disorder recognized by the DSM 5 and characterized by a preoccupation with a perceived flaw(s) in one’s appearance. These flaws cause a lot of emotional distress and can often impact one’s functioning. BDD is frequently accompanied by other men...

By: Mohammad Basit Khan“We have a moral obligation. We have an ethical obligation. We have a legal obligation. We have a ... human obligation to be caretakers and gatekeepers of your welfare and your wellbeing, and we take that very seriously and we want you to be with us in this enterprise,” said Vice Chancellor LUMS Dr. Arshad Ahmad, during his address at the Town Hall Meeting held on Friday, August 21.When Dr. Arshad first addressed the burning question of campus reopening and declared the ethical standpoint the university had assumed during the 3- hour Zoom call, students were optimistic about having their demands heard at the Town Hall. After all, in the age of COVID, there is no doubt that the need of the hour is for compassion to be our guiding principle and to walk together to over...

By: Mohammad Basit Khan and Wasay AliAre physical books really a thing of the past? In an era dominated by technology, e-books are all the rage, especially in academic institutions. Fears of obsolescence exist, yet libraries continue to be an integral part of university campuses. Instead, the inevitable has surfaced, in the way of collaboration, as a growing number of reputable universities all across the globe move towards digitization of libraries. At LUMS, the Gad & Birgit Rausing Library continues to thrive as printed books remain at the core of its services. A digitization project has been spotted at the horizon. However, budget constraints, infrastructural limitations, and user preferences on campus appear to be some major hurdles.The merits of digitizing the library make the cas...