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This book on inspirational Pakistani women hopes to encourage girls to achieve their dreams

This book on inspirational Pakistani women hopes to encourage girls to achieve their dreams

Maliha Abidi, author of Pakistan for Women, celebrates women from all walks of life in her illustrated storybook.
18 Apr, 2019

Maliha Abidi is a Karachi-born artist and author of Pakistan for Women an illustrated storybook celebrating the achievements of Pakistani women. From mountaineers to activists and astrophysicists, the book brings together the stories of over 50 extraordinary women who defied odds and influenced positive change. Ms Abidi was recently visiting Pakistan from Sussex, where she is studying medical neuroscience, and Dawn caught up with her to talk about her work.

Q: How did you start drawing portraits of Pakistani women?

A: I have been drawing people for as long as I can remember. As a self-taught artist, whenever I picked up a paintbrush or sat down to draw, my heart drew me towards portraits. Over the years, I have drawn portraits of women from many cultures and from different parts of the world.

As a woman from Pakistan, it was only natural that I began drawing women from my culture. I wanted to do a series to celebrate Pakistani women, which I eventually turned into a book. Through my work, I also wanted to challenge some misconceptions people outside Pakistan have about the country. I wanted to show that while we do have problems and women are denied rights, there are some women who have not only paved the way for themselves but also millions of others across the country.

The author with Muniba Mazari.
The author with Muniba Mazari.

Q: What was the idea behind creating an illustrated storybook?

A: Girls in Pakistan are often discouraged from pursuing their dreams. Families have misconceptions rooted in culture or cite reasons such as honour or responsibilities to hold their daughters back from what they wish to do. But very often little girls are told that they can’t do certain things because they are in Pakistan. Through these stories, I wanted to show that these women, despite being born in this country, overcame challenges, came up with solutions and became a source of inspiration for many.

Book cover of Pakistan For Women.
Book cover of Pakistan For Women.

I wanted to tell all the girls reading these stories that if these Pakistani women can achieve their dreams through hard work and determination, so can they. Pakistan for Women reads like a storybook and each story begins with ‘Once upon a time…’ and alongside the story, there is a full-page illustration of the woman whose story is being told.

In my own life, art has inspired me in endless ways. It has a way of grabbing one’s attention and telling a story so when I decided to tell the stories of Pakistani women, art seemed to be the best medium.

Q: Who is included in this book and how did you decide who to include?

A: I don’t want to disclose the names of all 50 women included in the book, because I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone reading it, but you will see some amazing stories in there. You will read a story of a fire fighter, an astrophysicist, a singer, an educationist and many more.

A page from the book.
A page from the book.

It was difficult choosing which women to include in my book. The process took me from an initial 80 names to 50 and it could have easily been a thousand because Pakistan has so many inspirational stories of excellence and brilliance. I wanted to ensure diversity and also include contemporary women. Eventually, I ended up with 50 trailblazers who made Pakistan, shaped Pakistan, began something unique and are still doing wonders for this country.


Originally published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019

Comments

akhtar Apr 18, 2019 11:30am
Bravo. Itching to read it. .
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Asif Apr 19, 2019 07:49am
Unfortunately, how many people are literate in Pakistan ? What is needed at wider scale is to use media and parliaments to bring wide scale improvements in the thinking of common men and women. It is not only the responsibility of women to rethink and renew their thinking but the male counterparts are to be trained at every level. First of all men and women are taken to be human beings at equality in case of respect and rights. The social attitudes towards certain factions or groups are also to be changed for the sake of human care and respect. If anything happens to a single or individual woman, then realization comes only to her but other women and men remain insensitive and the incidents are forgotten sooner or later. What is needed is to run a campaign for pretty long time to educate the masses and tat can not happen only with one publication of a book which is in fact not going to reach every hand and mind. Moreover, not only a book rather millions of books are needed to educate men also.
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