To end patriarchy: Street theatre performances begin from Lahore

LAHORE: A series of street theatre performances started from the city on Monday with the aim of putting an end to patriarchy and its impact on the well-being of women.

According to Salman Sufi, a senior member at Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit, the initiative has been taken in collaboration with UN Women as part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign. He was speaking in Anarkali.

The street theatre campaign kicked off with a performance in Anarkali in the afternoon and then another in Liberty Market in the evening.

The rest of the performances are scheduled to be held in Multan and Faisalabad at various spots.

Giving a message

While speaking on the occasion, Sufi said the joint themes revolving around these performances range from violence against women in the private and public spaces to women’s mobility and the solutions to the challenges faced by them.

He added storyline for the performances has come from the experiences gained from the Women On Wheels campaign of Special Monitoring Unit and Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces initiative of UN Women. “These stories speak about women who have now attained independence in fulfilling their daily tasks, from dropping their children to school to supporting their families and getting an education,” Sufi said.

The performances that were executive by members of Interactive Resource Centre IRC, questioned patriarchy that is prevalent in the society.

The performances were followed by an interactive session with the audience to hear their views and hopefully move them to consider how together each of them can contribute towards making lives better for women in Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2016.