Painting Exhibition Highlights Women’s Role In Peace-Building

News Desk

Islamabad: A one-day painting exhibition titled ‘Uks-e-Aman’ was organised to promote peace, inclusivity, and social cohesion in local capacities. The programme’s core objective was to create discourse around women’s role in peacebuilding in Pakistan and around the globe.

Uks-e-Aman is a peace-building activity organised by peace-builder Asma Bashir Kundi as a member of the Peace Flix initiative by Global Neighbourhood for Media Innovation (GNMI) in collaboration with the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and the Women Journalist Association of Pakistan on Thursday.

In the first phase of the project, female journalists from across Pakistan who have covered war, conflict, and violence in the field of journalism shared stories they covered with art students. Art students were selected from various art institutions, including the Fatima Jinnah University in Rawalpindi, the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, and the Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG) Korang Town. The brilliant students painted the shared stories on canvas.

As many as 17 art students participated in the project activity and produced 16 paintings and a 3-D project to represent the stories highlighting the need and ways for peace in society.

PNCA Director General Ayoub Jamali said that the basis of peace was trust. “Transparency is the cornerstone of trust, and shared inner experience is the basis of transparency. Art is a potent medium for expressing inner wisdom and fostering harmony and trust,” he said.

Ayoub Jamali added that the PNCA has supported the national and worldwide promotion of exhibitions and the best modern and contemporary art. The PNCA was established to lead Pakistan’s skill development. The council seeks to create a climate where the arts are accessible to all people and where artists and art organisations have the commitment, support, and resources to succeed both domestically and internationally, as the Director General further stated.

A painting by Roshan Bakht, titled ‘Carving Fate’, drew visitors’ attention. The painting represented the story of a street boy named Noman Khan from Peshawar, who worked as a servant while he joined a free art academy and successfully made his art career. Khan changed his fate through hard work and exhibited his paintings at 16.

A woman journalist from Peshawar, Fatima Nazish, painted this story. Bakht said, “I gained a lot of knowledge about painting techniques thanks to this opportunity. I firmly believe that my main responsibility as an artist is to use my creations to advance peace. The plot was intriguing because it portrayed the difficult reality of struggling young artists. Nevertheless, it comes to a lovely, fruitful conclusion.”

“This exhibition is the first of its kind. The concept is original, and it inspires students to produce engaging artwork using real-world examples from female journalists. The stories are the result of their dedication to their industry. The variety of experiences that many journalists have revealed are astounding as works of art,”stated IMCG Korang Town Assistant Professor Sadaf Hammad.

Women Journalists Association of Pakistan Founder Fozia Kulsoom Rana remarked that the idea by Asma Kundi to present the stories of women journalists on canvas with vibrant colours is a uniqueidea, and it was not an easy goal to implement. The way art students have adapted the stories of women journalists into art is unimaginable, Asma added.