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life review Back to
puppeteering Princess
fever Reality shock The story
of AIDS in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA It was only a month after her husband left for Saudi Arabia to take up his job as migrant worker that the newly-wed Palwasha found out that she was HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive. Shocked by the medical report, she thought her days were numbered as she was ignorant about the disease. But five years on, she is living a peaceful life and helping many other infected persons to learn to cope with the challenge. AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is one of the deadliest diseases in the world and the cause of nearly two million annual deaths According to the UNAIDS, the estimated number of people living with the virus in 2010 was 33.3 million including 2.5 million children. The number of the freshly infected persons in 2009 was 2.6 million and the fatality was an estimated 1.8 million. However, only around 5.2 million HIV patients are able to get the vital antiretroviral drugs (ARV). In Pakistan, the number of people living with the HIV/AIDS virus has been estimated at 98,000. Most of them are not registered with the government’s AIDS control programme. The number of infected persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) is estimated at 20,000, though only 728 were registered with the AIDS control programme. Talking to TNS, the manager of the provincial AIDS control programme Dr Sher Muhammad Khan said that two dedicated treatment centres at the Hayatabad Medical Centre (HMC) and Kohat were providing the ARV drugs to people suffering from the HIV/AIDS. “We have 669 patients including 163 females and 30 children under treatment at the HMC while 59 persons are cared for at the AIDS control centre in Kohat. The 73 out of the 476 infected males getting treatment in Hayatabad are Afghans who come to Pakistan on visit visa from Afghanistan for treatment. We have two AIDS patients from Zambia as well,” Dr Sher Muhammad explained. He revealed that a larger number of the registered patients were labourers who got infected while working in the Gulf States. “The infected males then transferred the viruses to their female partners and from them the HIV virus was passed on to the newborn babies,” he said. Although carelessness in sexual relations is the most common cause of HIV transmission, there are also other ways of transmitting the virus. One such way in Pakistan is the use of dirty surgical equipment by professional and non-professional dentists. Dr Sher Muhammad added that unhygienic practices by non-registered dentists and other medical practitioners was a major reason for the rise in the number of AIDS patients in Pakistan. “The non-professionals often use equipment without sterilisation, which is like inviting all sorts of diseases including HIV. Unclean instruments at a barber’s shop can also cause serious infections,” he said. Palwasha, who is now the provincial president of the national association for people living with HIV, believed the unhygienic practices by some doctors could be the reason for her illness. “Initially, I didn’t believe that I had tested positive for HIV. To remove the uncertainty, I went for further medical tests but the results were all positive,” she recalled. Luckily at this difficult stage she met one Nighat at a non-governmental organisation, AWARD, in Peshawar. “Meeting Nighat after I had tested positive for HIV brought a change in my outlook. My attitude started changing and after counselling for less than two weeks I was no longer scared. In fact, I became so strong that I started offering counselling to other affected females,” said the 30-year-old Palwasha. She was 25 when she tested HIV positive. She didn’t tell her husband about her disease when he returned from Saudi Arabia due to fears that she may be divorced. But things turned out totally different as her husband was caring and understanding. “My husband told me he had never indulged in immoral activities during his 10 years stay in Saudi Arabia. He said he trusted me as well,” Palwasha said. Her husband underwent tests which turned out to be clean. She said after a few days counselling, his mind became clear about the many causes of HIV infection. Full support from her husband and family has motivated Palwasha to fight the fearsome disease. She gave birth to a girl last year but the baby died after suffering diarrhoea during the devastating floods in the summer of 2010. “Both my sisters and mother know about my illness. It is due to their support that I am able to live a normal life and at the same time offer counselling lessons to nearly 400 females living with the HIV/AIDS viruses,” Palwasha added. She had recently returned from Quetta where she met some Pashtun females carrying the disease. Palwasha said that most infected females are faced with unjust treatment from their families as they are considered unclean and morally corrupt. “Many infected females complain about their family’s behaviour towards them. They are not allowed to cook food or participate in other healthy activities. Instead most infected women