Samar Minallah Khan's award-winning documentary captures the courage of Pashtun girls in the face of displacement

PUBLISHED ABOUT 17 HOURS AGO
SOOMAL HALEEM
SUB EDITOR


The film has won 20 plus awards in various international film festivals.

Pakistani filmmaker Samar Minallah Khan's documentary OutSwing won the Best Documentary award at the Annual Borrego Springs Film Festival in California recently, adding to the 20 plus awards the film about an all-girls cricket team has accumulated already.

In a tweet posted on March 30, the filmmaker shared about the documentary's win at the festival held in March. "Our film OutSwing won Best Documentary award at the Annual Borrego Springs Film Festival, California. It's a story of an all girls cricket team and their supportive coach," she wrote.

OutSwing documents "the stories of pain and joy", and how a group of girls overcome their fears and find strength through something as simple as a game of cricket. It focuses on a group of Pashtun girls from Mashal Model School, located on the outskirts of Islamabad near the shrine of Bari Imam where internally displaced Pashtuns relocated from remote villages when they were impacted by natural disasters and violent conflict.

When Akhtar Zeb, a former professional cricketer hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, invites the girls to form a cricket team, they taste the freedom and confidence one gets from participating in sports for the very first time. In the documentary, conflict arises when the girls have to "weigh the joy of playing against the expectations and deeply held cultural values of their families".

In the face of community condemnation and pressure from their homes, the girls struggle to keep on playing the game they love. All are tested when their cricket team is offered the chance to play a match against Khaldunia, one of the best private schools in Islamabad.

In cricket terminology, out-swing means something that moves away from the line of bowling. This form of bowling, despite the risk of being called a wide ball, can be a game changer for the team. According to Zeb, "Cricket is for those who have courage. It’s more than just a game. It’s a match that changes many lives."

Filmmaker Minallah told Images about her aspirations for the film as well as the lives the documentary has come to touch.

"Before I started making this film, I knew the cricket field was special to these girls, but it was only after I completed the film that I realised the cricket field was life altering," Khan said, talking about how her understanding as it evolved with the film's completion.

One of the driving forces for the filmmaker was the image of Pashtun girls being portrayed as how she perceives it — "heroes who have been defiant and courageous, even in the face of displacement and relentless discrimination" instead of passive victims that the Western media lens portrays them as. "They have been forced to abandon their homes, but they refuse to abandon their dreams," said Khan.

The filmmaker said that even the men she interviewed embodied the defiant spirit of "standing against social expectations and becoming supporters of the girls’ dreams  — in simply finding these dreams WORTH protecting".

Speaking about the impact of the documentary, Khan said OutSwing has received several awards in the film festival circuit and the cash awards were donated to the school featured in the documentary. The filmmaker also expressed the desire to ease the school's financial constraints through fundraising.

She shared about when the girls' cricket team coach watched the film at the DIVVY Film Festival in Islamabad for the first time. "The coach received a standing ovation by the audience. His reaction and how overwhelmed he was at the positive response made my day," she said. "This is the kind of response that inspires such heroes to do more. The aim of my films is to shed light on such silent allies, to bring their example to a larger audience, to showcase them as everyday role models. I want the audience to relate to a different kind of hero."

"One of the girls [from the documentary] recently shared the news of winning a ‘Sportsperson of the match’ award at a recent game in Islamabad. This is Wajiha, who used to sell sweets outside Bari Imam Shrine to support her family," Khan said, asserting that it’s the little things that add up over time.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Britain still can’t stand a brown woman speaking truth to power

Perspectives
Alia Waheed
28 Mar, 2022

Not even six years of being imprisoned and tortured in Iran has saved Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from racist and misogynistic attacks upon her return. She should have been applauded for calling out the UK government’s failures, writes Alia Waheed.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe rightly called out the UK government's failures during her imprisonment. [GETTY]

Just as how black women have to contend with the angry black woman trope, brown women from the Middle East and Asian sub-continent face the meek, submissive victim stereotype.

When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe criticised the UK government upon her return from six years of imprisonment in Iran, she strayed from the script.

