I don’t pay much attention to Pakistan on most days. This isn’t only because I am not an Indian politician with little else to do, but because I have no right to comment on what they choose to do with themselves. They have their own leaders, and their way of life, and if they choose to turn into a failed state because of corruption, misplaced priorities, and an unhealthy obsession with religion, who am I to get involved? As long as India doesn’t have those issues, I’m okay with the way things are.

A few days ago, however, an opinion piece published by a young Pakistani studying in America was forwarded to me. It wasn’t meant to catch my eye, or any eye for that matter, because it was pulled down soon after it appeared in a Pakistani newspaper. Given how these things tend to work though, that authoritarian act only made a lot more people look for copies and circulate them widely. What was meant to be buried was promptly excavated and paraded in the online town square that is social media.