are permitted to do only cleaning duties at home and tending to the cattle and cleaning if they happen to be from the rural areas,” she explained. Another common source of spreading HIV is the use of dirty syringes. Drug addicts who cannot afford to buy new syringes to inject liquefied heroin fall in this category. Forced by their miserable lives on the streets, the drug addicts often share one syringe. This makes dispersal of the infectious diseases like Hepatitis B, C and HIV easy. One such infected addict is the pale-faced Muhammad Arif. He is 24 years old and is already carrying HIV, Hepatitis C and TB viruses. Under treatment at the Dost Welfare Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working for the rehabilitation and treatment of drug addicts, Arif narrated his story in these words: “I used to insert all types of syringes in my arms, legs and hips to inject heroin. I would pick these syringes from the waste outside the hospitals and often share these with other addicts.” With tears rolling down his face, Arif sighed as he recounted tales of his miserable existence. Although the AIDS treatment centre at the HMC is one of the finest in the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa still has no CD4 and Viral Load machines for its AIDS patients. The infected persons need to visit the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad where these machines are available for undergoing tests. The CD4 machine which costs up to five million rupees is used to count the Thymus lymphocytes (T-cells) in an HIV positive patient. This count is vital in determining the stage of the infection, guiding drug choices and indicating the patient’s response to the ARV treatment and disease progression. The Viral load machine monitors the rise and fall of HIV in the blood of the infected person. Cost of the Viral Load machine is from four to five million rupees. According to Dr Sher Muhammad, an agreement between the World Bank and the provincial AIDS control programme for provision of CD4 machine collapsed recently because the World Bank didn’t release the promised money for the purchase of the machine. However, he said the Global Fund had approved the provision of a Viral Load machine for the province. “At the moment the CD4 machine is more important for our patients. We have requested the Global Fund to provide us CD4 instead of Viral Load machine. They have agreed to our request and we hope to receive and install the CD4 machine at the HMC by the end of April 2011,” he said. Once that happens, patients would be saved from the trouble of going to Islamabad for the tests. But this won’t end the misery of the HIV positive patients because they would need to be determined and persistent and also receive support of family members and friends to cope with the challenge. HIV/AIDS patients getting ARV treatment at HMC from different parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa City/Town People with City/Town People with HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Peshawar 89 Mardan 7 Bannu 55 Karak 4 Upper Dir 34 D I Khan 4 Swat 31 Shangla 3 Hangu 30 Chitral 2 Lower Dir 28 Mansehra 2* Kohat 26 Abbotabad 1 Swabi 25 Haripur 0* Charsadda 24 Battagram 1* Buner 17 Tank 1 Nowshera 17 Kohistan 1 Lakki 11 Other 9 * The exact figure of registered infected persons belonging to these areas is unknown as most of them are getting treatment at PIMS Islamabad. Registered HIV/AIDS patients getting treatment at HMC belonging to the FATA, Punjab, Afghanistan and Zambia FATA People with FATA People with HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS North Waziristan 47 Mohmand 9 Kurram 39 Bajaur 7 Khyber 32 Punjab 6 South Waziristan 18 Afghanistan 73 Orakzai 14 Zambia 2
In her recent work on display at Rohtas 2, Faiza Butt frees herself from familiar and tried out feminine themes By Quddus Mirza Although death is the
destiny of all human beings, regardless of gender, race, age and nationality,
each culture has a different Each concept of death has altered the world view of a society as well as shaped its ideas towards life. For example, compared to Eastern societies, the Western cultures have a completely different attitude towards death. Inhabitants of present day Europe and Americas are generally more afraid of death; the progress in medical science, stress on healthy living and physical exercise, preference for organic food etc. are all manifestations of a desire to defeat death. It is only rarely that people see a dead body of a relative or of a loved one. Eastern cultures, on the other hand, are fascinated with death -- not in real life may be but often as the subject of artistic expressions and a strong presence in communal discourse. The idea of death is an integral part of culture, so much so that in our language the metaphor of death is used to announce one’s love for the other; even the act of love-making is so described in colloquial and vulgar diction. This attitude towards death, which has seeped into our local idiom, is a sign of how a young person feels about the futility of his life in the larger scenario. Mainly considering the worthlessness of his existence and is prepared to shed it for a bigger cause. So