POWER BOOK PAK

FINAL POWER 100 BOOK 2.59 TUE_Layout 1 14/02/2017 13:55 Page 33
TEHMINA DURRANI
Writer & Artist
tehmina durrani’s controversial
autobiography ‘my feudal lord’ was
published in 1991. it is now translated into
39 languages and is a european Bestseller.
the book was a pioneer in surmounting
the hitherto unbroken silence of muslim
women since the 14th century, reconciling
the rights of women with the paramount
principle laid down for them in islam…
and yet it was a book before its time.
there is a price that comes with all
rebellions and revolts that break the status
quo. tehmina has experienced it.
writing was not enough she searched for
other ways to express. in 1992 she
exhibited her paintings — ‘catharsis’.
one of the paintings became the cover of
her third book ‘Blasphemy’.
observing that no political party since
pakistan’s inception had raised a voice for
the accountability of corrupt public
representatives, and recognizing that the
silent majority of pakistan had neither,
voice, influence nor resources to make the
demand on the affluent, in 1993 she
formed an issues oriented movement,
Jihad for accountability of public Servants.
She went on a hunger strike for seven days.
her demand was meant to create public
awareness towards the core issue facing
pakistan’s progress and prosperity;
through the self- preservation of criminal
activity and its wide spread acceptance
which had shred the moral fabric of the
new generation. today accountability is a
household word.
Believing, those who ruled over our
people knew nothing about the core issues
that confronted the oppressed, deprived
and directionless millions in every corner
of the country, she sought out the only
man who had spent a lifetime in the
service of the downtrodden — abdul
Satar edhi.
“Many forms of
expression are
required to break out
of the multiple
confines that imprison
the soul. Writing
and Painting are
just two of them”,
says Tehmina.
She recorded the thoughts, inspirations,
motives, observations and works of
pakistan’s most revered and renowned
social reformer. it’s a guide towards
making a personal revolution, which in
time would move the collective spirit
towards humanitarian islam. in 1994, ‘a
mirror to the Blind’, mr. edhi’s narrated
autobiography, an official document of the
founder of edhi foundation.
consistent in her attempt to expose
current, social, religious and political
contradictions, in the year 1998, she
published Blasphemy, a novel inspired by a
true story.
as an act of compulsory Universal
compassion, and oneness with human
community, in 2002, she stood up for the
freedom of fakhra Yunas, a victim of acid
terrorism. fakhra’s son is under the
supervision of an italian family and
tehmina durrani.
after a great silence now comes; ‘a love
affair’, oil and water colour paintings
along with a coffee table book,
symbolizing the freedom of the soul from
the bondage expressed in catharsis, as she
says.
‘happy things in Sorrow times’ is a novel
with 38 water colour illustrations done at
afghan refugee camps in kandahar,
turkham and chaman. it is the first part
of a trilogy. a story told from the heart of
a child, Basrabia, in war torn afghanistan
from the time of the Soviet invasion of
afghanistan to the present US war on
terror.
a war, not against soldiers and warriors,
but against innocent children…’they’
need another chance in the interest of
world peace.
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