PESHAWAR: A rising young artist has urged authorities to provide suitable platforms to women for playing their due role in all fields with focus on their empowerment.

“Fine arts including visual, performing arts and literature are the best fields where young women can best express themselves and can highlight feminine issues through their God gifted talent,” emerging artist Aishma Khan, a resident of Khyber tribal district, told this scribe during an informal chat.

She said that tribal women had a long way to improve their social life as no suitable platforms were available to them, especially when it came to access to quality education and healthcare facilities. She said that girl students could utilise social media to bring out their talent and play due role in the society.

Ms Khan said that colours, words and sounds fascinated human beings more than any other thing as those gave deep insights to people to explore the world through different perspectives in a composed rhythm, rhyme and music for creating images of peace, love and empathy.

Aishma Khan has flair for capturing natural sights on canvas

Dilating upon her inspiration behind her artistic journey, she stated that natural sights and sounds around her coupled with reading books on variety of topics motivated her to paint and capture those images on a canvas through lens of colours.

“I don’t have any mentor. I have learnt and I am still learning a lot from social media. I had a natural flair for capturing natural sights on canvas and gradually my taste for variety of arts forms developed,” she said.

Ms Khan has recently graduated from a local college. She is desirous of learning the basics of visual arts and adopting it as a profession in her future life. She has already marketed her art pieces and sold out them online, featuring different topics including natural beauty, climate change, family disputes, interfaith harmony and calligraphy.

“I started from miniature artwork and Islamic calligraphy during my school days. After that demands for art works began pouring from our region. My pieces get quite great attention because most people consider us philistines having no taste for art in any form and manifestation. They believe that Pashtun tribal women are not on the scene. This image requires to be dispelled,” she said.

The artist said that young girls from tribal districts had great potential to exhibit their talent but they lacked resources including access to platforms promoting the cause of feminism within their social parameters as most parents thought that engaging in art activities was tantamount to wastage of time.

“My artworks cover women issues including family relationship, saving nature and preserving positive social values. I use colours as withdrawal from taboos, stereotypes and cliché regarding women in a typical Pashtun society. Women need more free space for grooming and bringing up their talent without any undue restriction,” she said.

Ms Khan is an avid reader of English fiction books alongside Urdu and Pashto poetry collections. Dustin Thao’s bestselling book ‘You ‘v Reached SAM’, ‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Palth and ‘Juandi Ghamoona’ a classic Pashto collection of short stories by Zaitoon Bano are on her bedposts for winter reads.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2025