ISLAMABAD: Women and trees have many things in common and have great connections. Both are sources of life, both nurture and protect life and sadly both are under threat of machismo, patriarchy, lust and greed.

This was the gist of speeches made at an event featuring art installation and poetry reading held under a banyan tree at Fatima Jinnah Park on Thursday.

‘Keeping Memories Alive - a tribute to Kishwar Naheed’s poetry’ by Fauzia Minallah, an established artist, author, environmental and human rights activist, brought together art connoisseurs, poets and women rights activists. The feminist poet, writer and activist, Kishwar Naheed, was the chief guest.

Niilofur Farrukh, a Karachi-based noted art critic, curator, writer, columnist and activist, Tahira Abdullah, a rights’ defender, and Shabnam Jazib spoke on the poet’s work, her contribution to Pakistani feminist movement and literature.

The speakers called Ms Naheed a “dense tree” who spoke the truth, whose poetry guided women through darkness and would inspire many generations to come.

The poet read one of her poems, Darakhton Mein Chhoopi Betian (Daughters Hidden in Trees).

Tahira Abdullah, who has translated the poem in English, also read it and eulogised both the poet and the artist for their commitment to the cause of the oppressed women.

Over a dozen panels with images of women and girls who fell victim to domestic violence, including Noor Mukadam and Qandeel Baloch, were hung on the tree.

“The nets symbolise the barriers created by European countries on their borders to keep away displaced people and emigrants like mosquitoes,” Fauzia Minallah said.

The artist was moved by the sufferings and pain of the refugees, including children and women, who died in the sea, on borders and in camps in a bid to escape conflicts, violence, hunger and exploitation in their countries in the Middle East and Afghanistan and the callousness of the so-called civilised countries who shut their borders on refugees.

The most beautiful aspect of this show is the location, the swinging of the panels as if the women are dancing, said Niilofur Farrukh.

“We do not speak out for the victims the way Kishwar Apa has spoken for the last 40 years. Likewise, Fauzia has been speaking out not only about women issues but also about environmental degradation. You erase the whole history and memories with the chopping of a tree. There is no replacement for the loss,” she said.

“A tree is like a mother who gives birth, nurtures and protects a child from adversaries and predators,” the Karachi-based art critic explained, saying that women and trees were facing brutality and catastrophe.

Later talking to Dawn, Ms Minallah said she used the mosquito nets which she bought in Germany in 2015 in her work symbolically.

“While I was installing mosquito nets on the windows to keep the annoying insects away, suddenly an image crossed my mind that how the oppressed people and segments of society were crushed like mosquitoes, forced to flee their hearth and homes and left to die on high seas and borders of the so-called civilised countries in Europe and America,” she said.

“It was in this darkness that I found inspiration in Kishwar Naheed’s poetryandhealing through art and beautiful Mother Nature,” she added.

She hoped that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) would protect many more natural monuments.

CDA Director Parks, Munir Ahmed, who was also present at the event, promised to put in efforts to protect these trees from the realtors’ greed and unplanned development.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2021