Freak Show

“A puppet may not necessarily be a human or animal figurine. Even the swirl of a sash in the air can convey an expression and hence become a puppet,” said Faizaan Peerzada at the recent theatre-cum-puppet performance at Lahore’s Museum of Puppetry.

The show was unique as it was performed by students of the Punjab University, Beaconhouse National University and Interactive Theatre (Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop) in collaboration with two German puppeteers, Heiki Ikkola and Sabine Koehler. Both the Germans had been hosted by the RPTW to train more than a dozen Pakistani students on the skills of puppetry in theatre.The group of students performed a ‘freak show’ every Sunday at the museum and at the commencement of the workshop came up with a performance of skits that they had devised over the length of the training.

The show was aptly named The Newspaper Man and Other Oddities. Most of the skits focused around mundane situations of life depicted in a humorous way, and paper was crafted into puppets or props. So the same sheet of paper swiftly became a cigarette or a peacock or a snake or even a camera. Objects like a brick, broom or pen were used with sound effects in the background to convey simple themes.Not all performances were immaculate and refined but the students seemed greatly motivated and were generously applauded.

However, one could not comprehend the story behind some of the skits. It would have been better had all the students chosen simpler themes like the one with the fashion photographer who does a lousy job of shooting her model; or the young girl addicted to drugs which eventually finish her off. Skits like these went really well with the audience some of who shared the sentiment that the simpler themes were both well-enacted and well-received.This should be considered by the students when performing in future as all professional puppeteers coming from abroad in Rafi Peer festivals make it a point to use simple and easy-to-understand ideas.

The better performed skits were placed towards the end of the show. An impressive one was the duel between two paper puppets with an actual fireball. The two puppets were handled with great skill by half-a-dozen students each making the movements of the puppets. But the audience were wowed by the ‘pyro puppetry’ sequence in the end when a huge eight-foot puppet made of paper on iron bars was lit with fire and made to dance on Nusrat Fateh Ali’s qawwali. It was a sight to behold! This act was handled by the German pros themselves since it required skill and caution.

The RPTW also took the opportunity to announce its new windows in the museum which included background props for puppets from around the world. One appreciated the amount of effort put into making the windows aesthetically pleasing.For instance the Uzbek puppets have now been given sandcastles in the background complete with turrets and domes, and the Rajasthani puppets have been given the darbar ‘putli ghar’ look. At a time when all else seems to be ruled by chaos, art initiatives such as these must be commended, especially when they involve originality and endeavour.

This article was published in Images, Dawn on Oct 26, 2008

The hand that rocks the cradle…

Who has more right over the land — the owner who possesses the deed or the tiller who makes it fertile with his sweat and toil? The question has confounded answer-seekers for centuries.Raising this very issue, Ajoka Theatre recently performed the play Chaak Chakkar at the Alhamra Arts Complex in Lahore with assistance from the Lahore Arts Council.

Chaak Chakkar delved into the question of owner-versus-keeper in a thought-provoking, humorous manner. Adapted by Shahid Nadeem from the famous German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle written in 1944, the play was typical of Ajoka’s adaptation-based performances.Taking its cue from the Pakistani context of the downtrodden masses, exploitative elite and a weak judiciary, the original play (that had been taken by Brecht from a 14th century Chinese legend) provided Ajoka the perfect story for our times.

The story of Chaak Chakkar revolves around a corrupt subedar who rules his sultanate ineffectively. He and his wife, the subedarni, are only concerned about their wealth, gardens, protocol and their infant son who is the heir to the throne.Ultimately, palace intrigues led by the subedar’s rotund, corrupt brother result in a bloody coup which sees the subedar’s decapitated head hanging at the city’s gates. The subedarni flees the palace and amid all the panic and anxiety to take her 19 trunks of clothes, jewellery and silver, leaves her infant son behind!

