Stories of Feminist Peace

(WILPF logo on blue background.)
(Roads in the city of Islamabad with a lot of traffic.)
During the coronavirus pandemic
(View of the road from the inside of a car.)
WILPF set up a solidarity care fund
(Nabeela, coordinator of WILPF Pakistan, sits in the back of the car and watches the landscape go by.)
which helped rural women to fight against the virus and best protect their families and communities.
(Lotus field with village in background.)
(Woman washing clothes, surrounded by grass and a water buffalo.)
(Young children playing on a dirt floor.)
(Smiling old man looking down from above.)
(Six young children posing in the street with plants in their hands.)
(Three young children smiling and waving to the camera.)
(Three women sit on the floor, one of them using a sewing machine while the other two look at her.)
(Two women sewing.)
On the one hand
(Purple fabric.)
(Hands holding scissors cutting the purple fabric.)
(Woman using a sewing machine.)
it equipped rural women to make masks.
(Women talking to each other, one of them holds a purple cloth mask.)
Secondly it empowered them technically
(Woman trying on a purple fabric mask.)
(Three women sitting on a bench staring at a cell phone.)
(Hands holding the cellphone.)
providing them latest mobile phones
(Women using the cell phone for a video call.)
(Three women on video call showing the phone to the camera.)
to embrace the impact of the online world.
(Images of women on video call, sewing and getting out of the car scrolling very quickly. Like a quick flashback.)
(The flow of images returns to normal and we drive slowly through the streets of Islamabad.)
(Nabeela, coordinator of WILPF Pakistan, and Misbah, WILPF Pakistan Assistant, filming themselves in the back of a car, explaining what they are going to do and making peace signs to the camera.)
So we are going to buy sewing machines and mobile phones.
(Inside of a phone store where many men are queuing.)
Women, and especially rural women are much affected by the digital divide.
(Nabeela and Misbah acquiring several cell phones.)
In Pakistan, usually women have obsolete cellphone sets as compared to men due to which they are unable to meet the challenges posed by the Corona pandemic.
(Street of a bazaar in Islamabad.)
Afterwards we visited some sewing machines shops
(Interior of sewing machine shops.)
and bought the sewing machines
(Shelves filled with sewing machines.)
recommended and requested by the village women.
(Men working in their sewing machine stores.)
In a typical Pakistani bazaar
(Man repairing a sewing machine in his store.)
almost all ways of livelihood are occupied by men. Due to favourable environment and because it is paid tailoring is men’s domain.
(Open car trunk with WILPF Pakistan signs, sewing machines and cell phones.)
(Nabeela and Misbah entering the car.)
(Nabeela and Misbah filming themseves in the backseats of the car.)
Next day early in the morning we started our journey to visit the village Narran Mughlan.
(Pakistani landscapes passing by at the speed of the car.)
Two hours drive from Islamabad.
(View of the village of Narran Mughlan. A few people, a few habitations, green spaces and water buffaloes.)
(Women taking out what’s in the trunk.)
When we entered the village first of all we visited needle and thread centre known as Soee-Dhaga Centre.
(Shelf in which threads and needles are placed.)
(Needle and thread center interior with WILPF Pakistan signs on the wall.)
(Women bringing the new sewing machine in the Needle and thread center.)
WILPF gave sewing machines thread, cloth and sanitisers to prepare masks and to train young girls in mask making.
(Women sanitizing their hands.)
(Woman taking measures on a purple fabric.)
(Woman cutting the purple fabric.)
(Woman sewing the purple fabric with a sewing machine.)
(Two women watching a third making masks with a sewing machine also explaining to them how to do it.)
We are making a pico stitch on all four sides.
(Woman continuing to show how to make a cloth mask.)
If it is a single layered mask then there is no need of stitching.
(Woman finishing a mask using a sewing machine.)
We are using a double layered mask and to join two layers a pico stitch must be used.
(Women trying on the masks.)
These masks are washable and reusable.
(Three women sitting on a bench staring at a cell phone.)
This visit was followed by WILPF monthly meeting.
(Hands holding the cellphone.)
Demonstrating how to use the newly acquired mobile phone set.
(Woman showing the phone to two other women and explaining how to use it.)
and training others to use it and teaching zoom application used by a majority of Pakistani people during lockdown periods.
(Hands holding the cellphone showing how to use the Zoom application.)
(Woman showing the phone to two other women and explaining how to use it.)
(Women using the cell phone for a video call.)
It was interesting to see Farzana Ashraf using most updated mobile phone set to connect with other members across the country through zoom. Her connection was fast, better and uninterrupted as compared to other members.
(Nabeela and Misbah getting ready to get into the car and leave the village.)
After spending almost three hours Misbah and I we started our journey back to Islamabad.
(Pakistani landscapes passing by at the speed of the car.)
(Misbah in the backseat of the car.)
And it was soothing to listen in the car ‘Wehrey aa verr meray’
(Man dancing in the car.)
(View on a landscape, people are walking in the grass, the sun is setting and some cars are driving on the road.)
(Blue background)
Filmed by Nabeela Aslam and Misbah Nazir, of WILPF Pakistan.
(WILPF logo on blue background.)