Promoting Peace Through Art: Laajverd's workshops in Pakistan Schools

Original Source:http://www.insightonconflict.org/2013/07/pakistan-peace-schools/

Zahid Shahab Ahmed shares his insights on Laajverd’s peacebuilding work in Pakistan. Laajverd is a group of young artists who run awareness raising projects and promote peace using art and culture.

In the last week of January 2013, I visited some members of the youth organisationLaajverd, to gain an insight into their peacebuilding activities in Pakistan. Laajverd is a group of young artists who run awareness raising projects and promote peace using art and culture.

The war on terror has significantly changed the lives of the people in the area Laajverd works, but cultural activities can help heal their wounds, according to the organanisation.

Their initiatives bring people together and help them make sense of the society they live in. Terrorist attacks are frequent in this area and children talk often about war, drone attacks, blasts and killings.

Laajverd is trying to develop an alternative, creative discourse around this context and it is making children reflect on their own environment and society.

How Laajverd works

I first met a team of three passionate artists – Zahra, Fatima and Abdullah -, who were holding a four-day workshop at the Vanguard School in Lohari Gate, a private school in Old Lahore. They were working with a group of nine children aged between eight and ten years old.

During the workshop, the pupils shared their experiences about the conflict affecting their neighbourhood, reporting stories of crime, terrorism, drone attacks, collapsing buildings, and more. They learned how to communicate these stories through drawing and acting. By the end of January, over 100 children had participated in the Laajverd workshops in Lahore.

I also visited Sanjan Nagar School, where Laajverd’s artists conducted a ten-day workshop as part of the school’s summer programme. The participants were 20 students, from grade four to six. The workshop had an interesting focus on photojournalism and the children were given digital cameras to capture their surroundings.

Laajverd also runs the Bacha Bulletin project, funded by the Commonwealth Foundation under its Culture and Conflict programme. The aim of this innovative project is to bridge the communication gap between the younger and older generations, by promoting a culture of storytelling. Young people are invited to share their stories through the Bacha Bulletin, which is published in a local newspaper, the Express Tribune.

In the video below, Zahra and Fatima talk in depth about Laajverd and highlight one of the successful stories of their organisation.

The first project Laajverd launched with children involved creating a series of comics. Children were shown photos of their local area and they were invited to imagine stories, characters and scenarios. Laajverd artists then drew the comic strips and posted copies in the area where the children lived.

Laajverd also organises Chai tea sessions with children, inviting them to gather and share stories. Storytelling is an important aspect of South Asian culture but it is usually the elders who tell children stories from their past. For this reason the young participants were really keen to share their stories too and they were curious about the project.

Laajvers also worked in a school in Saidpur Village, a tourist area in Islamadad. Here they addressed some local issues, such as the impact of tourism on the traditional culture. During the workshops, run over ten Sundays, children turned into tourist guides. In this way, the pupils learned about the history and culture of their village, while tourists had the opportunity to listen to local stories.

Challenges facing Laajverd’s work

A major challenge was designing workshops where children were asked to use their imagination through theatre. In some schools the Laajverd team had to do only two exercises, while in others, where children were used to a more traditional and authoritarian way of teaching, the team did nine theatre exercises to achieve the same outcome.

Another challenge was the time allowed for the project, as in most of the schools Laajverd could only run only two-hour workshops. The team felt that the time was not enough to fully engage with the children, to build a relationship with them, and teach them drawing techniques.

Finally, another improvement could be the inclusion of the teachers in the project and the organisation of some training for them too. In one of the six schools, the teachers were interested in replicating the workshop and implementing the Laajverd model. Although the team is not sure about the future of this project, they are considering spending some time with the teachers in each school.

In conclusion, this case study of Laajverd highlights the importance of using culture and art as a tool to build sustainable peace. Projects like these should be encouraged and promoted.

The Malala Moment and Reforming Pakistan's Education System

Published in CLAWS Web, 10th December 2012

Malala Yousufzai has emerged as an icon for countless girls in repressed societies. On 10 October 2012, she survived a brutal attack in the Swat Valley by pro-Taliban elements who perceive women’s education as anti- Islamic. Malala is currently recovering in a Birmingham Hospital in UK where doctors have affirmed her steady recovery. She was attacked because she dared to continue her studies despite a diktat by the Taliban. She also spoke out against the Taliban which further enraged them. They claimed that her opposition to the Taliban reflected support for Western values which had no place in Islamic society. 

