Iron ladies: Celebrating women of substance

Nomad Art Gallery pays tribute to 6 women whose resolve has shaped much of the discourse towards women empowerment.

ISLAMABAD:

As women carve out a place within a terrain long inured to men, there are leaps to celebrate and bounds yet made. In marking International Women’s Day, the Nomad Art Gallery paid tribute to six women whose resolve, intellect and courage has shaped much of the discourse towards women empowerment.

For Nomad Curator Nageen Hyat, art — a discipline she has dedicated over three decades to — has the power to rouse emotion, to build awareness and inevitably steer change. The event, “Art for Social Change: women, violence and art”, was a manifestation of this conviction, celebrating the iconic role of poets Parveen Shakir and Kishwar Naheed, Pakistani nightingale Noor Jahan, folk singer Reshma, classical dancer Naheed Siddiqui and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“The show aspires to empower women and girls with new behavioral choices,” She expressed, as people crowded within the space lined with photographs, paintings and poetic finesse, relating the collective voice of struggle and success more cutting than the white walls that it inhabited.

“As a social activist and the curator of this event, I find that the range of gender-based violence is devastating. It occurs in all segments of society, regardless of class, ethnicity, culture or whether the country is at war or peace,” she added, explaining that the ultimate goal of the exhibit was to encourage dialogue on issues of violence against women, and to ultimately find a sense of hope, and a way forward.



Organised in collaboration with UN Women, the event included Akram Dost Baloch’s Picasso-esque portraits of ‘invisible women’, Egyptian artist Naira El Tablawi’s evocative canvases highlighting issues of colour in ethnically-African women living in Egypt, veteran photographer Azhar Hafeez’s sensitive lens towards issues of early marriage, images of resilience by female photojournalist Myra Iqbal as well as young photographers Naeem Alam, Adil Riaz and Zainab Najib. Accessory designer Mahin Hussain also paid homage the Shakir’s verse in the form of a screen-printed tote bag. The event also coincides with the Gallery’s 30th anniversary and celebrates a rich commitment to the arts, and cultural heritage of Pakistan.

An alluring display of words, in the form of calligraphic installations from both poet Parveen Shakir, the lines from Noor Jehan’s songs, complimented the relationship between images and words as potent entities, metaphorical and narrative of the spirit of women. Amidst the indomitable presence of art, diplomats and friends of the gallery recited the works of female poets spanning continents including translated haiku’s by Afghan women, more contemporary renderings by Australian poet, Judith Wright and most relevant to the travails of women in Pakistan, the stomach-punching verses of Kishwar Naheed.

“International Women’s day is a day to recommit ourselves to working together as men, women, boys, girls, leaders and the youth,” said Sangeeta Rana Thappa, deputy representative of OIC-UN Women, lauding the visionary potential of art, in heralding thought-provoking dialogue necessary to both celebrate those who have inspired in the past and those who continue to do so today.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2014.