the crop of suicide bombers in our midst is not surprising because, in our faith too, one is always preparing for life after death; all our acts in the mortal world determine how these would be rewarded or punished after we depart to the other realm. A man, who is more concerned about his eternal life, does not hesitate to accept the idea of embracing death, especially if his life is full of deprivation, degradation and dangers. This view of death could be a reason for fascination with violence in our culture. Images and acts of violence -- often for a good cause, are part of our daily discourse, as we are continuously exposed to news (facts) and fabrications (fiction) of violence in media and in arts. Right from the archetypical character of film hero like Maula Jutt to the display of violence by police, lawyers and clergy on our street, we are exposed to diverse forms of aggression. Actually a young person’s attraction to violence -- of any kind, ranging from militants’ actions to students politics -- is a means to attain a taste of power that is otherwise denied in normal circumstances. Not only young but people of all ages are intoxicated by power, because it satisfies one’s instinct to have control over others -- on their lives, animals, households, destinies etc. A man, emerging from a seminary, decides to blow up himself up or throws a bomb in a busy market or crowded mosque is actually asserting, affirming and demonstrating his power, even though he is losing his life in the process. All these aspects of our
society are visible in various forms in the work of Faiza Butt being exhibited
from March 21-April 2, 2011, Hence the art of Faiza Butt -- not only the present pieces but her previous works too -- deals with the presence of consumer culture and the power of male gender. It is interesting that she is addressing these themes which hold specific meaning for a woman living in a Western society; yet her memory and experiences of her homeland has formed her imagery, especially in the way the finger of Zia ul Haq is pointing upwards and the local wrester shows off his muscles. For her the male gender’s obsession with physical power is intriguing because it constructs the systems of society that revolve around the male. It is significant that a female artist of our country has chosen to address this element in her work, instead of focusing on the expected theme of representing female body as the mark and testimony of her presence as a woman. Perhaps her choice of portraying males -- in their physical, psychological, cultural, political and religious context -- is a response to the historical practice male artists representing women. Faiza Butt’s act of freeing herself from these familiar and tried out feminine themes and visuals is a sign of how our art has progressed from the period of Zia; the figures of death, destruction, power and oppression, whose memory and deeds are now as nostalgic as his portrait which is made by Faiza Butt.
With a desire to revive puppetry in Pakistan, the RPTW organises the eighth folk puppet festival in Lahore By Sarwat Ali In the eighth Folk Puppet Festival held by the Rafi Peer Theatre workshop (RPTW) at the Cultural Centre (Raiwind Road), besides local groups three companies from other countries also took part. Despite the conditions in
the country these three groups came to Pakistan because they have taken part
earlier in puppet The case of Jack Markussen from Norway is quite peculiar because he not only has spent time in Pakistan but has also been responsible for restarting puppetry in Kabul a couple of years back. He was engaged by Den Nationale Scene in Bergen to establish a puppet department in the Afghan National Theatre in Kabul. He participated in a special initiative to educate school going children through puppets. He was able to get together a group of interested people, started with puppet plays with very little verbalisation. Called the ‘Dragon Mountain’ the legend of the mountain that saddles Kabul was made into a puppet play. Rehearsals started as the local talent also got trained in the process. This initiative, mostly non-verbal puppetry with a bit of music thrown in it, according to him it has continued to be staged even after his departure from Kabul. Besides non-verbal puppetry his company Dukkikkerne particularly specialises in building stories around fairytales. He has a large repertoire of such tales that he shows to his audiences, mainly through glove and rod puppetry. His is a combination of the traditional and contemporary puppetry where mostly the stories come from the past but are weaved and presented to children in more contemporary vocabulary. In the festival too he delighted the children with his plays build round fairytales as the children were able to identify with them. Kherati Ra Bhat is from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and he calls himself Dhange Kathputliwala, meaning that he can work string puppets. He has also inherited a craft, which is about a thousand years old revolving around the character of bahrupias (conmen) found in folktales, the “shape shifting changeling” that transform their appearances in seconds. Accompanied by sharp whistles, rhythmic