Simran Siraj

KARACHI: An intense heatwave coupled with powerful dust storms has created a dangerous weather emergency across Sindh, causing deaths, damaging infrastructure, disrupting agriculture, and exposing Pakistan&#39;s growing climate vulnerabilities. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Dadu recorded a scorching 51.5 degrees Celsius on May 30, the highest temperature reported in the country this season and an all-time high for the district. While extreme heat gripped upper and central Sindh, strong winds and dust storms swept through areas including Nawabshah and Moro, uprooting trees, damaging homes, disrupting power supplies, and destroying commercial solar installations. Environmental and public health expert Dr Zafar Fatmi said the destructive weather pattern was driven by a combination of severe pre-monsoon heat, dry land conditions, and thunderstorm-generated winds.&nbsp;&ldquo;When temperatures remain exceptionally high, the atmosphere becomes unstable, and the arrival of cooler air masses or moisture can trigger intense wind events,&rdquo; Dr Fatmi told Pakistan TV Digital. He explained that vast stretches of land across Sindh undergo intense solar heating during May and June, creating low-pressure zones over the interior. As hot air rises rapidly, incoming cooler or more humid air can trigger violent wind bursts, dust storms, and localized thunderstorms. Authorities advise avoiding prolonged exposure to sunPMD heatwave alerts warned that temperatures in districts including Dadu, Jacobabad, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Ghotki, and Khairpur could range between 47 C and 50 C, remaining 4 C to 6 C above normal levels. Authorities have advised residents, particularly children, women, and the elderly, to avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight and stay hydrated. However, Dr Fatmi said the accompanying windstorms have transformed the heatwave into a broader public safety crisis. &ldquo;The loss of life in such events is often caused by collapsing roofs, falling trees, damaged structures, flying debris, road accidents, and electrocution from downed power lines rather than dust inhalation alone,&rdquo; he said. Beyond the immediate damage, the storms are also taking a toll on Sindh&#39;s agricultural sector by stripping away fertile topsoil, damaging standing crops, accelerating moisture loss, and affecting livestock health. Dr Fatmi warned that climate change, prolonged drought, land degradation, and vegetation loss are increasing the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events across the arid and semi-arid regions of Sindh, Balochistan, and southern Punjab. He added that when large dust clouds reach urban centers such as Karachi, they combine with existing air pollution, creating serious health risks for people suffering from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Pakistan remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate change despite contributing less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Dr Fatmi stressed the need for stronger early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved land management practices, and greater community preparedness to reduce future economic losses and save lives.

Blogs

Record heat and deadly dust storms batter Sindh, with temperatures exceeding 51 degrees Celsius in Dadu, raising climate, health, and infrastructure concerns across Pakistan.

How extreme heat is fueling deadly dust storms in Sindh

Faraz Saeed

This guide explains key terms including GDP inflation fiscal deficit debt servicing and revenue targets helping readers better understand the government's fiscal priorities and policies.

