Dawn Images

Tehmina Durrani’s solo exhibition, A Love Affair, at Tanzara Gallery closed to resounding acclaim from Islamabad’s elite, drawing art connoisseurs from diplomatic, political and cultural spheres.

A culmination of 22 years of deep personal work, the exhibit offered a rare glimpse into the unspoken dimensions of her journey where colour becomes language and silence, resistance.

Known globally for her groundbreaking autobiography My Feudal Lord, which publicly challenged patriarchal abuses, this exhibition speaks in a different language — one of colour, texture and symbolism. Through art, Tehmina revisits the same societal wounds but engages viewers through silence rather than confrontation.

The writer-cum-artist’s two-decade-long marriage to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a period she describes as one of chosen silence, now finds voice in canvases that blend personal anguish with collective pain.

Her works depict the subjugation of women not just as isolated experiences, but as part of a structural system deeply ingrained in feudal and patriarchal cultures. Yet, the work transcends autobiography.

My Feudal Lord had triggered controversy during its publications in 1991. The book was banned in Egypt and Pakistan as she wrote about certain painful truths about Muslim women’s plights that were greatly considered as taboos before and during the nineties’ orthodox societies.

The paintings are intimate confessions, defiant declarations and spiritual invocations.

Her artistic voice, long held in check by personal and political confines, now manifests in bold brushwork and saturated hues. Each painting pulses with emotional depth, offering not just a visual experience but a psychological and spiritual one. Tehmina now emerges as a literary voice of rebellion against patriarchy and a visual chronicler of emotional and social struggle.

Despite having no formal art training, her style is fearless, her stroke raw, and her palette intense, depicting her rage in reds and reflection in blues. About the recurrence of self-portraits, she explains: “Each painting had a life of its own; nothing about it was mine. Now, I present my unspoken words to the world.”

“Painting was born in the silence of my soul,” she reflected, adding that “it wove itself through every stage of my life… It was my voice long before I broke all norms that had seized my tongue”.

Tehmina’s work delves into collective and personal memories. Pieces like Eve, I Will Not Dare, and The Sin challenge the historical burden of guilt and shame placed on women. She critiques how religion and tradition have often been weaponised and misused against women, stating, “Be she widowed, divorced, shunned… a woman’s lifelong search for a man… is her consistent search for God.”

Each painting, often accompanied by classical literary and mystical quotations — from Rumi, Saadi, Mansur Hallaj, Rabia Basri and Kabir to Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath to Mahmoud Darvish, Faiz and Khushal Khan Khattak — functions as a multi-layered narrative. Her spiritual motifs blend seamlessly with political undertones. In Sleeping Woman, she warns, “Until Muslim women awaken from their slumber, the world will remain deprived of over half of the Muslim world’s most powerful force.”

The use of oil and mixed media becomes her protest and prayer. In A Forever War and Resilient Blue Burqa, she honours Afghan women’s plight and resilience: “Afghan women’s hearts beat under the blue burqa… they wage a forever war against the bombs that shatter, the silence that suffocates”.

Curator Noshi Qadir observed: “Tehmina’s bold strokes and vibrant colours create a tapestry of love, life, and spirituality… She chose to express her convictions through the gentle language of art.”

This was also echoed by Usman Ahmed, a young British Labour Party activist and Mayor of Wellington.

“The paintings are bold, meaningful and evocative, conveying a strong message,” he added.

Renowned Sufi singer Abida Parveen praised Tehmina’s work and, at the artist’s request, performed Man Kunto Maulaa gainst the backdrop of a large painting depicting the tragedy of Karbala.

Themes of transformation and transcendence recur. Works like Rebirth, The Walk, Oceanand Union meditate on freedom’s emotional toll.

“The spirit’s perpetual need to uproot itself from attachment to the temporary,” Tehmina says, “is freedom”.

Her paintings often depict female forms immersed in moonlight or water, symbols of spiritual surrender. She asserts, “Art is the oldest language spoken against a backdrop of hatred, discrimination, war, violence, and brutality.”

In A Love Affair, Tehmina does not seek applause. She seeks truth.

“I have never sought validation outside myself; to do so would compromise my integrity. The body of work is not just seen. It is felt, absorbed, and endured.”

Originally published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025