A peasant girl, Raano, working for the subedarni finds herself in an awkward situation as she has to decide to save the wailing infant from the clutches of the merciless soldiers thereby putting her own life at risk, or to run to a safer place and wait for her fiancé (played by Nirvaan Nadeem); the handsome soldier who is to return from war and marry her.Raano chooses the more perilous option of the two, putting her own life and future in jeopardy. What ensues is a captivating cat-and-mouse game as she escapes several times from the soldiers looking for her, disregarding her own comfort in feeding and caring for the child. She braves extremely difficult circumstances and in order to save the baby boy, proclaims him as her own, not caring for the disgrace it brings to her name. Hania Cheema did a commendable job in playing Raano and was applauded generously each time she managed to escape the murderous soldiers.

Meanwhile, the boy grows up, the war ends and her fiancé returns but finds everything changed. The subedarni is back too to claim her child. The scene changes to the rogue-turned-comedian who is installed as the new judge for the sultanate in a strange twist of events. That the judge is deposed, beaten into a pulp and then reinstated was another jibe at judicial happenings in the country. Acted brilliantly by Usman Zia, the judge had the audience in stitches with his crisp timing and expressions. Witty comments such as “pehle munsif badmashi karte thay, ab badmash munsif bane ga” had everyone in the audience cracking up.The judge sits on the big book of constitution while giving arbitrary verdicts and settling two cases in one hearing. His suo-motu actions were hilarious and made him the last hope of the oppressed masses that still look up to him despite knowing he has his fair share of flaws.

Raano refuses to give up the child she has started loving as her own. The hot-tempered, ill-mannered subedarni moves the court and the new judge has to decide who gets the child. The case is riveting, funny and captivating till the verdict is announced.High on the entertainment factor, the musical play also featured a guest appearance by Uzra Butt who plays the grandmother called dadi maan, and moves the court for one of her disputes. The 92-year-old theatre veteran played the same role a quarter of a century ago when Ajoka had launched the play. She and her sister — veteran performer Zohra Sehgal who stayed in India after Partition — are two living legends of theatre in South Asia. Ajoka’s Madeeha Gauhar, while giving the credits, remembered how Uzra in her performance 25 years ago had gotten a fracture yet did not reveal it to anyone during the play’s two-hour performance and acted flawlessly.

Ajoka also brought in an almost entirely new cast for Chaak Chakkar. This was much-needed since of late, Ajoka plays have almost had the same cast playing the main roles. Despite brilliant acting performances, one wished there were new faces on stage. Madeeha also said that Ajoka needed financial assistance as the performance of the plays required funds, though a lot of volunteers have also been working for the theatre company.In times of the current socio-political dismay and the alarming state of insecurity throughout the country, it was notable that the performance did not get the packed audience in Lahore that Ajoka plays usually do. Needless to say, the initiative must be commended and supported. To quote Madeeha Gauhar here, “the show must go on.”

This article was published in Images, Dawn Newspaper on October 19th, 2008.

The Marriott Blast - the consequences could be chosen.

Some analysts describe the September 20th bomb blast that rocked Islamabad as Pakistan's 9/11.

That innocent lives were lost, that desperate people were trying in vain to call help from the windows of the doomed building, that the plan was dramatically spectacular and probably worked beyond the expectations of the conspirators, likens the tragedy to 9/11 indeed. However, like 9/11 the repercussions of the Marriott Blast should not be an excuse to set off a chain of events that bring more misery to the world.

What's done cannot be undone but its consequences can be chosen. Though horrific and brutal, the Marriott Blast should not be the precursor to unleashing a prejudiced assault on anything even remotely associated with the Tribal Belt.

9/11 was horrific and brutal too. But it fails to justify the atrocities in Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It does not justify the lackey governement in Afghanistan that is largely becoming a footboard for the U.S. Administration to engage in arbitrary forays into other territories. 9/11 cannot justify the premise on which Iraq was invaded and her oil was contracted out to choicest consortiums.

The Government of Pakistan right now must be commended for avoiding any 'we'll hunt down those folks' or 'we'll smoke 'em out' speeches. But what's more crucial is to approach the issue with foresight and hindsight. Should we really fight this war with the U.S. perception? Should we just stop at FATA and not go beyond why FATA became a hotbed of conspiracy? Should we not bolster our own preparedness for such tragedies and get adequate disaster management infrastructure for starters? So many lives could have been saved if the Government had effective Fire Brigade machinery. This sloppiness after the great Earthquake in Northern Pakistan is inexcusable.

