Helen Mirren: People

The wire services regularly send images to their member papers that feature the phrase "daily life." They send them from such places as India, Thailand, Japan, China, the Philippines, Syria, Nepal, Britain, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. With the exception of just a couple, the images in this post feature daily life in Pakistan by Associated Press photographer Muhammed Muheisen. The images document what we might call in newspaper terminology, "slice of life" photography - ordinary daily scenes that give us a glimpse of something that we might not ordinarily be able to experience. The images, again with a few exceptions, focus on children. They are generally from Islamabad, Pakistan, or from a slum on the outskirts of the city. There wasn't much information or details supplied for captions. In this case, the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" might just be the most apropos phrase. -- Paula Nelson (30 photos total)

Pakistani Mamouna Qamar, 4, holds her brothers' hands, Shazaib, 6, and Zaman, 7, as they wait for their parents to cross a street in a neighborhood in Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A Pakistani girl held by her mother follow a man down an alley of a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, the nation’s capital. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani children gather by a vendor on a bicycle selling balloons on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A Pakistani boy eats fresh corn and holds a balloon while standing in an alley of a poor neighborhood near Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani children play in a wooden cart in a slum area on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

An Afghan refugee adjusts her head scarf as she stands with other girls in an alley of a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A Pakistani school girl writes on a blackboard during an English class in an outdoor school in a slum near Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A pair of performers -- a trained monkey and his owner -- await customers on a roadside in Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

An Afghan refugee girl walks through an alley of a slum heading back home on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani girl Aysha Gulfeyaz, 3, drinks water from a hand pump near Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A Pakistani girl laughs with another while carrying wood in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Two Afghan refugee sisters and a Pakistani girl attend a daily class to learn how to read verses of the Koran, at a mosque in a slum area on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani boys attend a Koran class in a mosque near Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Afghan refugee girls sit behind a wooden cart in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A Pakistani boy enjoys an amusement ride on a wheel near Islamabad. The cart reads in Urdu, "Happy Eid, from London to America". Eid is a festival that marks the end of the Ramadan holiday month. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani girls arrange bricks while working in a brick factory on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani Christian boys play games in a basement of their neighborhood, a slum near Islamabad. (B.K.Bangash/Associated Press)

Boys gather by a vendor selling tropical fish on his bicycle on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Mohammed Ali, 5, stands next to his mother while they queue with other women and children for rations of rice during a donated food distribution, at the Beri Iman, a shrine of the famous Sufi Saint Beri Imam, in Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A laborer transports the front portion of a van through his handcart on a road in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad. (Anjum Naveed/Associated Press)

An Afghan refugee girl stands with others in an alley of a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani children walk on a hill on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A street barber (right) gives a haircut to a customer, reflected in a mirror, in Gujranwala, near Lahore, the nation’s second-largest city and a center of culture. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Pakistani children cross over a stream using an aerial ferry in Rawalpindi. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Children, seen from inside a rickshaw, gathering in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

A young girl waits next to her mother as she and others queue for a ration of rice during a donated food distribution at the Beri Iman, a shrine of famous Sufi Saint Beri Imam, in Islamabad. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)