The launch of ‘Womansplaining – Navigating Activism, Politics and Modernity in Pakistan ’ saw an interesting discussion between author Sherry Rehman and moderator lawyer Sahar Bandial at a Lahore Literary Festival 2022 on Sunday.

Introducing Sherry as an experienced editor and politician, Bandial said she has done a great job of compiling, editing and publishing the collection of essays by 22 Pakistani women writers.

Sherry, explaining the inspiration behind publishing the book, said the essays contextualize the place of women in the Pakistani settings, where they are struggling for space and identity. She said despite materialistic progress, women still needed to explain themselves. These explanations are about the available space and the space being sought, and about their identity. She said our societal values and family norms held back all women under the cover of narratives laced with modesty and loyalty.

The moderator took the discussion to feminism, which challenges societal chains.

Sherry said that to her, feminism is a way of life. “Yes, it’s a way of life, where instead of focusing on that how others think about you, feminism teaches how you think about other people.”

She said feminism had redefined women. It gave a chance for women to be courageous and speak out on the matters that matter. Sherry also differentiated between the first women’s activism exhibited during the Zia rule and the ongoing Aurat March. During the 80s, the women challenged state oppression, draconian laws and shrinking space for women.

The Aurat March had no such challenges to take on. But the looming threat for Aurat March was extremists’ threats. She said Aurat March needed broader engagement to make it a march of the masses. It needs a ceaseless struggle. It needs women to explain to the detractors that ‘mera jism, meri marzi’ is about free will marriage, and about having choices regarding birth planning. She urged women, and civil society to get engaged with political parties for a broader change.

The session, which otherwise was wonderful, faced technological constraints.

ARE YOU ENJOYING?: Actress and short-story writer Mira Sethi’s debut story collection has only one purpose: she writes to see and to be seen. At the launch of her book, she with moderator actor Adnan Malik spoke about the characters and settings of her stories. She said the book was written in English to reach wider audiences, but the stories only represent localism.

Since she is not good at Urdu, she chose English to express herself. She had a disclaimer: English houses my intellect, but not my heart.

To keep the flavour of the characters and language original and local, she frequently uses desi words in her stories without explaining them. She said foreign publishers are always sceptical about non-western writers’ work and would ask them asked about the approach of their work. She said her fiction work only aimed at bringing out Pakistani culture to the world. Being a performing art person herself, Mira has several professional performers in her stories. She also spoke on the subjects of ongoing drama serials, saying that marriages, especially the bad marriages, were the ‘in’ things, but the trend would not produce strong women in our society.

Mira is now celebrating the success of her debut work; she has no plan to bring out her second book right now.

“Writing is an exhaustive work, so for now, I’m just concentrating on acting projects,” she said.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2022