As for us, the common public. Should we also look at the tragedy with colored filters? Should we think of all bearded men and 'hijabed' women as plotting fundos? Should we really think of all Pashtuns as bloody extremists? Don't their women and children die in the Army Operation? Their maimed and mutilated children have relatively no hope for future. They're still human even if not as high profile as the foreigners who lost their lives tragically in the poshest hotel of the Capital.

Simi Raheal
By Afia Mansoor


Simi Raheal is one of the most sought after actors in the Pakistani media today. She has been a part of television, theatre, radio and advertising since more than three decades and interestingly that’s not all about her. She is a teacher, a gender activist and the mother of super model Mehreen Raheal. Her charisma exudes from her genuine expressions and spirited conversation; it is reflected in her heightened aesthetic sense if you see her tastefully done house. Her close knit circle of friends in the media hold her in remarkable respect which is perhaps why she has worked with nearly everyone to their satisfaction. You meet Simi and realize that she is trying to live every second of her life to the fullest and radiates her energy onto you instantly.

HUMSAY had a tête-à-tête with her on what she has been up to recently.


Q: You and Mehreen make the most successful mother-daughter duo in the Pakistani media today. To what do you attribute this success?

A: (Laughs) Lots of blessings of Allah really. And then I think a lot of diligent hard work. We are extremely conscious of our commitments and of being punctual. I guess when you work like that your credibility follows you around. That’s pretty much the mainstay of our supposed success.

Q: You have been involved with television, radio, theatre, film, music videos and commercials. Which genre do you prefer the most?

A: I have been asked that before. And the answer remains the same. I can’t pinpoint which is better. Each genre of work for me, whether it is radio, television or advertising has its own energy and spirituality. I have loved doing theatre because of the instant gratification and adrenalin rush it gives you. I have loved radio because you could be talking to the world sitting in your pajamas and pretend you have the best ball gown on. Every genre has its own novelty and if you ask me that is perhaps the ingredient to success. If you keep feeling novelty in your work you enjoy it tremendously.

Q: You’re also a gender activist. Tell us what you are up to these days on that front.

A: I believe in gender balance within the limits of a social and religious framework. I teach Gender and Ethics at the Kinnaird College because I feel Media has a great responsibility in bringing this balance. Teaching is the love of my life. It’s the most exciting thing for me. I teach at an institute called South Asian Media School, which is being monitored by the South Asian Media Committee, where a contingent of students from SAARC countries is brought in every year and given intensive classes and workshops on various media issues. This year we have students from Srilanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Pakistan and I teach Media and Development. On the Development side I teach Gender and Human Rights and conduct thrice a week workshops on applying the learning tools practically in media. I have also read papers internationally and done workshops locally.

Q: How did this media school come about?

A: In 2007, SAFMA a network of journalist and media practitioners from South Asia decided to start a teaching initiative which would cultivate a new generation of media persons in the region who would be aware of the socio political nuances of the region and would pitch in their share in it responsibly. The school is an initiative to equip participants with latest knowledge on media and the social responsibility that goes with it. It’s a great grooming platform for the region and we also have a theatre festival on feminism coming up in August.

Q: What have you been involved in with HUM TV recently?

A: I recently did a serial for Hum called Najia. It was based on Razia Butt’s novel. I acted as a motherly Anglo Indian housekeeper living in Mauritius. It was a really good experience. The cast was good the production was professional and Mauritius was fabulous needless to say. Another project with Hum is lined up but lets keep it as a surprise. It is also based on a Razia Butt novel though.

Q: Which has been your most enduring piece of performance till now?

A: It was one of the most popular plays of PTV called Khwahish that was aired in 1991. I played the part of a gypsy woman who had a deformed child. I also loved Asfhaque Ahmed’s ‘Na man milay na peeh’ in which I played the part of a spirit living in a grave. The experience was so profound it re invented me as a human being. I think that is what young actors need to realize. That you need to be selective with work. That a powerful script has to be simulated in the mind and soul and so the strengths of a character can have a profound impact on your life and so can its weaknesses.