At a time when Nazanin should have been home, finally tucking her daughter into bed, she had to face the media, hungry for a soundbite.

Boy, did they get one.

When her husband thanked the current foreign secretary, Liz Truss, Nazanin did not. "I have seen five foreign secretaries change over the course of six years. How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home?" she rightly asked. All the while, admirably remaining composed and dignified- something you wouldn’t expect from anyone who has experienced the intolerable conditions she has lived through.

''Many bigots commented that if she had been in Iran, she wouldn’t have been able to say what she did. Except she isn’t in Iran anymore, she’s back home in a country that proclaims to be a defender of freedom of speech and civil liberties.''

Within hours the hashtags #sendherback and #ungratefulcow were trending on Twitter with right-wing keyboard warriors accusing her of effectively biting the hand that freed her. Nazanin was on trial again, but this time it was a trial by social media because she dared to criticise the government’s long delay in securing her freedom.

Let’s not beat around the bush, the real reason she faced such vitriol is because she is a brown woman of Middle Eastern decent. She is considered part of the population normally left to drown on boats in the channel, not a strong and outspoken voice against human rights abuses and the UK government’s failures.

Nazanin was caught in the crosshairs of racism and misogyny. Women’s rights, it seems are selective, especially when it comes to women of colour. What a message to send during women’s history month in particular.

Brown girls are not supposed to be the angry ones, we are conditioned to believe that we are victims who silently endure the oppression dealt to us by our so-called backward communities. We are supposed to be seen and not heard, apart from in gratitude to our white saviours for saving us from our own brown, misogynist menfolk.

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s homecoming should inspire action

Perspectives

Sonya Sceats

Many bigots commented that if she had been in Iran, she wouldn’t have been able to say what she did. Except she isn’t in Iran anymore, she’s back home in a country that proclaims to be a defender of freedom of speech and civil liberties. She had every right to say what she did. She should be celebrated for refusing to be a hypocrite and daring to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

Anybody who is familiar with the details of her case will know her comments were completely justified. Nazanin, a dual British-Iranian citizen who worked for the Thomas Reuters Foundation charity was wrongly arrested on spying charges, something which she has always denied.

She missed out on the first six years of her daughter's life because of a catalogue of blunders by a string of foreign secretaries including Boris Johnson who blurted out that she was “simply teaching people journalism.” Except she wasn’t.

His ill-thought out remarks were an “inverted pyramid of piffle,” but were nevertheless weaponised in the Iranian state media and cited by the Iranian judiciary as evidence that she was engaged in “propaganda against the regime.” as usual, he got away with his faux pas while Nazanin didn’t.

His off the cuff remarks also handily obscured the real reason why she was languishing in prison for years - a dispute over the repayment of an acknowledged historic debt over a cancelled arms deal. Nazanin was paying the price for a 40-year-old dispute which started when she was three.

Nazanin was an inconvenient truth for the government, who was supposed to be brushed under the carpet. It was left to another brown Muslim woman, her local MP Tulip Siddiqui who tirelessly campaigned by her husband’s side for Nazanin’s release.

Her agonising years in captivity came to an end because the Tories decided they may need Iranian oil.

Yes she was wronged by the Iranian government, but she was wronged by the British government too. Accountability does not need to be rationed after all, and her case is one of so many failures by political leaders who should have acted better.

It is not her job to make Boris Johnson and Liz Truss feel good about themselves, and she is right not to let them off the hook. Nazanin addressing those facts is important to the preservation and defence of all our rights and freedoms.

Alia Waheed is a freelance journalist specialising in issues affecting Asian women in the UK and the Indian subcontinent.

Follow her on Twitter: @AliaWaheed

'The state is anti-people and anti-art': Seraiki poet Ashu Lal on why he refused Pakistan's highest literary award

IRFAN ASLAM

         

“The deep state is oppressing the natives, our resources and our culture. Our children go missing under the fascist regime."

Renowned Seraiki poet and writer Dr Ashu Lal refused to accept the Kamal-i-Fun Award having the prize money of Rs1 million announced by the Pakistan Academy of Letters on Thursday.