Budget 2026: Understanding key terms shaping Pakistan’s economy

Maham Khan

ISLAMABAD: The news cycle out of the Middle East runs on a reliable rhythm: an Iranian threat, an American countermove, oil prices spike, markets shudder. Since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, that cycle has repeated often enough to feel permanent. It is not. Beneath the escalatory optics &ndash; Iran&#39;s navy announcing the Strait of Hormuz &quot;completely closed,&quot; the US blockade forcing two dozen ships to turn back, ballistic missiles exchanged across four Gulf states &ndash; a parallel track has been running without interruption. Talks between Washington and Tehran have not stopped. The question shaping the next phase of this conflict is not whether a deal will be sought, but whether either government can sell one to its own people. The economics of quitting Iran&#39;s economy entered 2026 fractured. According to the International Monetary Fund&#39;s 2026 DataMapper projections, Iran&#39;s nominal GDP stands at $300.29 billion with per capita income of $3,410, masking severe conditions: the IMF projects a 6.1% real GDP contraction for 2026 with consumer price inflation at 68.9%. The World Bank reports a 2.7% GDP contraction in the 2025/2026 fiscal year and projects another 2.8% contraction for 2026, while the UN Development Programme notes that reimposed snapback sanctions on Iran&#39;s nuclear program have pushed larger segments of the population below upper-middle-income poverty thresholds. A government presiding over 68.9% inflation, a contracting economy, and a population priced out of basic goods does not have indefinite latitude to sustain a full military confrontation with the world&#39;s largest economy. The talks Trump says didn&#39;t stop On June 2, 2026, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: &quot;Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the USA, stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous. The conversations between us have been going on continuously.&quot; As reported by Reuters on May 29, Trump stated he would make a &quot;final determination&quot; on a proposal to extend the early-April ceasefire by 60 days, allowing negotiators to forge a permanent end to the war. <img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/09e1f7b8-39b5-4552-8d06-5aec026d496a.png" style="width: 595px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-fil"> A senior Iranian source told Reuters a potential agreement was &quot;close&quot; but not yet approved, and crucially, the deal under discussion does not include nuclear-related conditions contrary to Trump&#39;s public demands. That framing (fabricated victory) is essential context. Both governments communicate to two audiences simultaneously: a negotiating counterpart and a domestic constituency that must be managed. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate foreign relations committee hearing that Tehran had agreed to discuss nuclear program aspects previously refused, and confirmed that Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive and &quot;increasingly engaging,&quot; as reported by The Guardian. His testimony opened diplomatic doors even as Iranian state media announced the opposite. What Iran&#39;s hardline statements actually signal Iran&#39;s public posture has been deliberately combative. The joint statement issued by Iran&#39;s Armed Forces declared that &quot;the American and Zionist enemies will have no option but surrender,&quot; as reported by Tasnim News Agency. This insulates the negotiating team from charges of capitulation, making any eventual deal easier to present as a position of strength. Iran&#39;s opening and closing of the Strait of Hormuz has followed the same logic. As reported by Forbes on April 18, Iran&#39;s navy broadcast that the strait was &quot;completely closed again&quot; and blamed US government failure to fulfill negotiating commitments. Trump acknowledged &quot;very good conversations&quot; were continuing. Ship traffic has stayed far below prewar levels, a trickle instead of 100+ vessels daily. BBC&#39;s analysis captured the tension precisely: Iran &quot;wants the war to stop as quickly as possible, not at any price.&quot; The phrase &quot;not at any price&quot; is the constraint; &quot;as quickly as possible&quot; is the incentive. US domestic pressure According to Pew Research, 61% of Americans disapprove how the conflict was handled. YouGov/Economist polling found 58% of Americans oppose the war, with 70% across party lines saying the US should make a deal quickly. Global oil prices surged and crude oil futures leaping more than 7% on reports of escalation places additional pressure on the Trump administration to secure resolution ahead of congressional elections in November. Structure of a possible deal Negotiations have centered on a 60-day ceasefire extension, gradual removal of the US blockade on Iranian ports, and release of $12 billion in Iran&#39;s frozen assets, according to Reuters. Kazakhstan has signaled willingness to receive Tehran&#39;s enriched uranium stockpile as part of any deal, per IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. Iran&#39;s conditions include full sanctions relief, US force withdrawal from the region, and ending Israel&#39;s offensive in Lebanon. The gap between news and reality Military escalation and diplomatic progress are not mutually exclusive, they occur simultaneously, with each side using kinetic activity as leverage. When Iran fires on a tanker, oil prices move and coverage shifts to crisis framing, but the diplomatic channel does not stop. The war has killed thousands and pushed global energy prices to emergency levels, producing a US public majority across partisan lines demanding it end. The parties need an exit. The question is which version each government can defend to its own people. That answer is being decided in rooms that generate no news coverage.&nbsp; One thing is clear: the talks are continuing.

