Fallen hero

Sabeen Mahmud, murdered on April 24 as she drove to her home accompanied by her mother, was a woman who wanted to make a difference. She was the founder of The Second Floor (T2F), a cafe-cum-library-cum-performance space and gallery in Karachi. Over the last seven years T2F, as it was affectionately known, has quietly established a reputation as a venue where challenging ideas may get aired, boxes were there to be thought out of and music and dance were for the enjoyment of all. She was a high-profile social activist and champion of human rights, and some of her causes are unlikely to have found favour with powerful quarters. It is reported that she had received threats recently.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed his condolences at the killing of Sabeen Mahmud and vowed that her killers will be tracked down and caught. Desirable as this is, it is highly unlikely that they will ever be identified or punished. No organisation has claimed her murder and apart from her many friends around the world — she was a woman with an international profile — her death will quickly fade from public awareness.

There will be vigils attended by the dwindling band of liberals who are increasingly corralled in an ever-shrinking space, and she will become just another number in a wider statistic.

To be liberal and outspoken in the Pakistan of today is tantamount to painting a target in the middle of your forehead. Sabeen Mahmud was one of those who rose above the crowd, who may well have been afraid for her life but was undeterred, a woman of courage and principle. There are others but few have achieved what she did, establishing a space where her own values found a comfortable home and where those of a similar ilk were encouraged to flourish as well. It is to be hoped that somebody will pick up the baton she carried for the last decade and ensure that T2F continues as her legacy. Because there has to be somewhere in the looming gloom where we can rage against the dying of the light.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2015.

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