I think the reporter did not quote our full discussion at the Tehrik-e-Niswan conference, so clarification is due.
LAHORE: This is with reference to Saadia Qamar’s article of December 28 “Who is the ‘Bad Girl’?”
I think the reporter did not quote our full discussion at the Tehrik-e-Niswan conference, so a clarification is in order. I was discussing the repercussions of the missionary-led anti-nautch movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which eroded and reformed many of our traditional dance institutions. I argued that these colonial strategies still bear traces on a contemporary, polarised theatrical canvas, especially focusing on the 2002 period of Lahori theatre where the females of Punjabi theatre were branded as ‘bad’ and punished by harsh penalties, while plays in English were actively supported as an alternative.
A closer examination of popular Punjabi plays in 2002-3 illustrates that the very issues which stigmatise the female performer of the popular theatre are challenged in comedy and dance, where female performers engage in acts of ‘revisioning’, — exposing the patriarchal structures and, within their limitations, bring forth a subliminal protest through bodily signification. As such, if we take an academic focus to the theatre medium, performance may be released from these simplistic binary positionings.
Claire Pamment
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2010.
