Can you share some of the key themes and messages you aim to convey through your artwork, particularly as it relates to gender equality and feminism?
My main message in all of my artworks is to be confident in what we are. To be effortlessly yourself, to be so comfortable in your own skin, to fully accept yourself as you are because we all are amazing! Right? To know your rights and to stand firm on your values. To women to be financially and emotionally independent first and then everything can fall into places.
Have you encountered any specific challenges or obstacles as a feminist artist and activist in the region, and how have you overcome them?
I have not encountered any challenges related to being a feminist artist, but I have faced a lot of challenges being a female artist. First of all they don’t take you serious, and they think of you doing all the art as an hobby. Because of the male mindset that you are just doing it as a hobby/time pass you can charge less etc. This makes me furious as why? We also have to pay our bills!!
How do you use your art to engage with and empower local communities, especially women, in your advocacy work?
I try to make the artworks about women as much relatable as possible. I even sometimes use Urdu slogans in the artwork for more audience to understand it. Always hopping on to any chance to make change for our rural women as they are the ones who most need to understand their rights, dignity and role.
Are there particular female figures or feminist movements in South Asia that have been influential or inspiring to you in your journey?
There are so many! So so many amazing artists which I look up to, but our digital creative industry is still very new and we need so much new people with newer ideas and not just working anything for the sake of earning. There should be more meaningful art not just art for the sole purpose of making money out of it.
In what ways do you collaborate with other artists and activists to amplify your feminist message and create a broader impact?
I think in Pakistan specially we used to have a smaller circle of artists just 4 something years ago and then covid hits and boom! There were so many artists; and now there are artists just for the sake of content. Instagram has just become a content generator app and people are just making art to be in the algorithm sometimes it loses its beauty.
I would love collaborate with other artists on bigger projects where we can make a bigger change.
