Women Directors & Pakistani Theatre

The Pakistani woman is now accelerating in almost every field in Pakistan. But in performing arts, it is a bit different scenario, since opting out for performing art as a career for girls is unacceptable. First, they have to fight against the social norms and family traditions to choose performing arts. If they cope up with all these hurdles, then they have to prove themselves.

 As a theatre director, I feel that one has to face disapproval from the chauvinist society. Here people do not consider you autonomous. I, as a director, have faced a lot of rejections in the beginning, and had to fight a lot to pursue my passion. People did not take me seriously and made me feel that I was not worthy enough to be a director. Women are acceptable more as actors who are mostly like puppets in the hands of the directors. As a woman director, people doubt your understanding capabilities and the portraying of characters in their true sense. We are very few names of women directors in Pakistani Theatre and the ones who are working; they are helming on their own.

 I have worked in almost every genre of theatre for instance; I have directed comedies, tragedies, and plays for children. But my male colleagues always refer to me as a director for children’s plays because they don’t want me to stand beside them. They think that to direct the plays for adults is the main creativity rather than directing plays for children. They look down to children’s plays and to them it is not a big deal to make content for children. On the other hand, I think that to develop new content for children is the most challenging thing to do. In order to grab the attention of the young audience is an adamant effort to do as a director.

 The major dilemma in the art field is the generalized belief i.e. creativity is also the legacy of men; women are not capable of any creativity. Despite all these hurdles, I think that women directors are more sensitive and conscious about their creativity. Women directors have a more comprehensive vision of relationships between man and woman. To me, women directors are more expressive in portraying the subtle emotions. Their creative choices are different and they have given a whole new angle to the subject of love and marriage. Their choices of color palate regarding set designing, costume & makeup lighting, etc. are diverse and distinctive. 

I am not in favor of saying that women are better than men. I am just asking to give equal space or platform to women to express themselves. Women directors are discouraged to put their plays frequently. First of all, there are very limited opportunities to do theatre, and whenever there is a choice to hire a male or female director, the vote goes to male director easily. In this way their profiles reduce to just a profile of an Amateur Artist. This is the major setback for women directors that they could not have impressive profiles. Having said that, even sponsors do not take them seriously. They are more interested to invest in a production led by a male director rather than a female director.

On the whole, women are conquering the world; so as a society it is our responsibility to provide them enough space where they could spread their wings and fly high. Let us experience their imagination and share the creative land with them. I firmly believe that in this way we could be a better society where everyone can exercise the freedom of expression.