Daily Times

It’s not in the recent years only – the time span between 2005-2006 and 2015-2016 – that our women have earned name in the various fields of life. Not that I am in any way undermining Sharmeen Obaid’s efforts of making documentaries on the rights of the fair sex, or the hard work put in by our women in order to win the cricket matches held recently, but the point is that social media has played a very important part in making the world get to know the talents of our women who have recently stood up for themselves as well as for other women. This does not mean that the services of our women belonging to the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s must be forgotten. They too, were equally talented, equally aware of their rights and equally liberal minded. The only reason we do not know them much is that no social websites were available back then that could spread their works around the world in a matter of a few seconds.

It was in the 1970’s that Hasina Moin, a famous playwright of Pakistan, came up with her drama serials Kiran Kahani and Shehzori. Not that the protagonists were strong women only, but the dramas were meant for women to idealise the characters so that they could stand up for themselves in real lives. Secondly, Hasina Moin was not only the first woman, but the first person to write her own script for Pakistan Television, otherwise there was a trend to dramatise novels previously. These are not the only drama serials of Hasina Moin that must be held commendable, but her following works such as Kasak, Tanhaiyan and Ankahi also revolved around single mothers.

Similarly, in the following two decades, Noorul Huda Shah came up with her drama serials, almost all of them being based on female rights, such as Jungle, Hawa Ki Beti,Maarvi, with the latter being the story of a Sindhi woman who overcoming a lot of hurdles, manages to educate herself.

Besides, can we forget the drama serial Zaib-un-Nisa written by Azra Babar, the first drama serial depicting harsh domestic violence? The drama serial was aired in the late ’90s and was not only written by a woman but was also directed by a woman, Sahira Kazmi.

Let’s not stick to drama serials only, but move towards other fields as well. Who in Pakistan does not know Bushra Ansari, the woman so versatile that she turned out to be an actress, a singer, a comedian, a host, a drama writer, and so much more? No man has ever turned up with so many talents. Or how can we forget Nazia Hassan, with a career ranging from early 80’s to early 90’s, a singer so famous that billions of copies of her albums used to be sold? Not only Nazia Hassan, but our other female singers are also to be equally paid heed to, such as Noor Jahan, Nayyara Noor, Tina Sani and many others who have sung the complex poetry of greats like Ghalib and Faiz in such an easy manner that listeners have always been left bewildered.

There’s so much more; so many women with so many talents. An unfortunate fact is that women like Noorul Huda Shah, Azra Babar and Sahira Kazmi were not given any Oscar awards or Nobel prizes because their works were confined to television only. This has always led to another unfortunate fact that Pakistan has been considered a conservative country that has never given its women chances, except for during the past few years. But my question is that didn’t Hasina Moin, Noorul Huda Shah, Azra Babar etc write? Didn’t they write on sensitive issues? Did anyone, any male, stop them from writing? It’s just because we didn’t have Dailymotion, Youtube, or Facebook due to which the world was unable to consider their works and we ourselves were unable to learn.

Our women from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, as I said before, were equally talented, equally aware of their rights, and equally liberal minded.

The blogger is a student of English Literature at Government College University, Lahore