Nomad Gallery holds painting exhibition

Women in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to oppression by family and society because of lack of education and awareness in such areas hence timely measures must be taken to improve the status of women by providing them equal educational opportunities.
With an aim to empower women, Pakistani women will celebrate the ‘National Women’s Day’ today (Sunday) – a historic day that was officially declared by the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on December 22, 2010, in recognition of the struggle of working women to secure a dignified and respectful working environment.
The importance of February 12, 1983, is with reference to the struggle put up by women’s rights activists in Pakistan. The day marks an important milestone in the history of women’s movement in Pakistan when they protested and successfully challenged the promulgation of the Law of Evidence by military dictator Zia-ul-Haq.
To mark the Pakistani Women’s Day, Nomad Gallery in association with Women Action Forum (WAF) on Saturday, organised an art exhibition ‘The Women’s Perspective’ and a seminar ‘Women Demanding Equality & Justice’ here on Nomad Gallery premises.
With the theme ‘Women’s Perspective’, five female artists including Lalarukh, Samra Mohsin Khan, Sabah Hussain, Aisha Asim Imdad and Saba Samee showcases different perspective of a woman’s life as being the marginalised segment of Pakistani society and used their brush strokes in way to highlight their core problems with the focus on ‘Equality’ and ‘Justice’.
KPK Minster for Social Welfare and Women’s Rights Sitara Ayaz inaugurated the 4 days long exhibition amidst the galaxy of women’s rights activist, female politicians, art lovers and a number of art students.
As many as 25 cache of contemporary paintings were put on display on the walls of Nomad Gallery with a call to end the gender violence and bring peace in the world in a series of work titled ‘Composition’ by Samra, ‘My daily walk’ and ‘Manet’ by Saba, ‘Tree of life’ by Asiha, ‘Nightscape’ by Lala Rukh, and ‘Omen’ and ‘Saba Weeran’ by Sabah.
The painting show also portrayed various messages through soft expressions of art, masterly skills and symbolism. Sufferings and issues of women were highlighted in the event while the paintings also depicted to address various issues through peace.
The artists captured traditional female imagery in masterly skills of transparent nature of watercolours, and other medium of paintings to bring various stages of women’s life on canvas such as behavioural changes, emotional and sentimental picture of traditional female figure, her confrontation with society and changes in behaviour due to unequal socio-economic status as her main concern.
In her statement, Aisha Asim Imdad said her work was inspired by her research work in traditional arts and crafts in Pakistan. “Various patterns and designs, which are present in our traditional crafts, become my source to create images. These designs are full of stories and myths, which reflect through my images,” she said.
Imdad, a faculty member at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, said the intricate and delicate designs were weaving a story and an image, which was not of this world but created an image of the world which had been rooted in our minds for thousands of years,” she added.
Saba Samee, Associate Professor in CIIT, said the past five years had been the most versatile in the evolution of my sense of ‘Not Being in the Same Place’ of which this work was a small expression. “My idea of the cardinal directions and the seasons in one direction will be the focus of this work,” Samee said.
Seminar: Earlier during a seminar organised by Nomad Gallery in association with Women Action Forum (WAF), the participants included KPK Minister for Social Welfare and Women’s Rights Sitara Ayaz, MNA Dr Donya Aziz, Naila Farhat (an acid survivor), Shumaila Jafar (Public Health Officer, Balochistan), Aisha Asim Imdad (a participating artist) along with members of WAF called upon the government to undertake a comprehensive and systematic review and revision of all discriminatory legislation that undermined the status of women as full citizens of the country.
Mehar Naqvi, Arifa Mazhar and Rabia recited the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz highlighting the oppression against the weaker sex. Nighar Haseebullah and Nageen Hyat also spoke on the occasion.
While addressing on the occasion, Sitara Ayaz said she was happy to see the improvement in equality for women as a number of bills against women harassment had been passed and implemented. “However, the awareness of these laws is a key at grass root level. If a woman of rural area is not aware of her rights and equal treatment in society, how can she perform her role actively in the society,” Ayaz said.
The KPK minister said se was proud of some improvements that the women of Pakistan had achieved in the recent past.
However, Women Action Forum (WAF) members strongly condemned the ruthless murders of the wife, daughter and driver of Baluchistan MPA Mir Bakhtiar Domki in Karachi and termed it a vicious conspiracy to subvert peace in the city.
“WAF demands of the president, prime minister, federal interior minister, governor Sindh and chief minister Sindh to take serious notice of the brutal assassinations and to get culprits arrested as soon as possible,” Nageen Hyat, a rights’ activist and Nomad Gallery owner, said.