TTP – Aboard The Democracy Train

November 13, 2026

Walking along the dusty broken roads of Frontier’s capital city, Peshawar, dodging smoke emitting rickshaws and vehicles speeding recklessly toward me, I went through public spaces which swarmed with men. An occasional shuttlecock burqa (veil) was the only indication that a woman was at hand. The `azaan’ (call to prayer) resounded in the antiquated city, throwing up a unique spectacle: male congregations knelt in prayer in corridors of office buildings.

Cover Reviews

Shuja Nawaz
Author and Director South Asia Center

‘A powerful and courageous voice that represents the best of Pakistan’s emerging journalism…

Karen Frillmann
Managing Editor – Newsroom, New York Public Radio

‘Nafisa Hoodbhoy’s detailed reporting helped me look at the complex world of Pakistani politics differently. Hoodbhoy’s proximity to key players …

Hassan Abbas
Author and Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor

‘A story of a courageous journalist who defied conventional norms during times when very few other women were in this profession, and the country’s …

Frances Stead Sellers
Deputy National Editor, Health, Science and the Environment, The Washington Post

‘It was her fierce independence and commitment to her country that inspired [Hoodbhoy’s] decision to become a newspaper reporter the only female…

Reader Reviews

Karen McFly, 2013

‘Unputdownable! Required reading for anyone who is interested in how Pakistan came into being, developed into the country that it is today and what it was like in between being the only women journalist during dictator Zia ul Haq's military rule. Nafisa Hoodbhoy is a an extremely brave and defiant woman and a great writer whose storytelling qualities enable one to live through the different times as she has. Certainly worth reading a second time.‘

Vikas Datta, 2015

‘Another perceptive look into an embattled country and where Ms.Hoodbhoy scores is starting much earlier in a more dangerous decade which has however not got its adequate share of attention due to the lesser outward manifestations of violence, save in benighted Karachi and Sindh.‘

Kaustubh Kirti, 2018

‘A thrilling tale that follows the death of Zia on 1988 and folllows much of Pakistan's history till the shahadat of Benazir Bhutto. The book gives a close acccount of what goes behind the scene in the political landscape and how specific events change the functioning of democracy in Pakistan.‘