Officials and analysts say mounting economic pressures and rising domestic opposition push Washington and Tehran toward settlement, while public military escalation masks the continuous diplomatic negotiations occurring behind the scenes.

Why US-Iran diplomatic channels remain open despite regional attacks

Maryam Shah

Muslims across the world are preparing to celebrate Eid al-Adha, one of the two major Islamic festivals, marked by the ritual sacrifice of animals in remembrance of Prophet Ibrahim&rsquo;s devotion and obedience to Allah. According to Islamic tradition, Prophet Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son after receiving a command from Allah in a dream, before Allah replaced the sacrifice with a ram after testing his faith and submission. The event is referenced in the Holy Quran in Surah As-Saffat: &ldquo;And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice.&rdquo;(Surah As-Saffat 37:107) Also known as the &ldquo;Festival of Sacrifice,&rdquo; Eid al-Adha is observed annually on the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar, following the completion of the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Millions of Muslims gather in mosques and open prayer grounds for special Eid prayers before carrying out Qurbani, or ritual animal sacrifice, a practice rooted in faith, charity and social responsibility. The sacrificeEach year, millions of animals are sacrificed globally during Eid al-Adha. In Pakistan alone, around 6.8 million animals were sacrificed during Eid al-Adha in 2024, according to data cited by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). The figure represented an increase from approximately 6.18 million animals sacrificed during Eid al-Adha in 2023. The total included about 2.86 million cows and bulls, 165,000 buffaloes, 3.3 million goats, 385,000 sheep and nearly 99,000 camels. Under Islamic tradition, the meat from the sacrifice is commonly divided into three portions: one for the family, one for relatives and friends, and one for the poor and needy, reflecting Islam&rsquo;s emphasis on compassion, charity and care for the less fortunate. Beyond its religious significance, Eid al-Adha also generates major economic activity in Pakistan, particularly for livestock farmers, traders, transporters, tanners and small businesses linked to the seasonal cattle market economy. The rules of QurbaniThe practice of sacrifice is rooted in the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Narrated Anas bin Malik: &ldquo;The Prophet sacrificed two horned rams, black and white in colour. He slaughtered them with his own hands, mentioned Allah&rsquo;s name over them, said Takbir and placed his foot on their sides.&rdquo;(Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Sacrifice, Hadith 5558) Islamic scholars cite this Hadith as evidence for the method and significance of Qurbani, as well as the importance of offering the sacrifice after the Eid prayer. Islamic jurisprudence also prescribes detailed conditions for a valid sacrifice. The animal must belong to permitted categories, goat, sheep, cow, buffalo or camel, and meet minimum age requirements generally accepted by scholars: at least one year for goats and sheep, two years for cows and buffaloes, and five years for camels. The animal must also be free from major defects such as blindness, severe illness or lameness. A goat or sheep is considered sufficient for one household, while a cow, buffalo or camel may be shared by up to seven people. Managing Eid in PakistanAuthorities across Pakistan typically launch extensive cleanliness, waste disposal and security operations during Eid days to manage animal waste, traffic congestion and crowds in major urban centres. Municipal workers, volunteers and local administrations remain on high alert throughout the holiday period, particularly in large cities where temporary cattle markets and large-scale animal slaughter create additional logistical challenges. For Muslims, however, Eid al-Adha remains above all a spiritual occasion centred on sacrifice, obedience, gratitude and generosity, values deeply rooted in Islamic faith and tradition.

Children play with a bull ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in Rawalpindi on May 23, 2026. (AFP)

Muslims gather for Eid al-Adha prayers and animal sacrifice celebrations, commemorating Prophet Ibrahim’s devotion and emphasizing charity, compassion and community welfare during one of Islam’s most significant religious festivals.