Q: You worked in Shoaib Mansoor’s acclaimed Khuda Kay Liyay. How does it feel now that the film has made history?

A: I feel Blessed. I had always wanted to do a good film. I had never imagined that one day Shoaib Mansoor would himself come to me and say I want you to be part of this film. I never asked him a single question. Because that is the track record he carried with him. I feel proud that I became a small part of history with that film. It was a great experience.
The film was a very brave endeavor considering the times we are going through. It was a passionate journey of love and patriotism.

What would you like to see changed in the Media?

A: I would like the media to reflect the reality. I would like that media represents people as who they are versus what they are perceived to be. It should potry our laughter, our tears our emotions as they are. I must say that the new generation of talk shows being aired have a lot to learn about ethics. Journalists and actors need to go back to school to learn a thing or two about ethics and morality.

What do you want to say to the educated young women of Pakistan?

A: My favourite line has always been from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in the Wonderland’, “If you don’t know which way you’re going, any road will do’.

And as Shakespeare says in Hamlet:

‘This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man’.

I would say don’t put barriers to yourself. Open yourselves to education, enlightenment and allow yourself to learn.

This interview was published in HUMSAY; a magazine of HUM Television in September 2008

Divine Love - A poem

We become who we hate
Fine replicas of our hate-idol’s world view
Emulating the one we hate,
We see with his eyes,
Hear from his ears, speak in the same tongue,
Breathe out the same noxious air
Strike with his hand
And we still hate him

We become who we love
Fine replicas of our love-idol’s world view
Emulating the one we love,
We see with his eyes,
Hear from his ears, speak in the same tongue
We smell his fragrance in the air
We become his hand
And the love continues

Then Divine Love it should be
Love of the Beloved
For then we become Him

Is Loving the Divine not better
Than hating and loving mere mortals?
For Divine love shall make you
An embodiment of Love
For all
With all.


- Afia

The Life-Saving Committees - published in Review, Dawn on 21st August 2008

By Afia Mansoor

As the cost of living continues to shoot up and so does the desire for a better lifestyle, people find it harder to fund their aspirations. The plethora of loan options, after drying peoples’ wallets, demands a pound of their flesh as they struggle to pay back. The committee therefore stands up as the no-risk, no-interest option to save money.

Committee money is utilised by people in different ways. For some it is a means to splurge on a one-time indulgence, like a vacation. For others it is a way to achieve long-term goals.

Lubna, a middle aged lady, stitches clothes for women in her locality. Her husband retired early from the air force and her daughter works for an electronics company while her son goes to primary school. She has been using her earnings as a tailor to invest in committees. Currently, she is pooling money in a committee for Rs3,000 a month, the duration of which is 20 months. With the Rs60,000 that she will get, she plans to shop for her daughter’s wedding and do up her house.

She elaborates, “I use the committee money for redoing the house and paying off my dues to various people. I have utilised this money to lay new flooring in the house, make wooden cabinets for the kitchen and the living room. One such committee fund helped me make two rooms upstairs which I will eventually build into an independent portion and give off on rent.”

Rukhsana, aged 24, has recently married and taken a break from her work as a maid. While it was difficult to make ends meet with her monthly earnings from working in seven houses in a day, Rukhsana and her mother managed to pool Rs500 per month for a committee and ended up paying their debts with it. Rukhsana’s elder sister was married off with a small dowry that was collected by some of the women who employed her and partly financed by the pool money. She is a great advocate of committees and feels it is impossible to collect amounts like Rs10,000 otherwise.

Shazia aged 36, teaches at a college and has recently started pooling money in a committee. She says, “The idea of having to contribute even after getting your total pool (in order to complete the total amount of contribution by each group member) was what had put me off committees; I used to think it’s better to save your own money in a bank. However, committees are useful when you want a large fund urgently. The advantage is that you can convince your pool partners and get your share in the month when you genuinely need it. You can also split the committee with a friend so you both pay half the monthly amount and get half the share. For instance, if the total pool money is Rs50,000 and each member has to pay Rs2,000, you could pay a monthly contribution of half the amount with a friend paying the other half and get Rs25,000 as your share.” Samina is planning to use her Rs100,000 pool money to help pay for a plot she and her husband have bought recently.

