ASR’s journey into publishing followed a pattern similar to its other activities: there was never a specific point at which ASR decided to “become a publisher.” While facilitating, providing, organizing, and conducting various types of training at different levels within and outside Pakistan, ASR’s multidimensional and multidisciplinary work revealed a dearth of training materials in the country. There was literally none that was either simply written or available in Urdu. ASR responded by translating and publishing a number of training materials, research reports, and other writing produced by ASR itself.

The scope of ASR’s work reflected the spirit of its team members and their commitment to social justice in Pakistan, a country grappling with its postcolonial and patriarchal realities. After filling the vacuum in training materials, ASR became a platform for publishing much of the feminist and socialist-feminist literature in South Asia.

In a country where propaganda infiltrated discourse and the judicial-military nexus politicized justice, citizens were pushed against the wall and forced to seek justice beyond established institutions. ASR Publications gave truth and justice an unhindered space in literature. The act of writing, reading, and enabling thus became an independent means of keeping voices, narratives, and truth alive in the pursuit of justice.