Seen at the launch are (from l to r): Javed Jabbar, former senator and Minister of Information; Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan; Unaiza Niaz; and Brig. (Prof.) Mowadat Rana, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, CMH, Rawalpindi.
Karachi, 9 March: Oxford University Press launched its latest publication Wars, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Attacks: A Psychosocial Perspective from the Muslim Worldwritten by Unaiza Niaz. The book explores in a comprehensive, academic manner as to why incidents of terrorist attacks, wars, and insurgencies occur mostly in Muslim countries. By scrutinizing and synthesizing the scientific and professional literature available, the author makes an attempt to understand the dynamics and the political systems in the Muslim World which gives rise to such violence. Different theories of psychopathologies of terrorism and the theoretical, biological, social and psychological approaches are discussed in understanding the phenomenon of terrorism. The wars in the Muslim World in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Algeria, Lebanon and struggle of Kashmir’s liberation are discussed; with a focus on the psychiatric aftermath on the civilians. Chapter on insurgencies in the Muslim World focuses in particular on the plight of the civilian population in Pakistan’s FATA region and the NWFP.
Professor (Dr) Unaiza Niazis a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She is currently Director, Psychiatric Clinic and Stress Research Center, Karachi; Director, Institute of Psycho-Trauma Pakistan; President, Pakistan Society of Traumatic Stress Studies; and Chair, Section on Women’s Mental Health, World Psychiatric Association. Dr Unaiza’s research interests include: stress at workplace and aviation industry; psycho-trauma in disasters; medical ethics; women’s mental health issues; and role of media in psychiatry. She has contributed to various journals and authored several publications on issues of women’s rights, violence against women, and women’s mental health.
The launch ceremony was well-attended by mental health professionals, academics, and the media. The speakers present at the launch included Javed Jabbar, former senator and Minister of Information, and Brig. (Prof.) Mowadat Rana, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, CMH, Rawalpindi. They were both of the view that the book has a positive message, particularly with regard to the positive roles which could be enacted by mental health professionals. In her welcome address, Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, said that in the book the author has concentrated on the psychological damage done by the violence in the Muslim world. She further added that the guest contributors in the book are psychiatrists from the Arab and Muslim world, and they highlight the human suffering in terms of mental trauma which generally goes unnoticed, especially among vulnerable groups such as refugees, women and children.
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