How Eid al-Adha celebrations are rooted in faith and sacrifice

Saima Ayub

In modern households and classrooms, a rising issue causing tension between generations is the hyperactive child. Found in every other classroom and home, these children are often loud and chaotic, and they tend to fidget or hit their siblings. While many parents and teachers respond with yelling and label these children as &quot;bad&quot; or &quot;disrespectful,&quot; experts argue that this behavior is entirely outside the child&#39;s conscious control. The &lsquo;internal bucket&rsquo; overflowHyperactive children act as emotional &quot;sponges,&quot; absorbing chaos, stress, and constant instructions from adults around them. Whether it&rsquo;s pressure about academic performance or household stress, these feelings build up until the child&rsquo;s &quot;internal bucket&quot; overflows. Since their small bodies can&rsquo;t hold all this emotional weight, they often release it through physical actions &mdash; leading to the loudness, running, and classroom disruptions that frustrated adults frequently observe. A search for connection in a busy worldThe increase in hyperactivity is also connected to a lack of connection in busier lives. As parents spend less one-on-one time with their children, hyperactive outbursts can be seen as a cry for attention, essentially telling the parent: &quot;I exist; see me, hear me.&quot;&nbsp; The science of overstimulationModern environmental factors are further &quot;boosting&quot; children&#39;s energy levels to levels that are uncontrollable. There can be several key triggers, such as: - Fast-paced cartoons and bright visual colors.- Constant noise and screen time.- High-sugar diets that provide an artificial energy spike. When a child&rsquo;s brain becomes overstimulated by these factors, it enters a &quot;high alert mode.&quot; In this physiological state, the child&rsquo;s heart beats faster and their breathing changes, making it nearly impossible for them to process instructions or stay still.&nbsp; A call for channelled energyInstead of relying on discipline and labels, adults should view these behaviors as reflections of the nervous system. The focus should move away from punishment and toward channeling the child&#39;s energy to support their physiological and emotional well-being.

The ‘Bad Child’ myth: Why hyperactivity is a physiological cry for help

Articles

Hyperactive children are frequently misunderstood and unfairly labelled as 'bad' or 'disrespectful' by parents and teachers. However, their behavior — such as being loud, fidgeting, or hitting — reflects their nervous system and is not something they can consciously control.

Walk into any classroom today and the effects of modern parenting are obvious. Some children sit rigidly, waiting for instructions; others move through the day as if limits are optional. After years of observing families and schools, one truth is clear: both strictness without explanation and freedom without structure fail to cultivate the character parents and teachers aim to build. We want to raise thoughtful, self-disciplined adults. Yet many homes swing between the iron fist and the open palm, between command and negotiation, producing not maturity but confusion. Neither extreme teaches children to govern themselves. The tyranny of fixed rules Strict parents value order and respect. Their homes run on directives delivered from on high, &quot;Do your homework now,&quot; with little warmth or explanation. The short-term results can be impressive: obedient children, polite manners, quiet households. But this discipline is rooted in fear, not understanding. Research shows that rules without reasoning create compliance that collapses once the authority figure disappears. Children raised under constant control often develop anxiety, resentment, or outright rebellion.&nbsp; They learn to obey, not to comprehend. And obedience without comprehension is easily abandoned the moment independence arrives. The chaos of unbounded love At the opposite end are permissive parents, warm, loving, and eager to avoid conflict. But in their quest to preserve peace, everything becomes negotiable: bedtimes, homework, even basic routines. Consequences feel &ldquo;too harsh,&rdquo; and boundaries soften into suggestions. This feels compassionate in the moment, yet it leaves children unprepared for life beyond the living room. Educators see the results daily: difficulty with limits, poor self-control, impulsivity, and lower academic performance.&nbsp; Freedom without responsibility may feel gentle, but it ultimately traps children in their own impulses. Love without limits is simply another form of chaos. The path to self-discipline Both extremes overlook the real goal: helping children develop an inner compass. The most effective approach, supported by research and common sense, is the balanced model psychologists call authoritative parenting: firm but warm, structured but respectful. This style replaces punishment with guidance. It means offering clear rules but explaining the reasoning behind them. It means granting autonomy within boundaries, &lsquo;Turn off the phone at nine so your brain can rest for school, or Do your homework before or after dinner&mdash;you choose&rsquo;. These small choices teach judgment and build confidence. Children raised this way learn not only what to do, but why. And once they grasp the &ldquo;why,&rdquo; they carry the rule with them even when no one is watching. Ultimately, every child needs three assurances: That they have a voice. That they are capable. That they are loved. A strict home creates brittle obedience. A permissive home breeds drifting freedom. The middle path, love with limits, creates adults who can steer themselves. Parenting, at its best, is neither dictatorship nor friendship. It is guidance: steady, warm, and firm, teaching children that life has rules, and those rules have reasons. Only then do they learn to watch themselves, not because someone demands it, but because they have learned to do so.

