Lahore's culture under fire

By Andrew Hosken
Today programme

It is a war that expresses itself in strange ways: cancelled concerts and music festivals, half empty classes at art college and oddly muted wedding celebrations.

But the cultural offensive by militants against Pakistan's cities and villages is proving no less deadly than its attacks on the country's security infrastructure.

Last month, the government closed schools and colleges for a week following two suicide bombings at the International Islamic University in the capital, Islamabad, which killed six people including three female students.

In pictures: Lahore culture

Islamist insurgents have issued direct threats against schools and universities. In one arts college in Lahore, students said many of their colleagues were staying away from classes.

And the militants have been successful in forcing organisers to call off festivals which for years had drawn artists from all the world to Lahore.

Puppet state

Faisan Peervada, a film maker and one of Pakistan's leading puppeteers, is struggling to organise what he had hoped would be an international arts festival in the city later this month.

But such is the reluctance of foreign delegates to participate, Mr Peervada has had to downgrade the event to a national festival.

Last year, his festival was attacked by militants. Approximately nine bombs left four people injured.

One of the attackers was an 11-year-old boy who Mr Peervada had allowed to sell crisps at his events. Three devices with timers were found in the boy's sack.

Not just culture disappears but every kind of social interaction disappears. Salima Hashmi

In April this year, militants bombed the cafe next door to the Rafi Peer Museum of Puppetry, apparently mistaking it for the museum. The attack took place the day before Mr Peervada was due to stage his Mystic Music Sufi Festival.

"I think now they [the militants] can attack anything. Anything can become "un-Islamic," he says.

"We've had threats that we must discontinue the work of diversity, the culture of different cultures coming to our festivals. And that it's un-Islamic to have females on the stage dancing and playing music, and things like that."

Mr Peervada is currently pessimistic about the culture's resilience to the attacks.

"I think the Taliban are winning," he says. "The government not doing anything about this. Because culture is not just about the name of a dancer or a movie or a movie star. It's all about life. Film is another thing, that you can download from the internet.

"But you can't download a puppet show, you can't download a dancer or a beautiful drama with all the interaction that goes with them.'

Anti-culture

Aside from the arts, everyday cultural life in Pakistan is also being affected.

The government has advised wedding parties, mainly nocturnal events which often continue into the early hours of the morning, to wind up by midnight.

Lahore has a deep cultural history spanning hundreds of years

Painter Salima Hashmi, dean of the School of Visual Arts at Lahore Beaconhouse National University, says the insurgents crushed cultural life in the Swat Valley when they were dominant there.

"If you look at what happened in Swat, it is really wanting to restrict people to become automatons and never to express their opinions about anything.

"Not just culture disappears but every kind of social interaction disappears.

"In Swat one has seen in time that there was music, there was dance, there was getting together.

"It was a very vibrant society in terms on embroidery, all kinds of craft - so all expressiveness comes under attack in an extremist ideology."

Artists, students and festival organisers believe the government could do more to protect the arts by providing greater security for cultural activities.

They say cultural identity is essential for Pakistan's long term survival.

"We were Hindus when the great Sufis arrived here and opened the eyes of our forefathers to the beautiful message of Islam," says Mr Peervada.

"If they had come with the sword, I doubt if anyone would have converted to Islam."