City of lights: ‘Karachi is vibrant and full of energy’

Women of the World Festival creator Jude Kelly discusses the festival and the port city

KARACHI: Karachi is very much like Liverpool, according to Women of the World (WOW) Festival founder Jude Kelly.

"I like this city; it's very vibrant and full of energy. It reminds me of Liverpool," said Kelly, who is also the artistic director at the Southbank Centre. The WOW festival came into being some five years ago in London on International Women's Day. Over the years, the event has been hosted across the world, including Karachi on May 1 this year.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on the sidelines of the festival, Kelly said the festival has been happening in many cities around the world and Pakistan is a very important place. "Everybody looks at Pakistan to see what changes happen for women and girls. It's an important place politically and a superb place in so many ways," she explained.

Having visited Karachi several times, she said she loves the city and finds it very similar to her hometown. "Well, it's edgy. There are a whole lot of different types of people with lots of opinions," she said, adding that there is a "good sense of humour here".

Sporting an Eastern look by wearing a blue kameez with a matching dupatta, Kelly found the festival to be very relaxed. "The response has been very good here. There are people from different backgrounds and lots of boys and men," she said. "You turn up and hear about different girls and women's achievements and celebrate that. You can hear about their obstacles and consider that," she added.



"It isn't an academic conference it isn't a symposium, it's a festival. I'm enjoying it," Kelly commented. Why did she choose Karachi to host WOW? "Karachi is an amazing city and seems like an exciting place to do WOW," she said, adding that women and girls in Karachi said that they would love if a WOW festival could happen here. "They came forward and gave us ideas of what they want to do, such as music, dance as well as talking about difficult subjects. I felt that the positive spirit for change here was right because that's what we are trying to do all over the world," she said.

According to Kelly, the festival's future in Pakistan is still uncertain. "People are already asking if we will do this again in Karachi next year. Whether we'll go to any other city in Pakistan depends on Pakistani girls and women, whether they want it," she explained.

A noticeable feature in the sessions was an on-the-spot translation screen. Where conversations were in Urdu, text was being translated in English and vice versa. Sharing her thoughts on this, Kelly said she finds it disrespectful towards communities in Pakistan to not be considerate of language. "Pakistan is [known] because of its language, isn't it? Not everybody speaks English by any means. I believe not everybody speaks Urdu either," she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2016.