/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-PAKISTAN: No Stage Is Too Far For This Group

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct 28 2003 (IPS) - In a ward at Qatar General Hospital, midwives and staff nurses jostled for space on the floor matting, watching the theatre group team arrange the few props they had brought with them. Others, curious about this activity in the hospital lobby, gathered on the staircase.

This was the theatre group Tehrik-e-Niswan doing what it does best – staging a play in the midst of the bustle of this port city in southern Pakistan. The play, called ‘Meri Zindagi ka Safar’ (My Life’s Journey), did distract patients and overworked staff for about half an hour, and also contained strong underlying messages.

Based on a true story by feminist poet Attiya Dawood and modified with the incorporation of song and music by Tehrik-e-Niswan, the play tackles the issues of silence towards injustice, of the place of education that co-exists with cultural traditions, of individual change driving social change.

"These plays are extremely effective as they touch people emotionally, and when you ruffle their emotions transformation takes place internally," said Sheema Kermani, the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan, the only group in Karachi that performs street theatre. Kermani directs the production and also plays two roles.

The story focuses on the life of a bubbly and vivacious young girl who is never sent to school, although her brother is. She helps her mother with the housework, and is allowed to go out and play with the neighbourhood children. Then she gets her first period.

Overnight, and without explanation, she is forced to enter adulthood. Married off without her consent, the girl-turned-wife becomes a mere domestic worker in the day and a pleasure machine at night. She becomes pregnant, is taken to a traditional birth attendant for delivery. The attendant’s unscientific methods and lack of training result in the girl’s death.

Kermani, who plays both the family matriarch and the girl’s best friend, said that ‘Meri Zindagi ka Safar’ touches upon themes like the prevalence of the preference for a son in Pakistani culture, child marriage, and the curse of dowry. With such emotive issues being tackled, the audience proved very receptive, ready to applaud at every juncture.

The success of such theatre can be gauged by the demand for these performances and then the post-play discussion amongst the audiences. Tehrik-e-Niswan’s first performance was in 1980 and they now perform twice a month to requests.

Has this pioneering group fostered and seen social change in Karachi? Kermani said the group indeed has. "Especially in our focus areas like Orangi and Korangi, where there are many squatter settlements, there has been a marked change in the outlook of people," she noted. "Women seem more empowered and are coming out from homes, which hitherto, was quite unthinkable."

"They have become more confident and assertive," she added. "The school where we usually perform in Orangi has opened a centre for young women to get together and learn arts and crafts and discuss and share their problems and aspirations. One sees a slow but sure change in them."

For some in the audience at Qatar General Hospital, the play was like a revisiting of their own life stories. Comments from the audience included "It all rings true", "This won’t happen in my home!" and "We’ve got to educate our daughters".

Kermani said the performance at the hospital was difficult because of the constant flux of people – patients and visitors – and constant movement in the main lobby where the play was staged. Whatever the audience dynamics, ‘Meri Zindagi ka Safar’ won converts. A doctor on duty who was initially a little sceptical of the group later went up to the performers and asked them to join him for a cup of tea.

There was a fundamental message the play brought home, which one elderly woman pointed out at the end of the performance. "All this was due to sheer ignorance, and that can be dispelled if we educate our daughters," she said out loud. "You educate a daughter and the whole generation thereafter benefits."