The Vagina Monologues takes message to Pakistan

The Globe and Mail ^ | March 17, 2003 | Victorian Burnett

[Salman]

What's next, "The Penis Chronicles"?

You think you're being ridiculous for rhetorical purposes? There was a show, on Broadway in NYC no less, called "The Puppetry of the Penis. Also played in Chicago, near where I live.

Two well built well hung gay Australian fellows doing what can only be described as penis-origami, with allegedly humorous banter. I am not making this up.

I've seen their naked publicity photos. From the waist up only, even New York City and Chicago have some standards. Not body-builder types, but impressively muscular.

[BornOnTheFourth]

So THAT'S what that was about! I saw the sign for the "play" every day, but didn't have any idea what it was. Lovely.

[William Terrell]

The whole article.

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The Vagina Monologues takes message to Pakistan

Writer calls play's debut 'profound' in a society not known for women's rights

By VICTORIA BURNETT
Monday, March 17, 2003 - Page A11

ISLAMABAD -- From Manhattan to Mexico City, it has raised eyebrows and challenged perceptions of a part of the female anatomy that in most societies remains taboo. But The Vagina Monologues opened a new frontier over the weekend in its mission to spread its message of sexual liberation and women's rights.

In a discreet hotel conference room in the Pakistani capital, an audience wept, gasped and screamed with laughter as a cast of eight women, clad in scarlet saris, salwar kameez (loose shirts and baggy pants) and red-painted toenails, performed Eve Ensler's award-winning play.

"I cried like mad," said Sheherbano Burki, a management consultant in Islamabad who was seeing the play for the first time. "It was very emotionally exhausting."

The play, which explores the issues of sexuality, repression and rape through a series of explicit monologues that are touching, funny and sickening by turn, would be deemed risqué in almost any society. But in a country where a deep-rooted tribal culture and strict interpretation of Islam means limited liberties for most women, the play breaks every taboo in the book.

The majority of Pakistani women do not show the tops of their heads in public, let alone discuss what is underneath their loose-fitting clothes.

"In Pakistan, the flesh of your arm is a controversial place," said Nadia Jamil, a well-known actress from the ancient Mogul city of Lahore, who volunteered to perform. "Vaginas are a place [that] you just don't go there."

Ms. Jamil and the other cast members, including Ms. Ensler, were brought together by Nighat Risvi, co-founder of AMAL, a local non-governmental organization that promotes human development. The audience of 150 was by invitation only -- it was considered too risky to open the performance to the general public -- and mostly female, with the exception of a few male relatives. Hotel security guards hovered outside the door.

The performance formed part of a circuit of events sponsored by V-Day, an organization Ms. Ensler set up as an offshoot of the play. The non-profit group donates funds to organizations that work to stop violence against women and girls. Hibaaq Osman, a Somali Muslim who is the special representative for V-Day, said she had been keen to put on the play in an Islamic country.

"I know if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere," said Ms. Osman, who rechristened the Pakistani capital "Vaginabad."

"Having these Pakistani women talking about vibrators -- that's what it's all about."

It wasn't just the shock factor that lent the Pakistani performance of the famous play its intensity. The play's darker monologues -- that of an abused child, of a Serbian woman who is raped by a group of soldiers, or of an Afghan woman whose world is reduced to a living death under her burqa -- have a keen resonance in a country where the concept of rape is tenuous and so-called honour killings claim hundreds of lives every year. Honour killings are intended to punish behaviour deemed to be immoral, such as extramarital sex.

Given women's treatment in Pakistani society, the performance itself was an audacious one, Ms. Ensler said.

"The fact that women were prepared to get up this evening and do this was so brave and so profound. It's about breaking down walls," she said. "It was very difficult doing this in the U.S. at first. It wasn't like 'Yeah! The vaginas are here!' There is no place in the world where there aren't walls to be broken down."

While the audience was enrapt, the performers recognized that the play was not to everybody's taste. Bilquis Tahira, an activist and cast member, said one friend told her it was "vulgar."

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[Lorianne]

I can't agree more. Cluelessness reigns supreme with people like this. Dollars to doughnuts the vast majority of them have never traveled in Islamic countries (I have) or if they have they've stayed sheltered in posh hotels and consorted with the elite (I haven't). I bet they've never gone in the street and enteracted with common people in these cultures (I have).

They have absolutely NO clue what they are talking about. Women in these cultures don't need the right to talk openly about vibrators. Their cluelessness is unfathomable.

[RaceBannon]

Is this a new version of survivor??

[wbill]

I have always said much the same thing. Women's rights in America generally means no sexual harrassment, equal pay for equal work, etc.

Women's rights in other countries could loosely be defined as the right not to be stoned to death for committing adultery.

Typical Arrogant Liberal Attitude. "Obviously, my culture is right and yours is unimportant. But we'll still 'celebrate' yours in the name of 'diversity'"

[The_Media_never_lie]

I don't see how a play like this can help women in this part of the world.

I liked your insightful analysis.

[The_Media_never_lie]

In my house I am kept in the dark so that's not an option.

[Revolting cat!]

This piece of tripe has inspired a whole industry of intimate anatomy stage "plays". There was the Penis Puppetry (if I remember the title correctly,) In Search of My Clitoris and Clitoris Celebration (Think Outside the Box) (good advice, actually!) These people think they're re-inventing theater and probably heard of burlesque. I mostly object to the lowering of the standards. Where my parents went to see Chekhov, and I went to see Ionesco, my children will be going to see a Angels in America, a play about poofters dying of a venereal disease they caught in public johns of Central Park? We've not only defined deviancy down, we've defined the culture down! Did this all start with Elvis Presley?

[philosofy123]

The idiots on both sides, the American side and the Afghani side are unable to tell the Afghani women to take off their Burka, and now they giving them porn?

This Vigina monologue thing is considered vulgar in this country! And we have 200 years of liberal thinking under our belts! The idiot who recommended that show should have put more energy in telling the poor Afghani women it is ok to expose their hair, not their vagina!

[wildbill]

Anyone who thinks taking this show to closed Muslim societies will promote women's rights and human understanding needs to be wrapped in wet sheets, given some thorazine and put away somewhere.

When this show "bombs" in Pakistan, it will not be pretty.

[pke]

I suggest they take their idiotic play to Nigeria, preferably where they tried to hold the Miss Universe fiasco.

[2rightsleftcoast]

No, I heard about Puppetry of the Penis. Another stupid joke on the idiot sheep. I couldn't believe these aholes on the ads saying it was just hilarious!!
Yes, I'm sure it was a great evening. The stars of the show must be so proud.