Madeeha Gauhar (; 21 September 1956 – 25 April 2018) was a Pakistani TV and stage

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and director of social theater, and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activist. In 1984, she founded Ajoka Theatre where social themes were staged in theaters, on the street and in public places. With Ajoka Theater, she performed in Asia and Europe. She was one of the leading actresses on Pakistan's Television screens in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Early life and career

Madeeha Gauhar was born in 1956 in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. After obtaining a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

from Government College Lahore, she moved to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where she obtained another master's degree, studying

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

science at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

.STARBUZZ: Ajoka brings its act to Karachi
Dawn (newspaper), Published 11 October 2008, Retrieved 10 September 2019Singh Bajeli, Diwan (2 February 2007

''The Hindu'' (newspaper), Retrieved 10 December 2019 In 1983, with her studies completed, she returned to her native country, settling in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

. She was involved in the

Women's March Women's March may refer to: * Women's March on Versailles, a 1789 march in Paris * Women's Sunday, a 1908 suffragette march in London * Woman Suffrage Procession, a 1913 march and rally in Washington, D.C. * Women's March (South Africa), a 1956 ma ...

on 12 February when she and others protested against the regime. She was photographed being pushed back by a police officer. Gauhar and her husband

Shahid Nadeem Shahid Mahmood Nadeem (; born 1947) is a Pakistani journalist, playwright, screenwriter, theater and television director, and a human rights activist. He served as the general manager, program director, and deputy managing director of the Pak ...

founded Ajoka Theatre in 1984, a notable theater group of significance in the city. Ajoka (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

:) elaborates on the

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

Bhand Bhānds (Devanagari: भांड; Urdu: بھانڈ, Gurmukhi: ਭੰਡ, Bengali: ভাঁড়) are the traditional folk entertainers of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. In India and Nepal, the Bahand are now an endogamous Hindu and M ...

and

Nautanki Nautanki is one of the most popular folk performance forms of South Asia, particularly in North India, northern India. Before the advent of Hindi cinema, Bollywood (the Hindi film industry), Nautanki was the biggest entertainment medium in the ...

and found a flourishing base in the area that overlaps the province of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

. Despite her educational background in the UK and China, Gauhar did not restrict herself to conventional classical Western theater techniques. Rather, she aimed to incorporate authentic Pakistani elements with contemporary sentiments. With Ajoka, Gauhar performed in Pakistan, and subsequently in many other countries. The troupe performed in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

such as

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, as well as in several countries in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The most important motive of the shows, according to Gauhar, is the promotion of a just,

humane Humanity is a virtue linked with altruistic ethics derived from the human condition. It signifies human love and compassion towards each other. Humanity differs from mere justice in that there is a level of altruism towards individuals included i ...

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

and

equal Equal(s) may refer to: Mathematics * Equality (mathematics). * Equals sign (=), a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. Arts and entertainment * ''Equals'' (film), a 2015 American science fiction film * ''Equals'' (game), a board game ...

society. She directed almost 36 plays which were performed in Pakistan as well as in other Asian countries. In directing performances in the theater, Gauhar utilised aesthetics and theatrical techniques to reflect the moral, social and political reality of contemporary Pakistan. A recurrent theme for her, as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, was the subject of

in a society that is greatly dominated by men. In 2006, she was honored with a

Prince Claus Award The Prince Claus Fund was established in 1996 and named after Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It is annually subsidized by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 1997, the Fund has annually presented the international Prince Claus Awa ...

from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

.Prince Claus Award
award winners of 2006 (Madeeha Gauhar listed on Laureate Database)
Retrieved 10 December 2019 In 2007, she won the International Theatre Pasta Award. In 2007, Ajoka performed a play that was written and directed by Gauhar, the '' Burqavaganza'' (''

Burqa A burqa or burka (; ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women which fully covers the body and the face. Also known as a chadaree (; ) or chaadar (Dari: چادر) in Afghanistan, or a ''paranja'' (; ; ) in Central Asia, the Ara ...

-vaganza''), which led to great controversy. Actors dressed in burkas acted out themes of sexual discrimination, intolerance and fanaticism. From a Western perspective, the piece was a rather innocent performance on hypocrisy of a society that bathes in corruption. In her own country, though, Members of Parliament called for a ban on the performance, and the Minister of Culture threatened with sanctions, if the stage play continued. The ban on the stage play was finally imposed as threatened, but the

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s and

activists had the play translated into English and did staged performances internationally as a sign of support to Ajoka.Rehman, Sonya (20 June 2008
''Viva Ajoka!''
WordPress.com website, Retrieved 8 December 2019

Major plays

* Toba Tek Singh based on

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, , , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mainly in Urdu, he produc ...

's short story * Ek Thi Nani * Bulha on

Bulleh Shah Sayyid Abdullāh Shāh Qādrī (; ), popularly known as Baba Bulleh Shah and vocatively as Bulleya, was a Punjabi revolutionary philosopher, reformer and Chishti Sufi poet, regarded the 'Father of Punjabi Enlightenment'; and one of the g ...

's life * Letters to Uncle Sam * Hotel Mohenjodaro * Lo Phir Basant Ayee

Death and legacy

Madeeha Gauhar died in

, Pakistan, on 25 April 2018 at the age of 61 after a three-year illness with cancer. Madeeha Gauhar tried to promote peace between India and Pakistan and tirelessly campaigned for it. She also was widely considered as one of Pakistan's leading women's rights activists. Madeeha Gauhar's Ajoka Theater's plays were frequently based on social and human rights issues - for example female literacy,

honour killing An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

s, and

religious extremism Religious fanaticism or religious extremism is a pejorative designation used to indicate uncritical zeal or obsessive enthusiasm that is related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism that co ...

Filmography

Television series

Awards and nominations

Madeeha Gauhar received numerous awards for her theatrical efforts, including: * At the first iteration of the

1st Indus Drama Awards The 1st Indus Drama Awards ceremony, presented by Indus TV Network, sponsored by Dulux, took place on 23 September 2005, at PAF Museum, Karachi. The ceremony was recorded, and was scheduled to be televised in Pakistan and UAE on 1 October 20 ...

in 2005, she was nominated for Best Actress Drama Serial in a Supporting Role. * Madeeha Gauhar was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. * In 2006, Gauhar was awarded

in the

Tamgha-i-Imtiaz Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (), also spelled as Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, is a state-organised Civil decorations of Pakistan, honour of Pakistan. It is given to any civilian in Pakistan based on their achievements. While it is a civilian/military award, it can be ...

(Medal of Distinction), awarded to her by the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

in 2003 for her efforts in improving Pakistani theatre. *

Fatima Jinnah Fatima Jinnah (31 July 18939 July 1967) was a Pakistani politician, stateswoman, author, and Activism, activist. She was the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the List of Pakistan Movement activists, founder and first governor-general of ...

Award by the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...

in 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gauhar, Madeeha 1956 births 20th-century Pakistani actresses Pakistani television actresses Pakistani women's rights activists Pakistani stage actresses Pakistani theatre directors Pakistani women theatre directors 21st-century Pakistani actresses Pakistani dramatists and playwrights Pakistani women dramatists and playwrights 2018 deaths Actresses from Karachi Deaths from cancer in Pakistan Recipients of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz