S M Azhar for BeyondHeadlines
Love and peace are essential for harmony in the society. To spread the message of love and peace, Pakistan’s Tehrek-i-Niswan organized a play here in India’s premier institution Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
A group of artistic performances, directed by Anwar Jafari, were performed on the evening of 19 February 2014 to propagate the message of love and peace from Pakistan. This was their second performance in JNU; first was in 2007.
Karachi-based theatre Tehrek-i-Niswan has been working for the past three decades for the promotion of peace and women’s development through theatre and media in Pakistan.
The program was unveiled with the play drawn from the Ismat Chughtai’s short story “KAFAR” written prior to division of British India. It was followed by Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Odissi on Indian and Pakistani poetry.
Founding member of Tehrek-i-Niswan Sheema Kirmani applauded the play by quoting, “Great literature never dies and is ever living”. She focused on breaking the stereotype and prejudiced images vested in the people of both the countries against each other, and she was of the thought that it is art and culture that can wobble hate and war into love and peace.
The audience witnessed the presence of Osman Ziya one of the casts from Pakistan’s this year Oscar nominated ‘Zindabad’.