beat of the dholak the narrators’ catchy songs synchronised with string puppet movements totally enchanted the audiences. Some of his expertise was evident in puppets dancing and riding horses, particularly difficult in string puppetry. Rohana Deva and Wijesiri Ganwary from Sri Lanka work together, bringing the traditional and the contemporary puppetry together. Ganwary comes from a family of puppeteers and some of his ancestors were great masters of the craft. This puppetry developed round the life and teaching of Buddha is very traditional, as the craft has been transmitted from father to son. This form of puppetry is also called Vesak-coinciding with the birth anniversary/enlightenment of Buddha, named after the month baisakh for Buddha’s enlightenment took place in this month. Besides many legendry kings and queens the various episodes in the life of Buddha seems to be a permanent feature of traditional puppetry in Sri Lanka. . European puppeteers have trained Rohan Deva, his plays usually revolve around local storytelling tradition. He is fully exposed to various experiments that have taken place in puppetry and he has been deeply involved in building institutions of puppetry in his country. A number of folk groups, traditional exponents of the craft named after their chief puppeteer like Muhammed Abdullah, Bashir Dhamalli, Noor Din, Billo Mai, Lally, Bahadurrah, Muhammed Shafi, Khalid Hussain, Bahadur Ali, Muhammed Afzal, Muhammed Siddique and Muhammed Bashir performed at the festival. Mostly hailing from Rajasthan they acquired the art of both playing and making the puppet from their elders. The oral transmission of knowledge had ensured a much closed-door familial environment where the secrets of the professional had been passed on from generation to generation. Called pakhiwaas or gypsies, a nomadic lot who have roamed from place to place, taking part in puppetry or singing mostly the vast repertoire of folk songs in various dialects of the language spoken in the length and breadth of Rajasthan they have been part of the history of this area since times immemorial. Probably they migrated to Bangla Fazil in district Ferozepur (now in Indian Punjab) sometime in the past and from there migrated to the new country Pakistan in 1947. Actually the Indian and Pakistani puppeteers are soul mates as they belong to the same tradition and the same area. The fund of stories and the collection of songs too are similar. They employ the same rhythmic patterns and their application of the sur is also the same. The revival of folk puppetry has been the dream of Peerzada brothers since their impassioned involvement with the marionettes that started more than three decades ago. Such a revival in India had also encouraged them and infused new expectation that it was not only a dream that they were chasing. Their dream of setting up a place for the puppeteers from where they could work their puppets and from where they could be contacted and engaged for a performance appears to be closer to actualisation than ever. Over the past few decades this art has been on the decline. The craft of making wooden puppets too is almost extinct as only the puppets made of yore are repaired, while the craft of manipulating the string puppets too is left with only a very few practitioners. The dialect in which the tales were narrated has been replaced by a more contemporary idiom and the traditional songs with rich musical input has been substituted by songs based on current film tunes. The old instruments too have been replaced by modern gadgets and it is feared that computer-generated sounds and electronic manipulations will take over. All the more reason to be particular about holding such festivals. Princess fever Dear All, With just over a month to go till the wedding of the Queen’s grandson, Prince William and his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton, Britain seems to have been gripped by a peculiar sort of Princess fever. The general public seems
quite excited by the forthcoming event not just because it is a Royal wedding
but because Prince The legend of Diana illuminates and haunts this royal wedding, even if the focus now is very much on the new heroine of the beautiful-young-woman-marries-her-Prince story: Kate Middleton. When the couple announced their engagement Kate Middleton, rather surprisingly, made it known that she wanted to be thereafter known as Princess Catherine. Pity she couldn’t stick to the populist and plebeian Kate -- Princess Kate or Queen Kate would have had a rather jolly and very contemporary ring to it. Anyhow Kate aka Catherine was a huge hit at all the photo and press sessions and wore all the right clothes. The blue dress she wore at the engagement announcement completely sold out within hours. Her hairstyle became a much requested item at hairdressers the length and breadth of the country. The transparent dress she wore on the catwalk at a fashion show as a university student when Prince William is said to have really noticed her recently sold at auction for a staggering £78,000. Magazines are telling us how to “get the Kate Middleton look” while busybodies everywhere are devoting column inches to giving unsolicited