Malala had already earned fame through her diaries, which were broadcast by BBC in 2009 when she was only 11 years old. Her writings reveal the fear which prevails in the minds of many girls like her who yearn for knowledge, but are forced to discontinue their studies under threat of bodily harm in regions under Taliban domination. In January 2009, she wrote: “Today our teacher told us not to wear colorful dress that might make Taliban angry”. She also described instances when the students had to walk past the dead bodies of those who had defied the laws laid down by Taliban.

Malala Day was observed on November 10 and people around the world resolved to protest against gender inequality in education. It gave women and girls all across the world an opportunity to reclaim their right to Education. Attacks on activists and teachers advocating education for the girl child have been on the increase, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province where Taliban maintains a stronghold. 96 such cases have been reported in 2012 and the Pakistan Government seems unable to protect these people. In July, Fareeda Afridi, a women’s rights activist who worked towards promoting girl’s education was brutally murdered. So was Zarteef Afridi who worked as a teacher in a school run by the Government.

Many Pakistani’s have taken heart from the courage displayed by a young girl but the Malala moment has not been seized in a meaningful manner. However, the dastardly attack on Malala has drawn the attention of the world to the sordid state of education in Pakistan and its links to religious extremism. The World Bank suggests that the net primary enrollment rate in Pakistan is the lowest in South Asia. The roots of extremism continue to extend deeper into the education system in Pakistan and extremists exploit the weak to indoctrinate their minds with violence and intolerance. 

The free education system is tampered with by several religious clerics who channelise their ideologies to trap the young minds. Only a privileged few have an easy access to quality education; the majority has to make do with pitiable school facilities and lack of trained teachers. Poor curriculum content also provides a very narrow worldview to the students and breeds discontent..

All public, private institutions are required to treat Islamic studies as the most essential component in the curriculum, which is often mandated by the Government. In 2003, a report released by Sustainability Development Policy Institute (Pakistan) mentioned that several textbooks “encouraged prejudice, bigotry and discrimination towards women, religious minorities and other nations, especially India”. In 2008 Dr Marie Lall studied Pakistani and Indian school textbooks and concluded that “History has been selectively interpreted resulting in two largely polarised nations who had been instructed about their own exclusive national identity, which inevitably led to the conflict with the other country”

Education underwent drastic Islamisation under Zia-ul-Haq’s regime when Madrassas were constructed at a massive pace and in large numbers. It has been cited that that militants across the Pakistani borders are often products of these Madrassas resolute with their Jihadist agenda. Tariq Rehman in his study of education, inequality and polarisation of Pakistan conducted in 2005 found that a large number of students from madrassas supported open war or jihadist organisations to resolve the Kashmir conflict.

The Government of Pakistan in 2009 spent only 2.7 per cent of its GDP on education. In 2011, “Dawn”, a prominent newspaper in Pakistan, reported that “50 per cent (of school age students) cannot read a sentence”. Pakistan has one the highest illiteracy rates in the world, and second largest (when referred to school population) after Nigeria. While the male and female literacy rates as of 2009 were 69 per cent and 45 per cent respectively, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas showed a murkier state with male literacy rate at a dismal 28 per cent and female literacy rate at a mere 3 per cent.

Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University has often spoken about the complacency of the Government and its skewed efforts to promote education. He claimed that “no Pakistani leader has had the courage to implement serious educational reforms”. Pakistan at present is going through a deep crisis in terms of a soaring military expenditure to counter internal and external conflicts. Also, the relief response to the 2010 and 2011 floods has had an overwhelming negative effect on basic issues like education, health and employment opportunities.

The attack on Malala invoked a strong reaction from all segments of Pakistani society which was shocked at the brutality inflicted on a young school going girl. The incident has also had a resonance on the political contours of Pakistan. Several leaders have promised reforms conducive to female education. However, the radical element such as Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamiat-Ulema-e- Fazl, have evoked conspiracy theories around the incident claiming it was an attempt by the West to defame Islam and Taliban. This incident however has awakened a vast majority in Pakistan which was lukewarm towards education. It has resurrected many more Malalas who are fighting for their right to basic education all over the world. Pakistan needs to seize the moment and exploit the support from the public in its efforts to marginalise the Taliban and what it stands for. If the cowardly attack on her helps in reforming Pakistan’s education system, then some good can perhaps still come out of the dastardly act.