Strict parenting breeds fear and rebellion, while permissiveness creates chaos and poor self-control. A balanced, authoritative approach best develops children’s inner discipline by combining clear rules, explanations, and meaningful autonomy.

Why both strict and lenient parents fail to build character

After years in classrooms, offices, and parent meetings, I have learned one truth: multitasking destroys children&rsquo;s focus. Their minds are delicate, like quiet rooms that need peace to stay bright. Yet today, those rooms are rarely quiet anymore. Almost every day, I hear the same concern from parents. They walk into their child&rsquo;s room and see a familiar scene: homework on the table, a YouTube video playing beside it, the phone buzzing every few minutes, a game notification flashing like a small firecracker. Sometimes the TV hums in the background. The child insists, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m studying.&rdquo; And in a way, they believe they are. This chaos has become normal. We adults call it multitasking, Children call it life, But the brain has its own opinion and it disagrees with both. What I Have Seen in ChildrenChildren today remind me of runners told to stop every few seconds. Start. Stop. Start again. No matter how strong the runner is, eventually they collapse. Their energy leaks away in little drops. One boy in Grade 6 once told me during a break, &ldquo;Ma&rsquo;am, I sit to study, but then my mind starts itching for my phone. I check one message and suddenly it is 40 minutes later.&rdquo; He said it with embarrassment, as if he were confessing a crime. But it wasn&rsquo;t a crime, it was a symptom. Inside the Mind: A Simple PictureImagine a chalkboard. You write on it, wipe it off. Some dust remains. You write again, erase again soon the board becomes smudged, unclear, hard to read. That is what happens to a child&rsquo;s mind when they switch from homework to notifications, from reading to reels, from solving to scrolling. The brain does not leap; it limps from one task to another, carrying the dust of the previous one. I have seen children stare at a single paragraph for ten minutes not because they don&rsquo;t understand, but because part of their mind is still sitting inside a TikTok video they watched two minutes earlier. Why Children Struggle More Than AdultsPeople say, &ldquo;This generation is smarter. They can handle screens.&rdquo; It sounds comfortable, but it is wrong. The part of the brain that controls focus the prefrontal cortex matures slowly. It doesn&rsquo;t fully grow until the mid-20s. Expecting a 12-year-old to &ldquo;just ignore the phone&rdquo; is like asking a bicycle to outrun a car. Children are more vulnerable to distraction. They fall faster, and they fall harder. A teenage girl once told me, &ldquo;Miss, I don&rsquo;t even enjoy scrolling anymore, but my brain doesn&rsquo;t let me stop.&rdquo; Her voice cracked not from wanting more, but from losing control. What This Looks Like at HomeParents often tell me, &ldquo;My child sits with books for hours but learns nothing.&rdquo; One mother described her son doing math homework with cartoons playing behind him. He kept saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not watching.&rdquo; But his eyes blinked every time the sound changed. His brain was listening. A task that should take one hour now takes three. In the end, the child feels slow, frustrated, and strangely exhausted. The Greater CostBeyond grades, something deeper is weakening the child&rsquo;s ability to sit with a thought. Children jump from idea to idea like stones skimming over a lake, never sinking long enough to see what lies beneath. This constant half-awareness is linked to anxiety, poor sleep, and a fading emotional connection with family. One father told me, &ldquo;My son sits with us, but he lives somewhere else inside his screen.&rdquo; What We Can DoProtecting single tasks is essential: short, 25-minute focus sessions can help rebuild a child&rsquo;s ability to sit still. This works best when the phone is removed entirely from the study area, because even a silent phone lying face down weakens focus.&nbsp; Just as important is showing children what real attention looks like when we scroll while they talk, they learn distraction, but when we listen fully, they learn presence. Some children say they need background noise. Soft instrumental music is fine. But screens, lyrics, and videos always take more than they give. Multitasking feels modern, but its cost is ancient:a child who cannot think deeply loses clarity, creativity, and confidence. If we protect their focus now, we return to them the one thing every growing mind needs a quiet inner room where ideas can bloom.