advice on her wardrobe requirements and speculating on which designer she will choose to design her wedding dress. Suddenly these busybodies are also finding fault with her trendy, private school, club loving Sloane Ranger look and they seem to want to turn her into a stuffy Princess wearing monochrome Princess outfits... I know Britain is going through some tough times in this recession era but people who think this sort of royal wedding excitement will make us all feel better are probably sadly mistaken. They are, after all just a couple getting married, albeit under the scrutiny of the entire world media. But the regular doses of Kate trivia that are being ladled out to us to build up excitement and anticipation are fairly ridiculous. One day it is pix of her and Prince William, the next day it is speculation about her wedding dress design, then the next day it is the release of some of her baby pictures. Or coverage of her attending a public event with her fiancée, or interviews with her university friends about her.... blah blah blah. I wish them well of course, but I am a little disappointed that a well-educated girl like Kate Middleton never really settled into a proper job and she seems to demonstrate less and less personality the more exposure she is given. It is almost as if she is making herself as bland and unobjectionable as possible in order to fit in with the royal family. The more I think of her the more the doll image of her is reinforced: beautiful figure and posture, toned body, great complexion, incredibly glossy long brown hair, good smile and dimple, stylish clothes, fashionable shoes -- the would-be Princess is a fashion plate, and that is all she seems to be at the moment. I am very glad that the date of the royal Wedding -- April 29 -- has been declared a Bank Holiday in Britain because then I can sleep in, as well as spend more time with my family. I am sure I will end up watching the whole event on television but I also expect I will be fairly nauseated by the running commentary that will accompany the live event. I do know that I am already very critical of the “it-is-every little-girl’s-dream-to-become-a-princess” strand of story that now crops up frequently on the media. Is it really every girl’s dream to have the whole world watching what you wear and how? Is it really every girl’s dream to be given the very engagement ring that belonged to a woman who was involved in one of the most acrimonious and world famous marital breakups of the 20th century? Really William -- did you have to give her that unfortunate sapphire? Even as the fuss and excited silliness over the royal wedding continues, we should ask ourselves what all this says about us and the age we live in. Are royals really so important? Is this really what the modern woman aspires to? To be transformed from a charming, independent young woman called Kate into a generic, simpering Royal Princess called Catherine? We shall see how it goes, but hopefully the wedding won’t be a rococo extravaganza with a meringue of a wedding dress. Get a grip Kate: you were you before any of the Princess thing happened. Best wishes, Umber Khairi
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approach towards death. In some ancient societies, death was considered a
passage to final/eternal life, for others it is a step towards multiple
incarnations, while many believe that death is the ultimate end, without an
afterlife and so on.
at Rohtas 2 in Lahore. Images of wrestlers, war victims, portrait of dictator
and items of consumer society are constructed to narrate not only the history
of a nation but also the fabric and psyche of a society. How a society
operates with its apparent contradictions is expressed by composing a
blindfolded face (from an advertisement of a perfume) next to another
blindfolded face from the war reportage. This and another image comprising a
hooded figure with tied hands, yet in a sensuous posture, suggest how the
sexually charged substance and painful subjects are treated alike in the media
for the consumption of general public. The media’s role in determining our
way of thinking and living is also addressed in a series of works, in which
idols of power, the wrestlers, are surrounded by a number of products,
including hair dryers, flower vases, gloves and dentures etc. All these notify
the power of a man along with the strength of a consumer society and supremacy
of market phenomenon.
festivals held by the same organisation. Being familiar with the country and
its conditions they were aware that the situation is not as bad as it appeared
from the outside. It has also reflected their commitment that any activity
held in such circumstances should be participated in fully.
William is the son of Princess Diana, the tragic heroine and foolish
protagonist of last century’s fairy story with an unfortunate ending: you
know -- beautiful young girl marries Prince, has fairytale wedding in
billowing white gown, becomes one of the world’s most famous, most
photographed, best dressed and most adored celebrities, and then the dream is
shattered and it all comes apart at the seams, the love story goes wrong, the
princess is killed in a tragic accident...