Zainab, aged 60, is a housewife who has been pooling money in committees since the past two years. She says, “The utilisation of the committee money depends on how much people can afford to set aside for the monthly contribution. If you pool in small amounts you will obviously get a small total pool and utilise it for small expenditures. People pooling in larger amounts usually use the money to buy property, jewellery or dowry items or renovating homes.” The last committee pool that she received helped to pay for Zainab’s grandson’s birthday arrangements. She plans to use the next pool for repairing her double storey house’s roof.

Tariq, an executive, aged 32, has started pooling money through his mother’s circle of committee members. He believes pool money is a great respite from the interest based options available through credit cards. He says, “I had once used my credit cards to pay for some expenses incurred during my sister’s wedding. It has been almost three years and I am still paying the interest on the paltry sum I had used. I will now pay the whole amount off with the committee money that I get and kiss my credit card goodbye. Had I originally bought the stuff with committee money I would not have had to pay so much as interest.”

An Interview of Tariq Ramadan -World Renowned Intellectual Scholar

AUTHOR: Walking The Tightrope Of Peace

By Afia Mansoor

It is human nature to controvert that which questions preset notions. We don’t like to be told that the foundations we stand on are erroneous. Individuals who challenge the status quo are often ripped apart in great detail to make a judgment of their every utterance, each skeleton in the closet, and even to events affecting their lineage to hold onto some feeble thread supporting one’s challenged notion. That is how it has always been.

Author and academic, Tariq Said Ramadan is no exception to the rule. He has been walking a tightrope for he talks of building bridges while sticking to his religious principles. His challenge is monumental. On the one hand he faces ‘moderate Muslims in the West’ who demand the ‘abrogation of selected Quranic verses’ and on the other he faces Muslims who are at each other’s throats to declare their interpretation of Islam as the correct one. He is reviled by Islam haters and admired by open-minded seculars in the West.

He has been labelled various things by his critics; ‘a magician’, a ‘Janus-faced bigot’, an ‘anti-Semite’, a ‘dangerous man’. Interestingly his supporters have given him their own labels; a ‘Muslim Martin Luther King’ and ‘bridge to the chasm between the West and Islam’. Three of the World’s most influential magazines; Time, Prospect and Foreign Policy have placed him high in the top 100 contemporary intellectuals. Some in the US feared his scholarly presence so much that his appointment at the Notre Dame University was cancelled on charges that he had funded terrorist organisations. His immense popularity in France has brought him several times on state television in debates with critics. One such debate with President Sarkozy, the then Interior Minister and a staunch opponent of Ramadan, was widely publicised in the media.

He is enigmatic to say the least. Hear him and you will be impressed. Talk to him and chances are you will be floored.

Ramadan was in Lahore recently to give a talk on ‘Islam in the 21st Century — the struggle within’, arranged by the University of Management & Technology as part of its Khurram Murad Memorial Lecture Series. Here too Ramadan commanded rapt attention. His words were appreciated by all who were prepared to have their set notions challenged. The ones who weren’t prepared squirmed in their seats. For perhaps another set, his fluent Arabic was reason alone to admire him; failing to get a grasp on the essence of his message.

The man has always been a distinguished individual. He was born in 1962 in Switzerland after his Egyptian family was exiled from their native land following the murder of his grandfather Hasan Al-Banna by the Egyptian government agents. Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood which gained immense influence and was banned in 1954.

Ramadan grew up in a family that practiced Islam strictly, but never imposed the religion onto the children. So much so that one of his brothers had given up anything to do with religion. Ramadan, however, had a yearning to grasp knowledge from every source.

According to an interview with Ian Buruma for the New York Times, he said, ‘It was not easy, growing up in a committed Muslim family while dealing with people outside who were drinking, and all that. But I was protected on ethical grounds, as a religious person, first of all by playing sports, every day, for two hours or more — football, tennis, running. And reading, reading, reading, five hours a day, sometimes eight hours.’

