Lamha Kausar, 21, refused to let the wall of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) continue to look vandalised and sullied last week.

Some unidentified men, allegedly belonging to religio-political groups — Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) and Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TL) — had spray painted slogans over the murals painted on the walls of the KPC. The two groups sought the execution of Asia Bibi, the woman accused of blasphemy and on death row, and demanded the arrest of Shaan Taseer. This was carried out on January 4, the sixth death anniversary of slain governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer.

Armed with a few cans of chemicals, Lamha and her sister Fakiha accompanied their father, Feica, the renowned cartoonist, to undo the mess created by the miscreants. The trio went surreptitiously after dark and succeeded in scrubbing the hate away from the murals two days after they were vandalised.

Defaced murals point to an ugly reality: large swathes of our society still fear strong, empowered women

“It took us a couple of hours but we succeeded in making these walls look as good as new,” says a satisfied Feica, who felt compelled to do something to clean up the disfigurement and the profanities off ‘my’ KPC.

“This was no ordinary wall, and this building is no ordinary building. It comes with a history,” argues young Lamha, who grew up playing inside the KPC and has been a witness to the ebb and flow of various civil society movements that originated there.

The six murals that currently adorn the walls of the KPC were painstakingly painted by truck artist Haider Ali and his team from Phool Patti last October as part of the ‘I Am Karachi’ campaign to beautify the city. The murals included portraits of late social worker Perveen Rahman, Urdu playwright Fatima Surraya Bajia, human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, architect Yasmeen Lari and veteran woman journalist Zubeida Mustafa. Ali says it took them over 20 days of working not less than 12 hours a day.

“I felt angry and at the same time helpless ... mera tau meter short hua [blew a fuse],” he says. “Thankfully my friend Sabeen’s had remained untouched.”

“They wrote below on the strip but spared Sabeen’s face and also spared the only man, Professor Abdul Wahab,” says an indignant and angry Rumana Hussain, one of the founding members of ‘I Am Karachi’, and project champion for the Walls of Peace, with students and artists taking on the challenge of beautifying the walls.

“The city and its walls belong to everyone, let’s beautify and protect them rather than vandalise as ugliness does not serve anyone,” pleads Hussain. 

Still, street art, including graffiti, continues to be used as a tool for communicating dissenting views and expressing political and religious concerns. According to Ali, political and religious parties, which have a social responsibility not to disfigure street walls, are often the worst offenders.

This is despite the Sindh Assembly having unanimously passed The Prevention of Defacement of Property Bill, 2013 on February 3, 2014, which declared wall-chalking and disfiguring buildings a punishable offence carrying a penalty of imprisonment for six months and a fine of 5,000 rupees.

All the major political parties — the MQM, PPP, PTI, etc, — had wholeheartedly supported the bill but none have led by example.

Many see the recent disfigurement of the KPC murals as an attack on progressive and empowered women.

“All these women challenged the status quo,” says art historian Niilofer Farrukh. “I don’t think the vandals were anti-art, as no other walls that had been painted have been defaced.”

But the defacing of murals points to another worrying trend: Farrukh says that the sorry episode reeked of “misogyny” because “such women can’t be celebrated.” She believes there is a “deep-seated insecurity” within society of these high achieving women.

Thus she felt happy that Feica and his daughters “fixed the wall” and “pushed” the miscreants “back”.

Nuclear physicist, mathematician and activist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, blamed the state for freely allowing minds “warped” by hate-mongers and religious leaders to spread their “noxious message.”

“Like subterranean moles forced to live in wretched darkness of the underground, they hate these women for bringing light to the world,” he laments.

To that Lamha added: “We must acknowledge that this mindset prevails and is found in large numbers.” But what she also questions is why these miscreants have never been stopped. “It reflects some kind of a latent fear not to antagonise them, this exists both within political circles as well as in society,” she says.

“The same fear was breeding in us as well. Even when we went to wash off the slogans and do the right thing, we did it at a time when we would not catch so much attention. We, too, feared repercussions.”

This is not the first time that religious or sectarian groups have spread poison in society by spraying the city’s wall with hate-filled messages and sinister warnings.

Last week pro-TTP graffiti appeared in Manghopir with the message: “Taliban Zindabad! Sab par nazar hai [Long live Taliban! We are watching everyone].”

Farrukh says public art as well as art in the public space was always vulnerable to vandalism. “Vandalism is also indicative of the conflict of ideologies within a society as it can be read as an act of protest and negation,” she explains.

Zubeida Mustafa, whose mural was among those spoiled, had seen this coming but to the extent that the habitual betel nut and pan chewers would stain the walls by the spittle. “I was so pleased when they didn’t and I wrote about people’s innate aesthetic sense and desire to keep Karachi clean,” she says.

But perhaps she was being too optimistic and her joy was short-lived. “I was taken aback when this vandalism came from the religious parties. None of us had a quarrel with them. But it shows the level to which intolerance has grown,” she says.

However, she refuses to feel victimised or violated. “I really don’t care because I know they cannot destroy the values and the beliefs I stand for.” Nor would it deter her or others like her, from spreading the “message of peace and tolerance.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 15th, 2017