ISLAMABAD – Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) will hold a day-long seminar on “Woman Creativity and Challenges” in connection with International Women’s Day here on March 10.
Intellectuals, experts and women belonging to various fields will highlight various aspects of issues and challenges faced by women increative fields. The international event is a day when women are recognised for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.
It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. The day is celebrated globally to mark the struggle for women’s rights, celebrate the successes and build solidarity for the struggles that need to be done in the future.
This year’s theme for international women’s day is art and culture. It will encourage women to reclaim the progressive spaces provided within the culture and use this day as a step forward into this process. For long, traditional culture has been abused to restrain and suppress women. Crimes against women were legitimized in the name of honor and tradition.
Women were restricted from utilising their abilities in public life in the name of their traditional role and society stayed silent at heinous atrocities, protecting, so to speak, sanctity of feminine. What people do not realise is that traditional culture requires pruning all the time. Strange practices, that violate women’s rights, need to be rooted out like unwanted wild weeds from the desired plants.
Interestingly, enough women have been repositories of traditional culture and folklore throughout South Asia. They have been keepers of rituals, folk songs, language, clothing, foods, relationships and many other aspects. They have played an important role in continuation of cultural identity in a society. However, when it comes to their own rights and breathing space, the society uses the same culture as a beating stick.
Women have the same cultural rights to enjoy creativity, performing arts, esthetics and means of expression as anyone else in a society. But these areas get stigmatize when it comes to women, sometimes in the name of morality and sometimes as a means for their protection, said the organisers.
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