#NeverForget: IVS students make a statement against indifference

In a series of posters, they question society's numbness, desensitisation to violence

KARACHI: Have you forgotten or are you just indifferent?

That is the question Maheen Jam, a third-year communication design student at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS), wants society to answer about the Peshawar school tragedy that claimed 141 lives on December 16, 2014.

Around 25 students were asked to come up with a series of digital posters focusing on reactions to the Army Public School (APS) attack for their graphic design class, questioning the indifference and numbness towards violence that has become prevalent in the country. Exhibited at IVS for a few days, the images quickly went viral on Facebook and Tumblr.

"Living in a city like Karachi and a country like Pakistan, we have become desensitised to violence," remarked IVS student Zeerak Ali. "We mourn for a day or two and then we move on."

Salman Qaisar, another student, whose poster quotes a mother who had lost her son in the tragedy, agreed. "It's a shame that after all the hype immediately after heart-wrenching incidents such as this, things just settle down like nothing ever happened and everyone simply returns to their normal routines. But this is not just a newsflash or a headline in the newspapers."

Pointing to the many mothers and fathers still waiting at the school gates for their children to come home, he urged society to show them that they were not alone in their grief.

"We don't want this to end here. The least we can do is to keep this in our minds — not just Peshawar, but other attacks too," stressed Maheen, adding that the students had discussed displaying their posters with NGOs such as 141 Schools to continue fuelling discourse. "We need to knock sense into people. This is happening and we must wake up!"

Class representative Umaima Mughal, who took the opportunity to meet the APS students being treated at the Aga Khan Hospital, believes that it is the designers' duty to raise their voice through this medium. "Our posters are a message to those responsible for such attacks that we have zero tolerance for violence and they will not get away with this. We have not forgotten and we never will."

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.