PESHAWAR: Noted blind Pashto poet Shahid Ali Shahid most often writes on issues prevalent in the society. He had composed a poem in Pashto titled ‘Tandar Newale Spogmai’ (the moon under eclipse) sometime ago. It had won a widespread fame for its beautiful imagery and powerful social message.

It was aimed at highlighting the issue of swara – an outdated custom in which underage girls are wedded to compensate for the sins of their male family members. The poet wanted his narrative poem to be filmed because according to his vision it had a universal message that women should not be exploited by male- dominated societies, including Pakhtuns.

The video, featuring noted actors Tauheedullah Qureshi, Ayesha, Shehnaz, Urooj Bukhari and Fazal Hussain besides child stars Areesha and Zawad Khan would be shown with English subtitles for audience not conversant with Pashto for its online version. PTV Peshawar Centre is set to release the video today (Thursday) during its regional transmission. Young music composer-cum-singer Farrukh Zeb and Sonia Khan have rendered the poem into their heart-rending voices.

Abdul Hameed, senior editor of the video, told Dawn that videos with purpose could cast a wholesome impact on the audience. He said that issue-based projects should be launched for transmitting a strong public message to curb social evils. Two months ago, Mr Shahid was informed that his poem regarding swara would be shot after selection of a few portions of the poem to fit a perfect video.

“It was my great wish that someone should realise my vision into a video so that Pakhtuns and the world people at large could sense the gravity of the issue. I am grateful to the PTV Peshawar Centre for doing this job which I believe is a great public service,” he stated.

Urooj Bukhari, a young TV actress playing the role of Spogmai – the victim of swara ritual in the video – told this scribe that to place herself in the role of Spogmai was a real challenge as she had been playing such a part for the first time in her life. “The character of Spogmai scared me when I read the script.

I imagined how in life the young victim girls would brave such a life-threatening situation. The video would cast a magic spell because of its strong public message,” she said.

Senior writer, Zaitoon Bano, said in her comments that the video portraying the issue of sawara would have a trickling effect on public minds as hundreds of Pakhtun women had been crushed in the garb of that social taboo down the ages. She stressed that everybody at every level should work against such evils and also the entire society should stand up to defeat it. “I have written extensively on this particular issue. Shahid though a blind poet was a man of great vision and he deserves kudos for highlighting sawara evil,” Ms Bano added.

Directed and edited by Nawab Ali and Abdul Hameed, respectively, the videography of a Pashto narrative poem revolving round the tragic story of swara was first of its kind. “The eight-minute video shot at beautiful locations has been prepared in a month’s time. The aim was to educate the public on swara issue which I think is a stigma on our face. The state-run television takes responsibility to highlight such social evils,” Mr Ali explained.

Abasin Yousafzai remarked that there were many Pashto poems which could be videographed as public service messages. He said that besides swara issue several other such taboos should also be brought to limelight to discourage people from following them.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2017