"Dukhini" was the name of young Bangldeshi women whose case history appeared in publication on the subject of the trafficking of Bangladeshi women to Pakistan. We came across her story while researching for this theatre production on the theme. But was Dukhini just a case history? Surely there was much more to her life story than the cold. disturbing facts of her life. much more suffering. much more pain. much more deception. much more apathy. much more exploitation . surely there were hundreds of Dukhini's whose stories are never told! The Dukhini production is meant to go beyond the case histories, to explore and experience the tragic lives of these women,, their emotions. their desires. their deprivations, their longing for their motherland. their bonds of sisterhood and their dreams of conquering poverty. Dukhini is about the evil practice of trafficking of Bangladeshi women to Pakistan these women are lured, deceived. abducted from poor rural areas of Bangladesh and brought to Pakistan. mostly through India. They are sold in Pakistan as wives, maids or prostitutes, sometimes through open auction. Being illegal entrants, they have no legal protection. They are in fact vulnerable to exploitation by police and law enforcing authorities, They are unable to return to Bangladesh because they have no travel documents or proofs of identity. They are condemned to live a life of suffering, humiliation and insecurity in a foreign land. But Dukhini is also about the broader issue of trafficking of women, it highlights the soeio-eeonomic factors behind this practice and exposes the callousness and apathy of the concerned goverments. Not only that, they play also deals with the overall issue of migration and attempt to make its audience ore aware and more sympathetic to this phenomenon. Dukhini is the first ever theatre project between Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is colleboration between Ajoka of Pakistan and BITA of Bangladesh.

It has been written by Ajoka's Shahid Nadeem and directed by Sara Zakar of Nagorik Natya Sampradaya. Dhaka. Actors and the production team include members from Ajoka. BITA and other theatre groups. Dukhini has been performed in Pakistan, Bangladesh. India and Nepal and a video screening was held in London in 2000. A unique feature of this project is that it is collaboration between groups, which come from two different language and have different cultural and theatrical background but also because of the recent political and historical context. Let us hope that Dukhini will help create awareness and will among the people and the governments to put an end to the exploitations and suffering of Dukhini.

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The Cast: Aslam Shaheen, Iftikhar Ahmed, Fazal Abbas Faizi, Uzra BUtt, Joyashree Kar, Kankan Das Sabira Sultan, Modhumita Barua, Akbar Reza, Tipu Sultan, Rana Sarfraz, Sarfraz Ansari, Deepta Rakshit, Jerin Kulsoom, Samina Tasmin