Ammara Ahmad
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Amritsar, PB, India
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Past articles by Ammara:
How the trauma of Partition survivors has been intensified by India-Pakistan animosity
The bitter enmity between the neighbours has turned the border into an iron wall, cutting off people-to-people contact. → Read More
Bulleh Shah for a modern audience
Alhamra’s Hall II was packed this Sunday night. Not only the stairs and the space between the stage and the audience was full; there were long lines of viewers outside the hall, and the doors had to be closed because there the hall was full. This play was first written by Shahid Nadeem and presented … → Read More
Finnish innovation reaches Lahore
An exhibition of Finnish products that highlights the Finnish designs has opened at the Zahoor-ul Akhlaque Gallery of the National College of Arts in Lahore. The exhibition aims to introduce the modernist and simplistic Finnish designs in Pakistan. The exhibition included products like clothes, interior decoration products and samples of textiles. The exhibition also gives … → Read More
Celebrating banned literature
Olomopolo media celebrated the Banned Books Week by organising a reading last Sunday The week was first celebrated in 1982 to challenge the bans on books and highlight the importance of freedom. The week brings together everyone who loves books from booksellers, authors, publishers, librarians, academics and of course, readers. The event was curated by … → Read More
‘Trans women have no security’
Anaya Shiekh is one of Pakistan’s first and most promising transgender stand up comedians. Her performances are hilarious but also nuanced because she draws a lot from her life as a person growing up with gender ambiguity. Today, she is a proud trans woman who works on transgender rights and spends her free time making … → Read More
Remembering Shujaat Bukhari
I was in a packed food court in a posh mall on the outskirts of Lahore last Chaand Raatwhen I found out that Shujaat Bukhari — the prominent Kashmiri journalist and Editor of Sri Nagar based newspaper Rising Kashmir — had been shot and killed alongside his two security guards. I found out about the … → Read More
Reconnecting South Asia through art
Sonal Khullar, an art historian based in the US, discusses art, artists and culture in South Asia today. How did this trip to Lahore change your perception of Amrita Shergill? She is a really significant artist and in some ways has been overlooked in the art historical genealogy. So in the last twenty years, there … → Read More
Irfan Khoosat, Tajdar Zaidi and Sarmad Khoosat give life to classic Urdu texts
The performance room of Olomopolo had a houseful again and this time it was a joyous occasion. Olomopolo celebrated its fifth birthday at the Olo Junction in Muslim Town Lahore by organising a reading of literary texts in Urdu. In the center of the performance area were three sofas, complete with cushions. The side tables … → Read More
Reimagining post-partition Punjab
Pippa Virdee’s book From Ashes of 1947: Reimagining Punjab deals with every theme a Punjabi is often concerned with when it comes to the 1947 partition and the ensuing migration, refugee crisis and resettlement. The book also deals with the Punjabi language’s decline, the miscarriage of the partition plan and the innumerable women that suffered … → Read More
Welcoming ‘Jeebho Jaani’ to Lahore
How long has it been since you last saw a children’s play in Lahore being performed in Punjabi? Some of us were lucky enough to experience it this weekend. The play ‘Jeebho Jaani Di Kahani’ was presented by the Olomopolo media on Saturday and Sunday evenings at the Alhamra Arts Council Lahore. The play was … → Read More
Visual chroniclers of Partition
Sunil Janah and Henri Cartier Bresson were photojournalists who added to Partition history’s visual spectrum. The events around the partition have a limited photographic record and evidence. Margaret Bourke-White clicked a majority of the images we see today. However, Sunil Janah was the only native to cover the violence while Henri Cartier Bresson arrived later … → Read More
Women express apprehensions over Imran Khan’s ignorance towards their gender
Women from all walks of life gathered at a dhaaba on Jail Road to discuss women and the general elections. Over a dozen women sat by the roadside and discussed women’s participation, their role, the number of seats and campaigns. The participants were frustrated at the lack of inclusiveness in political campaigns and narratives of … → Read More
Finding the “missing”
Imran Khan, the unofficial Prime Minister-elect of Pakistan, has a powerful electoral base in FATA, Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, Balochistan and now even Sindh. These are the areas where the issue of enforced disappearance is of critical significance; explicitly or implicitly, Imran Khan must vow to end this phenomenon to create goodwill with the people who have … → Read More
Celebrating Shama Zaidi
Most film critics and cinema lovers believe that one of the best films made on the Indian Partition is ‘Garam Hawa.’ The film was based on Ismat Chughtai’s short story. However, very few people know that there was another woman behind the film ‘Garam Hawa’. Her name was Shama Zaidi and she was the Art Director … → Read More
How Margaret Bourke-White gave a face to Indian partition
Margaret Bourke-White was an American photojournalist who came to India in 1947 to photograph Mohandas Gandhi and capture the migration between East and West Punjab. The photos she took have now gained an iconic status because there are very few images available of the mass exodus. Bourke-White, a pioneer who risked her life for bringing … → Read More
‘Manto’ offers a poignant interpretation of the writer’s life
Olomopolo arranged a screening of the Pakistani film ‘Manto’ produced in 2015. The film stars actor Sarmad Sultan Khoosat as Manto and Sania Saeed as Safiya Manto. The film doesn’t have a linear narrative, as the short stories of Manto are interspersed with the story of his life, and both are equally morbid. But there … → Read More
‘The Parliament should be supreme’
INTERVIEW Have you taken part in the elections before? In the 2013 elections, I withdrew my candidacy. In those days, the Hazara killings were at their peak. My priority was to struggle against the killings so I withdrew from the elections. This time, I filed nomination papers for two National Assembly seats but Balochistan National … → Read More
The limits of representational politics
Lahore: It has been five years since the residents of Joseph Colony suffered their worst nightmare when a mob attacked their houses over a blasphemy allegation. In search of safety, dozens of families in the Christian majority neighbourhood in Badami Bagh area of PP-145 Lahore II (old PP-138) had left their houses unattended that night, … → Read More
Launch of the Aghaz-e-Dosti calendar
Aghaz-e-Dosti, an organisation working for peace between Pakistan and India, launched its annual calendar on Saturday. My friends and I had been discussing the invitation for days. Friends based abroad thought we should go while those in Lahore had cautioned us against it given the security situation and the fact that one of the convener … → Read More
#JusticeForZainab: Will the uproar translate into lasting social change in Pakistan?
Child pornography was made illegal for the first time and became punishable, along with child trafficking within Pakistan. → Read More