The Centre for South Asian (CSAS) organized a Book Talk on Monday September 25, 2023. The book, "Extremism and Counter-extremism Narratives in Pakistan: An Analysis of Narrative Building", has been authored by Dr. Sadia Nasir, an Adjunct faculty Bahria University, Islamabad. The book has been recently published by Routledge; London and New York as part of its series on Routledge Studies in South Asian Politics, and is the first of its kind to analyze extremist narratives and counter-narratives, from different lenses at the same time. Dr. Sadia talked about her maiden book that is divided into two main themes;

How extremism steeped in Pakistan’s society through a naïve approach towards use of symbols and language in national notions

How extremism can be countered through counter extremism initiatives and counter extremism narrative building.

She said that narratives play an essential role in constructing social reality. She spoke about the extremism that has been embedded so deeply in the country’s social fabric. She discussed how the words like radicalization, terrorism and extremism are interchangeably used, yet need a clarity. The counter extremism narrative building was unsuccessful as state was unable to grasp and imbibe the problem.

In the end, Dr. Naheed S. Goraya, the Director CSAS, said that Dr. Sadia’s book is a valuable and much-required contribution to the prevailing literature on extremism and narrative building in Pakistan. This book would serve students, academics and policymakers in recognizing the confines of counter-narratives in Pakistan, while providing them with a thorough overview of extremism and extremist narratives. After that, there was an interactive Q & A session with the Author of the book and University teachers and students.