He was selected for the award by a committee of PAL and the announcement in this regard was made at a press conference by Dr Yousuf Khushk, chairman of the academy. Urdu novelist and travelogue writer Mustansar Hussain Tarar is the other author who got the highest award of the country besides Ashu.

After the award was announced, Dr Ashu Lal took to social media and announced his refusal to accept the award in a post made in Seraiki. He said: “I express my gratitude to friends. I refuse to accept the award. I have not sent any of my books to the Academy of Letters. In my opinion, my refusal (to accept the award) is more precious. My literary activism for the last 40 years is my reward (as a writer). Don’t want to live in brackets. Thank you.”

When asked by Dawn the motive behind his move, Ashu Lal said: “The deep state is oppressing the natives, our resources and our culture. Our children go missing under the fascist regime. The natives are ignored badly. How can we accept the award from an anti-people and anti-art state?”

He says the awards are mostly politically motivated and they have become controversial, limited only to photo sessions. He asserts that he doesn’t have anything to do with the deep state in government, literature or culture. He considers it degrading for himself to accept an award from a president in the current regime who does not even know him.

Born on April 13, 1959, he was named Muhammad Ashraf but adopted the sobriquet Ashu Lal, which was given by his mother, when he started writing in the Seraiki language. He is a medical doctor by profession. After completing his MBBS from the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, he served as a doctor across the region, at times working in places where no doctor would like to go. He retired from his job two years back. Since then he runs a clinic at Karor Lal Esan tehsil of Layyah district where treatment is free for the poor.

“I am 62 years old. Since my youth, I have believed in literary activism only. By accepting an award from the current exploitative regime, how can I waste my struggle of 45 years of writings in Seraiki and Urdu?” he emphasises.

When asked about sending any books to PAL for the award, Ashu says that his friend had sent a book on his own way back in 1997 and except that he never sent any book to the academy.

Expressing his gratitude to those who considered him worthy of the award, he says he refuses to accept the award because the state is not taking care of the rights of the natives and it is exploiting their resources. We (Seraiki region) are being kept backward financially and culturally.

“I am not against any mother tongue or regional language. I urge the Punjabi-speaking people to adopt Punjabi medium in schools,” he clarifies, adding that the state’s policy of not giving education to the people in their native tongue is a tactic to keep them backward. He says he is following the resistance of Bulleh Shah and Kabir.

Explaining what he means by ‘living in brackets,’ Ashu quotes Jean Paul Sartre, saying he had refused to accept the Nobel Peace Prize because he did not want to become a bracketed writer (institutionalised was the word used by Sartre).

Ashu Lal is currently engaged with the PPP South as the president of its cultural wing. He argues that his objective is to achieve cultural harmony and satisfy his inner self and that he has a commitment to himself.

“I am working with the native people. We arrange poetry sitting and cultural events and get connected to our land and share our thoughts about it. That’s our way to resistance. The fishermen in river Sindh are struggling to survive. Water crisis is a big issue in the whole world but here it is ignored.”

Ashu Lal suggests that cultural and literary bodies of the country should do something practical. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had started doing it. PAL was founded by him. He had organised a big symposium at Moenjo Daro and then he was hanged.

Speaking about the power of culture, he says the Fasting Buddha on its own can save Pakistan, given the number of Buddhists in the whole world but our state has done the greatest damage by using the religion card.

Dr Ashu Lal says that the country has turned into a fascist state, which commits “brain robbery” against children through syllabi and textbooks. He adds that brain robbery takes away the power to think in the younger generations and then the state easily usurps resources.

His Seraiki poetry books include Chairroo Hath Nah Wanjli (The Shepherd without a Flute), Gautam Naal Jhairra (Arguments with Gautam), Kaan Wassu Da Pakhi Aey (Crow is Bird of Human Abode), two editions of Sindh Sagar Naal Hameshaan (Always with River Sindh), Jaal Maloti (A Meeting Place) and two collections of short stories, Abnormal and Bairri (Boat). Another collection of his short stories is being published.

Originally published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2022