Victims of social injustice have been his subject and the great Sadequain his inspiration. Moved by necessity and motivated by passion to fight injustice, Head Contable Mehmood Ahmed joined the Islamabad police in 2002.
However, failing to achieve much of what he wanted, Ahmed turned to the brush and canvas, his childhood love, to vent his anger and frustration. A first sight at his artwork suggests he hasn’t failed after all.
“It always hurts me to see human beasts in our male-dominated society ravaging helpless women at every possible opportunity,” says the head constable as he points to one of his paintings, a 6x3 inch portrait of a young girl who is ‘sold’ by her family to a much older man.
The girl, in her red wedding dress, wears locks made of gold that zip her mouth as she leaves her house, showing how Ahmed has masterfully reflected her agony while telling her story. Accoding to him, the unjust practice is still prevalent in some parts of southern Punjab, where teenage girls are married off to wealthy Middle Eastern sheikhs.
From sexual abuse to prostitution and honour killings, Ahmed has witnessed hundreds of crime cases against women. He says he always did his best to help victims, but without much success.
“Sadly, our criminal justice system has failed to deliver to the victims, which is why such incidents keep happening repeatedly,” he said while narrating an incident from 2005 that he particularly remembers.
The incident, in which a girl was killed by her family for marrying a man of her choice, lead Ahmed to take up the paint brush.
“I spent many restless nights after reading that story in the newspaper. I could see everything the girl went through. It was painful,” he remarked. Making best use of his imagination and range of colours at hand, he created a painting which he considers his best - a personal masterpiece.
“It is indeed nothing less than one, showing a chained girl surrounded by hostile men and women holding different weapons in their hands to cut her into pieces,” said the head constable.
Ahmed is no ordinary painter - he is self-taught and holds his own unique, bold and striking style. He says he is always open to exploring new options and experimentation with different techniques. While one of his painting uses excessive zinc white the other relies solely on the subject.
Despite being talented, it hasn’t been easy for the head constable to keep his passion alive with his meagre salary. A father of three and the only breadwinner in his family, he saves his salary to buy paints, canvas and brushes.
“I was once awarded with $200 by a foreign mission and I spent it all buying the stuff I needed in bulk. Now I am good for a while,” he explained.
However, he is worried for his paintings’ safety, as they are increasing rapidly and are stored in a small room that he has temporarily been allowed to use by his management.
Being self-taught and having immense talent, Ahmed wishes to show his work to the world by holding an exhibition. However, he doesn’t have the means to do so. He hopes someday he will be able to provide substantive help to widows and orphans towards a better life.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2012.
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