Category: Parenting & Adolescence

Not ‘Mazaaq’: Bullying & Cyberbullying in Pakistan, How It Hurts Our Students and What Schools Can Do Better

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

There’s a moment many teachers recognise. A student who used to raise their hand is now sitting quietly. A confident child begins asking, ‘May I go to the washroom?’ as soon as group work starts. Someone’s attendance slips from Monday to Wednesday, then a full week. When you finally ask, softly, ‘Kya masla hai?’ you often get the same answer: ‘Nothing, miss/sir. Bas… aise hi.’

In our schools across Pakistan, bullying rarely arrives as a clear headline. It shows up like a fog: small comments, private jokes, class WhatsApp groups, a nickname that becomes a label, a photo edited and shared, a voice note forwarded ‘for fun.’ The child keeps going to school, but something inside them stops feeling safe.

And that’s the real issue: bullying isn’t only about a bad moment. It’s about a student’s sense of safety, belonging, and izzat.

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Young Lives, Heavy Pressure: Listening to What Our Students Are Carrying

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Trigger warning: this post discusses suicide and self-harm. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services or a mental health helpline immediately. In Pakistan, national helplines and crisis support services are available to offer confidential support.

In recent months, we have seen a painful pattern repeating itself across Punjab: university students, bright, young people who should be building futures, are taking desperate steps or attempting to take their lives. These are not isolated tragedies; they are a mirror reflecting pressures that many families do not see clearly until it is too late. Recent reporting from Lahore and elsewhere has linked some of these incidents to academic pressure, failed relationships, and family conflicts, and universities and families alike are asking hard questions about what went wrong. (The Express Tribune, AAJ TV)

As a parent, it is natural to react with shock and guilt: ‘Kiya mein jaan sakta tha? Kiya mein pehlay qadam utha sakta tha? (Could I have known? Could I have acted sooner?) Those are painful but familiar questions. We also need to step back and look more critically at the systems surrounding our children, at what we ask of them, what schools expect, and how families respond when a child shows signs of pain. This is not about assigning blame to any single person. It’s about noticing patterns and changing them.

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