Ramadan integrated into the European culture and yet held closely to his Muslim roots. He did his MA in Philosophy and French Literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. He also went back to his ancestral Egypt to receive intensive one-on-one training in Classic Islamic Scholarship from scholars at Al-Azhar. He has taught at several universities of Switzerland and is currently the Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University. He also holds the chair to ‘Identity and Citizenship’ at the University of Erasmus Netherlands where he is a visiting professor. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University, Japan and the Lokahi Foundation in London. He is currently the President of the think-tank European Muslim Network in Brussels and holds an advisory position with the EU. He has authored more than 20 books and contributed about 700 articles in books, academic reviews and magazines. The best about him is the successful balance of spirituality and reasoning that he has achieved and espouses.

At the seminar in Lahore he spoke at length of issues within the Islamic community. He said the Muslims needed to make ‘an intellectual commitment to a spiritual challenge’, they needed to accept the diversity of all Muslims who practiced Islam as per their school of thought while emphasising the need to draw a firm line to protest and stick to the fundamental principles of the Quran and the Sunnah. The crux of this highly engaging talk was that Muslims today need to accept their own diversity, open themselves to progressive knowledge of all spheres in life, provided it is not against the divine Islamic principles, even if it is coming from a ‘kafir’ mind.

He challenged the audience to bring him one ayat or hadith to the effect that women should not be allowed access to education; a reference to the tribal mullah philosophy. He said that Muslims need to act out the virtues their faith espouses such as punctuality, discipline, loyal citizenship and accountability, etc. He wished the Muslim community could open itself to critical thinking and debate.

Responding to a few questions Ramadan voiced optimism about the future of the community:

Do you foresee a Muslim renaissance ever taking place again?

TR: Yes I hope so. There is a silent revolution taking place in many countries where the community is in minority as well as the majority. There are new thoughts, understandings. We are facing the reality of crises. We don’t have all the answers but at least there is growing awareness that we have to reform ourselves. Everywhere in Australia, US, Canada, Africa and beyond Muslims are realising the relevance of their religion in modern times.

You spoke about the importance of a Muslim to be spiritual. Can you explain what spirituality is?

TR: The spiritual aspect is the heart of Islam. Spirituality is the marriage between emotion and reason. Being spiritual is to go through introspection; understanding the meaning of Allah’s ayats and then acting them out. That is why Allah has said ‘Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the succession of night and day, there are signs for those with insight.’

He wants us to ponder and draw lessons. There is another ayat which says, ‘in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort.’ Hence there is this intimate dimension of spirituality in Islam. And then Muslims are asked to act out those lessons and be consistent.

When I do anything with the thought of Allah it becomes a spiritual action. Spirituality in behavior is spirit in action. Which is why there is a hadith to the effect that, ‘What is in your heart is confirmed by your action.’

The Quran is a multidisciplinary book that includes divine commandments and anecdotes to teach by explanation. Do you feel that enough research is being done into the teaching anecdotes to understand their relevance in modern times?

TR: That is a very important issue. Firstly the Quran needs to be read by all so it revives your heart and brings you closer to Allah. An individual can do lay reading (and interpretation) to draw lessons for his or her own life. Then there is the sophisticated reading and interpretation by scholars into the rules, principles and anecdotes as per the context and the present society.

We have new interpretations (tafseer) to Quran coming out every 50 years. But a lot of work needs to be done to adapt the tafseer to modern times and issues. For this the scholars need to be well versed in knowledge pertaining to all the diverse fields in order to interpret the Quran.

What is the nature of your research involvement with Japan?

TR: I am working on a book called Radical Reform: Islam Ethics and Liberation which will be out by the next September. It is about usool-ul-fiqh and will have case studies on five fields: medicine, arts & culture, gender issues, religion & politics and religion & philosophy.

I have proposed a methodology and framework of fiqh covering these areas because I think these five areas need a lot of focus and attention of Muslim scholars. These frameworks are being used by Japan’s Dosisha University.

This Article was published in Books & Authors, Dawn Newspaper