HYDERABAD: Three prominent women coming with different social and cultural backgrounds shared their success stories at a session on ‘Strong women: power, struggle & artistic expression’ at the 11th Hyderabad Literature Festival, which drew to an end on Monday night with a musical programme.

They narrated their struggle against social taboos to encourage women to stop considering themselves to be weaker segment of society. Women should never give up struggle for their rights come hell or high water, they believed.

Marvi Awan, a feminist, moderated the session that lasted over half an hour. She invited eminent classical dancer and social activist Sheema Kermani to start the conversation.

“Art and skill is there in every woman,” Kermani said, explaining that women can perform anything with beauty. “Women raise their children efficiently; every woman wants her child to become a good human. I believe dance and all other arts aim to make a good human being,” she said.

Sheema Kermani believes art can take a buff to top level; Naz Dharejo encourages women to use firearms for self defence like she did

She added art ensures that one should attain the level which is over and above the average life.

She recalled how she grew up in a family where art was applauded. “My family comprised educated people who used to appreciate arts and I had exposure to them as there was no embargo on such activities. Dance, music and theatre once used to be part of education and upbringing which is not the case today, which is regrettable”, she said.

She conceded that she did confront problems. “But when you decide that this is the aim of your life, then these problems stand solvable. So, I urge young girls that if you have committed yourself to something you think is right and true, then do it with passion. None can stop you then,” the artist said assertively. That was how, she said, she chose this art and then all other problems became meaningless.

Marvi observed that women do come across typical conditions when they find themselves losing, but if they rise, then they gather courage too.

Mukhtiar Naz Dharejo — also known as Waderi Nazo Dharejo — from Benazirabad district,

is known for her gunfight against notorious dacoits over a dispute involving her inherited agricultural lands in the early 90s.

Sharing her background, she said girls in her family usually study not beyond the Vth grade. She said her father had contracted three marriages. She explained how her brother faced a murder charge and her maternal uncle died during the land dispute. That was a period when dacoits were quite active in Sindh.

“My father was imprisoned which left only womenfolk behind in the family to face the situation arising out of the feud over inheritance of 300-acre of farmland in a village of Qazi Ahmed city of Nawabshah district [now Benazirabad],” she said.

She said that her family’s opponents wanted to deprive her and her sisters of the land but they failed as she had obtained a stay order. Her father died after being released from prison. “I was in my early 20s and I wanted to appear in CSS exams as become a deputy commissioner was my dream,” she said.

She said her father never discouraged her. “He trained us in using weapons. Guns then became toys for me,” remarked Waderi Nazo. She said that her opponents, who happened to be her relatives, sold the adjacent land to a notorious dacoit, Imam Bux alias Emmo Khoso, in 2006 to psychologically pressure her family to surrender its inherited land. “But I made it a do or die game and then came that difficult night when we were attacked by around 200-250 criminals,” she said.

“We returned the fire and then we ran out of ammunition. At dawn, my husband said we have no ammunition left. But I told him I will not face a defeat, so won’t leave. He asked what if the attackers managed to barge into our house. I said a Kalashnikov is lying here and you may kill us. Then it will be up to you to fight or leave because it’s my problem, not yours. We then got an armoury shop opened to get supplies,” she revealed.

She said she retrieved 70 acres of the land occupied by her opponents overnight, and stayed on within the area for the next eight months fearlessly. “I still live in that area where I’ve built a house,” she said. She went on to say that she married her cousin with a commitment that she would be allowed to operate the autaq (drawing room), perform her chores herself and decide daily issues of ‘Raj’ [rule over haris].

“If parents give confidence to their daughters, then they certainly perform successfully and no less like a male child. The respect I enjoy now is immeasurable,” she said.

Nida Paras Dayo, an author who has done her MPhil in gender studies, also shared her struggle and narrated how she shattered cultural stereotypes in society. “Resultantly, I got papers of divorce which was certainly a traumatic phase of my life. Instead of considering it to be my defeat, I turned it into an opportunity to become the voice of women in my struggle against social injustices,” she said.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2026