Salima Hashmi and Faiza Butt on Pakistani Art and Women's Education

Salima Hashmi, co-curating with Rosa Maria Falvo, organized "Art for education: contemporary artists from Pakistan" at the Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini in Milan in autumn 2018 to benefit The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a respected Pakistani educational organization. Participating artists include Adeela Suleman, Rashid Rana, Imran Qureshi, and Faiza Butt, each donating a work for auction. Hashmi, who runs a non-commercial gallery in Lahore (opened 2001), co-authored the 1983 Manifesto of Pakistani Women Artists, recently republished by Penguin. She curated "An intelligent rebellion. The women artists of Pakistan" in 1994 in Bradford, touring to Paris and UNESCO. Faiza Butt, born in Lahore and based in London since 1995, addresses gender and migration in her work. She supports CARE Pakistan. Hashmi notes that despite oppression, Pakistani women have held leadership in education since independence. Butt observes that Pakistan's feminist struggle differs from the West's, focusing on basic rights versus workplace issues.