June 20 is the day many artists, and those aggrieved but silenced, are thankful for, as it marks Sabeen Mahmud’s birthday – a harbinger of courage and freedom of expression in a society as complex and “regressive” as that of Karachi.
The National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) hosted an evening in honor of the late Sabeen Mahmud, who lost her life to extremism when she was otherwise unable to overcome her resilience.
The evening comprised a variety of performances by artists from many artistic domains.
The pièce de résistance of this evening, it would seem, is a tie between a street theater Jalsa –an adaptation of a Bengali playwright’s masterpiece Michael, and translates as procession, hence jalsa in Urdu, and the high-voltage jamming session that followed later.
However, Jalsa play brought together in one all the elements that Sabeen thought needed radical and imminent reforms, for example, the silencing of the voice, state terrorism, misogyny, the scarcity of free spaces, the lack of communication and many others. other social injustices.
“Let’s talk” is how Raana, a theater artist, recalls Sabeen frequently saying even to those who vehemently opposed her ideas and tried to demonize her.
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In such a diverse society, thinking that we can all agree on one point is simply not possible and you have to leave room for individuality and difference of opinion, Raana shared with ARY News after her performance.
“Sabeen Mahmud stood for a lot of things, and the reason she was killed was just one of the things that she believed society needs today and essentially,” Mahenaz Mahmud, Sabeen’s mother, said while honoring this tribute.
“The essential is freedom of expression.”
He added that Sabeen not only believed in championing larger causes, but also understood the importance of small gestures, like simply listening to people.
“After his passing, many people contacted me and told me how Sabeen saved their lives,” he said, explaining that Sabeen simply heard them at their lowest level and talked them out of suicidal ideation.
Only a few months later, in 2016, when she was murdered, she had planned to receive counseling training. “Sabeen had figured out how this worked wonders,” Mahenaz told ARY News.
Peerzada Salman, a journalist, actor and playwright from Karachi, said that what Sabeen wanted to have in his conceived and realized progressive cafe and community space The Second Floor (also known as T2F), tonight is a symbolic representation of that.
“We all know how T2f allowed and gave people their voices and a safe space to express themselves freely.
“This is perhaps what is behind this night and is the right way to honor her,” Salman added.
NAPA CEO Junaid Zuberi, who along with Sabeen’s other friends helped plan tonight, told ARY News that for a character like Sabeen, the tribute should be proportionate.
“We can feel sad and pessimistic about her passing, or rather we can take her work back and allow artists more free space and more platforms, as she had done, to honor all that she stood for and fought tirelessly for.”
The free access and walk-in evening concluded with a classical dance performance and turned it into a comprehensive commemoration. One that Zuberi said will now happen every year and every year better than the previous one, where the repertoire of artists will never be exhausted.
Sabeen was killed on April 24, 2016, on her way back from a roundtable on missing Baloch people she had organized at T2f.
