"BARRI"

---

March - 1987 (Lahore)


Written by: Shahid Nadeem
Directed by: Madeeha Gauhar

The play was written in 1986 and first performed on International Women’s Day in 1987. Shahid Nadeem wrote the play when he was in exile in London after being imprisoned by the military government of General Zia-ul-Haq. The play was produced by Ajoka and was directed by Madeeha Gauhar.

Although the theme and issues raised in the play are as relevant in today’s Pakistan as they were in the mid of 80’s, the play refers to the oppressive and discriminatory laws introduced by General Zia-ul-Haq military regime in 1983, which under the cover of Islamic reform, tool away many of the rights which had been won by women after a prolonged struggle. This resulted in a strong reaction from the enlightened middle class women. A protest march in Lahore on 12 February 1983 was violently broken up by the police. Protesting women were beaten, dragged on the road by their hair and arrested (Madeeha Gauhar was one of them). That was beginning of a new phase in the women’s movement which infused new life in the democratic struggle against the military rule.

However, the women’s movement was, and to a great extent, still is dominated by the urban upper middle class women. There has been an ongoing debate concerning how to reach out to the grassroots and make alliances with other democratic movement in the country.

“Barri” addresses these issues and was part of the debate during the women’s movement. In 1989 “Barri” was converted into a TV serial “Neelay Haath”. “Barri” was also performed in Los angles International Arts Festival in 2001”

---

Review: “Barri” is about as relentless a play this writer has seen with the immediacy of the newspaper headline and the explosiveness of a hand grenade, it sweeps the audience along without a single interruption. “Barri” is certainly about women, it also examines the sickness and violence in our society. The prison in which four women find themselves is a metaphor for this entire country where women are denied the most fundamental rights, where minorities are persecuted; and where the innocent can be jailed for years without redress. But over and beyond this general, almost random, brutalization, half our population is subjected to daily horrors on a casual, routine that is seldom even questioned or criticized except by a handful educated and dedicated women. (The Nation, April 08, 1987)