This week on Dear Body, I step into a story that is both urgent and deeply personal to me: the gendered impact of floods in Pakistan.

When we talk about climate disasters, we usually hear numbers: homes destroyed, acres submerged, lives lost. But behind every statistic is a body, often a woman’s body, carrying the heaviest burden.

That’s why I collected and wove together these stories. I felt the need to highlight them because these stories show that floods are not “gender-neutral.” They reshape women’s health, dignity, futures, and they demand a response that sees women not just as victims but as leaders of resilience. 

These are not my stories, but I carry them forward because they deserve more ears, more eyes, more urgency.

Please support the organisations named here: Mahwari Justice, Mama Baby Fund, Sujag Sansar, HER Pakistan, whose work restores dignity where disaster strips it away.

In this episode of Dear Body, let's unpacks a troubling pattern in Pakistani television: the endless cycle of baby-faced, fair-skinned female leads in their early 20s paired with male actors twice their age. From the diverse casting of the 2000s to today’s obsession with youth and “innocent” features, we explore how beauty standards, popularity politics, and colonial-era ideals continue to shape the stories we tell, and the women we put at the centre of them. Why are older male leads allowed to age on screen, while women are replaced by younger faces every few years? And what does this say to the next generation of girls watching at home? Tune in for a critical conversation on representation, ageism, and the future of inclusivity in our media.

What kills women in Pakistan isn’t always a weapon. Sometimes, it’s the silence that surrounds them. In this deeply personal and reflective episode, Sarosh speaks about the harrowing realities of femicide and honour killings in Pakistan — where women are murdered for speaking up, for dreaming, for choosing.

Through the stories of Humaira Asghar, Qandeel Baloch, Noor Mukadam, and countless unnamed victims, this episode explores the systemic violence that justifies a woman’s death in the name of honour. It questions why society remains silent until after a woman’s body is found — and why her life was never considered sacred to begin with.

From legal loopholes to social apathy, this episode of Dear Body asks: What is the cost of a woman’s freedom in this country? And who decides which dreams are worth dying for?

In this episode of Dear Body, host Sarosh returns after a 2.5-year hiatus to critically examine how toxic relationships are romanticised in Pakistani television, particularly in the drama Mann Mast Malang. Through a character analysis of Kabir and Riya, Sarosh explores how media normalises control, silences women, and embeds dangerous expectations into cultural understandings of love and marriage.

This episode delves into the psychological and societal dimensions of these portrayals: childhood trauma, coercion masked as love, the invisibilisation of women's voices, and the deep-rooted pressures surrounding fertility and gender roles in marriage.

Dear Body is a podcast about the lived experience of Pakistani women — their bodies, their stories, and the systems that seek to shape them. Each episode invites listeners to reflect, question, and reimagine what it means to reclaim agency in a society that often denies it.

In today’s episode, we have a bit of a complicated situation with Taylor Swift’s new music video that came out recently titled “Anti-Hero.” Here, she reflects upon her experiences being in the limelight. However, some fans and viewers took to Twitter to address their take on one of the clips from the music video. Before we dive into it together, do not forget to follow me for weekly episodes on our bodies because this is your safe space.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

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In today’s episode, we will together explore a major stigma in various cultures and spaces i.e. Periods. I am going to start off with how this physiological process of bleeding continuously for 6-7 days was labeled a luxury. How much does the Pakistani awam know about menstruation, and how well-aware are Pakistani women about Menstrual Hygiene Management? There are so many projects and campaigns in Pakistan fighting to remove the stigma of menstruation so young girls cannot be stopped from sitting in classrooms during their period.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

• Follow me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RZkdon

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• Follow me on IG: @saroshibrahim

• Follow me on Twitter: @saroshibrahim

In today’s episode, we are going to be looking at the ongoing human rights violation in Afghanistan ever since the Taliban took over in 2021. Women are being deprived of their basic right to receive education or continue working in a professional space. It is very important that we look into how the Afghan women after fighting for basic human rights in a country ruled by those who limit their opportunity to economically stabilize the country. Their mobility is being measured by the Taliban who are deciding for the Afghan women increasing gender inequality in the process.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

• Follow me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RZkdon

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• Follow me on IG: @saroshibrahim

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In this episode, we are going to talk about the unfortunate series of events that recently occurred in Iran coupled with what veiling really stands for Muslim women vs what has been portrayed by Western media. Let’s dive right into it.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

• Follow me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RZkdon

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

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Do you believe the entertainment industry decides the culture of a particular society? Do drama serials reflect the society or does the society internalize what is being shown to them on screen? Can we as viewers change the way we look at stars, basing our views on how they react rather than how they appear visually? Does cinematic performance require male and female actors to look a certain way? Is the drama industry showing irresponsible behavior towards body inclusivity? I leave these questions with you to self-reflect or share it with a friend.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

• Follow me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RZkdon

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• Follow me on IG: @saroshibrahim

• Follow me on Twitter: @saroshibrahim

At The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Miss Universe Harnaaz Sandhu utilized her rising popularity to talk about menstrual equity. Her mother being a gynecologist imparted this knowledge to her daughter about how women’s health is so important. They also proceeded to talk about how she was bullied online for gaining weight after the competition. This raises a number of questions. Does the competition equalize a woman’s body weight with her beauty? Is there a stereotypical bodily appearance attached to the contestants? Is the competition focusing on impacting lives globally through the steps the contestants take? Or did the competition in fact emerge to objectify women?

If you have any thoughts on this topic or any other issue, or just want to get in touch with me about the show, email me at [email protected].

• Follow me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RZkdon

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be helpful! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://apple.co/3RXPvfs

• Follow me on IG: @saroshibrahim

• Follow me on Twitter: @saroshibrahim