A decade after the murder of prominent social and human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, her friends and fellow activists gathered for an evening of remembrance on Thursday to pay tribute to her fearless spirit and lasting legacy.
Sabeen Mahmud was murdered on April 24, 2015, as she left The Second Floor (T2F), a cafe-cum-communal space she had founded, after hosting a seminar on Baloch missing persons. As part of Thursday's gathering, a portrait created from her personal belongings was also unveiled at the TDF’s MagnifiScience Centre.
Sharing the story behind the creation of the portrait, Mahenaz Mahmud, mother of the slain activist, said that after Sabeen’s death, she began sorting out her stuff. “There were cartons of junk, so much computer stuff: keyboards, wires, plugs. I wondered what I should do with all of it,” she added.
“I should not have been surprised because ever since she was three, among her favourite toys was her father’s toolbox.” She said that one day, she had the idea: why not turn all this into a piece of art?
"I remembered seeing sculptures in a park in Scotland, and suddenly the idea came to me, why can’t we do something like that with these pieces?” she went on. She said she then reached out to Durriya Kazi, who brought on board students of the third batch of Fine Arts at Karachi University to join the effort and bring the idea to life.
“It symbolises Sabeen in so many ways,” Mahenaz shared. “There is art, there is technology, and there is science”. Maira Siddiqui, one of the students part of the project, shared that fourteen students — all girls — worked on the piece. “We began with a sketch of Sabeen,” she said, “and then figured out how to put together pieces in a way that truly captured her essence like the jokes she used to make, which her mother mentioned and those things that were really special to her.”
Speaking earlier, author Bina Shah read out a piece she had written about her friend Sabeen for an English daily, and said that she was precious to all of us and that we feel her loss every single day.
Veteran theatre actor and director Khalid Ahmed recited verses by Nasir Kazmi to honour Sabeen's legacy and said T2F was still there and it was up to all of them to keep it alive. Amima Sayeed, who worked closely with Sabeen, said: "If she was alive, she should have done a lot more. She did not believe in legacy. The truth is that none of us have the strength or the intellectual capacity to keep an iota of her legacy alive."
She said she realised after a long time that we should keep going no matter how much negativity and criticism there was. Stage and TV actor Fawad Khan said, “I wasn’t very close friends with Sabeen, but I came into contact with many people because of her. T2F was the place where I performed story telling for the first time. It was a major event in my life, and it all began at T2F.” He shared that he had also met his wife there.
“T2F wasn’t an exclusive space, it wasn’t a place that excluded. You are part of that space, and that space became a part of you.” He recited a poem in Sabeen’s memory. Artist Amin Gulgee expressed the hope that all of her friends would come together to bring out a book on Sabeen. "One way of knowing about Sabeen Mahmud was producing a book that captures what she did and how people remember her,” he said. “I believe she deserves it and so does Pakistan.”
Hajra Ahmed recalled that Sabeen was murdered minutes after she had said goodbye to her. "On that fateful day, there was a seminar on missing persons of Balochistan and it was a houseful. People were even standing on the steps outside the door," she said.
“I told Sabeen, ‘what a wonderful and brave thing you have done.’ She simply replied, ‘people have to do that. It’s the right thing to do.’” Hajra added, “I believe it truly was a courageous act, especially because no one else was giving those Baloch voices a platform, not educational institutions, not anyone. She was an extremely brave and fearless woman.” She said that after Sabeen's murder, there was a complete silence at T2F as everyone's heart was broken. She said she was happy that Khalid Ahmed had revived T2F and breathed life into it. Others also spoke.