Syed Irfan Ashraf is an assistant professor at the Department of Journalism, University of
Peshawar, Pakistan. He holds a Ph.D. in media studies from Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale. He previously worked as a local journalist in the war-hit Pashtun periphery
straddling Afghanistan, and as a journalist for different national and international newspapers,
including the New York Times. He is a member of an ethnic Pashtun community that, for the past
two decades, has been caught in the conflict zone of the US-led Global War on Terror. He
narrowly escaped personal injury, danger and death while reporting on suicide bombings and US
drone strikes that killed innocent men, women and children in the bordering region.