After years in classrooms, offices, and parent meetings, I have learned one truth: multitasking destroys children’s focus. Their minds are delicate, like quiet rooms that need peace to stay bright. Yet today, those rooms are rarely quiet anymore.


How multitasking is quietly harming children’s minds

24 years ago, the twin towers fell in Lower Manhattan, reshaping not just the skyline but the lived reality of every Muslim in America. This January, Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City&#39;s 111th mayor&mdash;its first Muslim, first South Asian, and first African-born leader.&nbsp; The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles, where &quot;wearing traditional Islamic clothing&quot; was listed as a radicalization indicator, where informants infiltrated wedding parties and college rafting trips in the name of counterterrorism. The distance between those two moments&mdash;between surveillance subject and City Hall&mdash;tells a story not just of individual achievement but of collective survival, political awakening, and the hard-won transformation of a community that refused to disappear. Since at least 2002, the NYPD&#39;s Intelligence Division engaged in what can only be described as systematic religious profiling. The Demographics Unit mapped 28 &quot;ancestries of interest&quot; associated with Muslim populations while explicitly excluding non-Muslims like Coptic Christian Egyptians or Iranian Jews. Undercover officers embedded themselves in mosques, bodegas, coffee shops, and barber shops. Their job, according to civil liberties groups, was to &quot;live the life of a fake Muslim&quot; inside these communities. The statistics are staggering: anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped from 28 incidents in 2000 to 481 in 2001 alone. But numbers can&#39;t capture what surveillance does to a community&#39;s soul. As Dr. Debbie Almontaser, a longtime Muslim advocate, testified: &quot;The community was traumatized because of how invasive the surveillance was.&quot; Trust evaporated&mdash;not just between Muslims and law enforcement, but among Muslims themselves. You couldn&#39;t be certain your neighbor wasn&#39;t an informant. Abdullah Ahmad, a Pakistani-American Brooklynite, who grew up in the 2000s, remembers this atmosphere vividly. &quot;Growing up in New York, it was a lot of Islamophobia,&quot; he recalls. &quot;That smear campaign mentality, the stigmatism that came from the Bush administration and everything after, it shaped how we moved through the world.&quot; Yet this is also where the story turns. Because surveillance, for all its trauma, had an unintended consequence: it politicized a generation. When your community is under siege, you have two choices:&nbsp;retreat or organize. New York&#39;s Muslims chose organization. Mamdani&#39;s victory carries symbolic weight that no single person should have to bear. A 2017 Pew Research survey found that 75% of US&nbsp;Muslims agreed there is &quot;a lot of discrimination&quot; against their community. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion noted that &quot;widespread negative representations of Islam, fear of Muslims generally, and counterterrorism policies have served to perpetuate, validate and normalize discrimination.&quot; Into this climate steps a 34-year-old who spent his early years in Uganda and Cape Town, a &quot;third culture kid&quot; who once worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens. He&#39;s being asked to represent not just eight million New Yorkers but, symbolically, 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. Yeliz Coban, a Turkish-American Brooklynite,&nbsp;understands this weight differently. &quot;It feels like being heard,&quot; she says simply. &quot;Not just being spoken at or spoken about, but truly listened to. It feels like someone who understands both the quiet resilience and the heavier burdens that Muslim communities have carried. His win isn&#39;t just symbolic&mdash;it&#39;s emotional. It feels like the city finally made space for us at the table.&quot; But the political opposition Mamdani faces reveals how precarious this moment remains. President Trump branded him a &quot;communist&quot; and vowed &quot;political retribution.