Kaarvan Crafts Foundation celebrated International Rural Women’ s Day by engaging with the whole community both rural and urban women through a series of workshops held at various institutions on the topic of feminism in Pakistan in order to deconstruct, unlearn and reflect upon our existing ideas of gender. Through workshops defined as tangible thought experiments where Kaarvan is hoping to address the problem of “otherness” by engaging in story telling and dialogue in order to better envision/ imagine the reality of “other” people or our rural neighbors. Everyone has the right to express themselves. In Pakistan this right is mostly claimed and coveted by the elite people with power who create our norms, our standards, our narrative. Our objective is quite simple we aim to explore diversity and commonalities through the medium of open dialogue, photo-study, and playful activities. These workshops are an attempt at inclusion where rural women can speak for themselves.
Kasur
Dialogue disclosed that social pressures are present in both sides but the contextual manifestations are different. In villages household responsibilities takes precedence but in an urban lifestyle in addition to household responsibilities the women are trying to balance their personal career responsibilities with social life.
BNU
Dialogue disclosed that social pressures are present in both sides but the contextual manifestations are different. In villages household responsibilities takes precedence but in an urban lifestyle in addition to household responsibilities the women are trying to balance their personal career responsibilities with social life.
LUMS
In LUMS the topics of freedom, dress, color and education were raised. How to overcome the culture of nepotism? How to dismantle hierarchy? What steps to take to materialize one’s dreams? Possibilities of group solidarity to help actualize each other dreams were envisioned.
Interaction
Sharing of individual stories between urban and rural women helped erase some bias and assumptions of city and village life.
Awareness
In terms of gender responsibilities and women’s resilience there isn’t much difference between city and village life. In villages there is a lack of facilities and critical literacy that is needed for self-awareness and the mobilization of more local action.
Opportunity
Playful open dialogue workshops created opportunities for involvement of different social classes to share local knownings, local action and outcomes.