&quot; Sitting members of Congress used fear-mongering, warning that his election would cause &quot;another 9/11.&quot; Trump even endorsed independent Andrew Cuomo&mdash;his political opponent&mdash;to prevent a Muslim from leading America&#39;s largest city. Masroor Jehangiri, a Pakistani-American living and studying in Staten Island, a predominantly Republican-leaning borough of NYC, feels both pride and anxiety. &quot;As a Muslim, I certainly feel proud and enabled that a person from our background can now become mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world,&quot; he says. &quot;This also comes with worry about how much Mamdani can actually deliver seeing how bad the political opposition has gotten. But I&#39;m glad his campaign revealed the mindsets of the politicians that lead us.&quot; Here&#39;s what makes Mamdani&#39;s victory genuinely transformative rather than merely symbolic: he didn&#39;t win by running away from controversy or making himself palatable to power. He won by building the largest grassroots campaign in New York history&mdash;100,000 volunteers knocking on three million doors. He won by centering economic justice: freezing rents for two million New Yorkers, making buses free, creating universal childcare, building 200,000 affordable housing units. &quot;A year ago, almost nobody had heard of Zohran Mamdani,&quot; Masroor notes. &quot;He used social media and multiple mediums to connect with younger generations, but he was also out on the streets doing ground work, genuinely connecting with everyday New Yorkers. For the first time, we witnessed a politician being genuine and honest,&nbsp;who doesn&#39;t seem trained to say certain answers but rather knows what answers people want.&quot; Abdullah saw this authenticity firsthand. &quot;Zohran has been a person of the community since the very beginning. He can speak to folks in Harlem because of his Ugandan background, or with all the desis [South Asians] in Jackson Heights.&nbsp;I recently had friends who went out for Halloween, and he was at the clubs speaking. No other politician would do that. I went to Yemeni delis, and they still have his posters up.&quot; This matters because it reframes the narrative. Mamdani isn&#39;t asking Muslims to be grateful for a seat at the table&mdash;he&#39;s reorganizing the entire table around working people&#39;s needs. South Asian voter turnout in the 2025 NYC primary increased by 40% compared to 2021, not because of identity politics but because a candidate finally spoke to their lived economic reality. The path from surveillance to City Hall wasn&#39;t inevitable, it was built. Built by Muslims who refused to self-censor out of existence, who organized despite fear, who raised their children to claim space rather than apologize for occupying it. Abdullah captures this generational shift perfectly: &quot;This 9/11 rhetoric is sort of ending. Yeah, you can instill fear from the Trump administration or Cuomo or whatever. But I think love and hope trumps all of that.&quot; Yeliz&#39;s hopes are more personal but no less powerful: &quot;My prayer is that Mamdani leads with integrity, keeps his promises, and shows this city that representation isn&#39;t something to fear but something that can expand our collective sense of belonging. If he does that, even those hesitant now will see that this moment isn&#39;t a threat, it&#39;s an opportunity.&quot; 24&nbsp;years ago, Muslim New Yorkers became surveillance subjects in their own city. Today, one of their own will lead it. That transformation didn&#39;t erase Islamophobia or solve systemic discrimination. But it proved something more important: that communities under siege can organize their way to power, that the children of immigrants can reshape the cities that once profiled them, that the distance between &quot;suspect community&quot; and City Hall is shorter than it looks&mdash;if you&#39;re willing to knock on three million doors. The future isn&#39;t certain, but it&#39;s no longer being written about Muslims. It&#39;s being written by them.

The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles.

Opinion