Art House by Sarwat Gilani

Hey parents, we haven't forgotten the kids! The Women of the World festival has a program for kids that is Sarwat Gilani's Arthouse. With crazy techniques, funky colors, and a whole lot of giggles, your kids will be kept engaged while you go and sit in on the panels or attend a performance.
Arthouse will keep your kids busy and give them a sensory experience they will love!

Science Capital سائنسی سرمایہ Activity for Teens

Science Fuse
Trainer: Lalah Rukh
Science experiments and conversations with Teens. Fun science based activities that engage teens as well as get them thinking about STEM

Register Now

Filming for Change by Kiran Fulton

Craft narratives for business, fun, and activism using your phone! All you need to create compelling and meaningful videos that engage your audience and convey your message is a cellphone and this workshop to learn the right apps, tools and techniques!

Register Now

Is TikTok Killing Theatre?

When you can become an instant star in minutes from your bedroom, why grace the stage and sweat it out for so many months? In the era of social media, and instant gratification where does this age old art lye? Butt recounts her journey into theater , how theater is being impacted today and what the future holds. Nida Butt.

15 Minute Ki Gup Shup

Who says stories are just for children? Join Amra Alam as she regales our audience with stories from the yore. These tales will tickle your fancy and transport you to another time!

Building Safe Community Experiences

There's nothing Sitwat Rizvi, founder of the Commons Karachi, loves more than a fun community experience and in this bite she is sharing her pleasure and community driven philosophy! From the Commons Karachi Maker's Markets to her recently opened the Big Fun, Sitwat is all about curating a fun, joyful experience and bringing people together

Reading as Community

Reading as resistance is an act the oppressor has always feared. When you understand the society you live in based on the wisdom of the past and with a view to understanding the future that is when true revolution can take place. Join Laila Raza as she shares her experience of organizing community readings and fostering a space for dialogue and discussion.

Say the M Word: Menopause

This conversation provides a safe space for conversation for women to discuss health concerns, heal from a lifetime of being gaslit and explores how community and dialogue is key to understanding our bodies. Facilitators: Dr Tabinda Sarosh & Madiha Latif

Parenting Teens

How to speak to teens about their bodies by Maryam Munir
Parenting workshop about how to prepare kids for adolescence, what they will find on the internet and how to deal with peer pressure.

Register Now

Sounds of the Spectrum

A melody of resistance and celebration through spoken word and songs by two Khwajasira artists Anaya Sheikh & Haseena.

Chhota Camera - Badee Baat چھوٹا کیمرہ بڑی بات

A set of short films made by shool kids under the mentorship of UK Connect partner ‘Into Films’ in collaboration with Olomopolo Media. The Project focused on schools that cater to the differently abled or more marganilized sections of our religious minorities.
Moderated by Vicky Zhuang Yi-Yin

Be an Ally

Standing for what you believe in can have unseen consequences. Men have the opportunity to be strong allies for women by not only supporting gender equity and rights, but publicly and consistently advocating for it. However, while is it widely acknowledged that patriarchy hurts women and girls, also damages men and boys - not just when they are allies but across the board. How can young men navigate this minefield? What does it mean to be a male ally today? Jibran Nasir in conversation with Palvasha Shahab

Education, Community & Continuity

Teachers make leaders, community and careers. The last generation of educationists emphasized community and collective achievements and we are slowly losing this trait. How much of the sense of community was instilled in us by teachers belonging to the white in our flag.
Speakers: Sister Julie, Shireen Mana, Ronilla Singh.
Moderator: Farieha Aziz

The Female Gaze

Artist Statment - ‘When I saw them complete and ready, that’s when I knew, these women represented revenge. They were fed up, angry, frustrated. They wanted to scream at these men, make them feel what I feit everyday. They wanted to stare back. They wanted the men to feel uncomfortable, to feel fear. They wanted the men to understand what they had taken, the basic human right of feeling safe and free in public spaces. These women were getting reckless and chaotic. Their necks longer. Their eyes bigger. They wanted these men to know what this gaze feels like. This hungry nonstop gaze to objectify, to put in fear, to show power, to make uncomfortable. That’s the gaze I wanted these women to take ownership of and make it the female gaze.’

Ral Mil - Open Mic

A place for everyone to showcase their talent! Sing a song, read a poem or perform stand up comedy - this spot will allow everyone to celebrate their sisters and cheer each other on! Some slots will be prebooked so we can be assured of some set performances on the day. Facilitator Amtul Baweja.

Register Now

Invest in You

The “Invest in You” workshop’s goal is to increase women’s financial awareness and participation in the financial sphere in Pakistan. The workshop is geared to create an understanding of the financial world, allow participants to better manage their money while focusing on the importance of financial identity and financial security for women. Inspiring Women recognises that there are knowledge and access gaps regarding women and finance. We wish to bridge this gap by conducting skill-based trainings that enable women to increase their capacity, to break cultural / gender barriers and increase their access and build their know-how in finance.

Register Now

Kids: Metasocialising: how we connect today

What does GenZ want? A conversation with representatives of this mysterious generation, which gives us an opportunity to look through their lens on how they connect with peers through rapidly progressing media and gaming networks. With parents staying loyal to older networks like Facebook and WhatsApp, young people have found spaces of their own to connect including Snapchat and Discord as well as various gaming platforms. These platforms offer community and connection but also expose young people to real risks and dangers. Hear from young panelists about the obstacles that remain a baggage of virtual networks. Speakers: Ameera Adil Khawaja, Haajrah Baksh, Anaya Shafiq & Fawaz Elahi Moderator: Hiba Khan

My Mother's Daughter (15 mins)

Mehak was 13 when she was abducted. When she managed to come back home, she made a shocking discovery that changed her life forever.

Sandstorm (20 mins)

by Seemab Gul
Sandstorm revolves around a teenage girl named Zara whose life upends after she shares a sensual dance video with her virtual boyfriend. The latter begins to blackmail her into meeting him in person.

Still Here (2 mins)

by Yumna Rizvi & Anya Raza
The short film “Still Here” depicts the journey from trauma toward healing – the struggle to recover from the unimaginable and begin to rebuild a life.
While torture is a difficult subject, healing is possible. Justice is possible.

Ways of Seeing (13 mins)

This is the story of a visually impaired brother(muhammad Rafi) and a sister(Ayesha). Ayesha got bullied at school and dropped out. Rafi got encouragement and found himself being the first blind student from their area attending Karakoram international university.

Hope in a suffering world

Inspired by the work of environmental activist and Buddhist scholar, Joanna Macy, this session will explore how we can meet the pain and suffering of the world with resilience and hope. In this 90 minute session, there will be periods of guided meditations, small group shares and group reflections. Given this, doors will close at 3pm and no entry will be permitted once the session begins.

Register Now

Beauty: Web or Hammock

A conversation around how salons/salon workers operate as safe, therapeutic spaces for women and essential sources of safe and respected livelihoods but within the context of how beauty can be weaponized against women and is complicated in its usage as a tool for self-expression but also to imprison. . Moderator: Noor Mandviwalla; Panelists: Arooj Ismail, Angie Marshall, Natasha Lakhani, Tanzeela Hashwani

OLO TATOLO

A communal activity for young children where they get up and move, do sing alongs and story time. It will feature interactive music sessions of original numbers of Urdu, Punjabi, and English, interspersed with fascinating facts and gossip about the subject of the day and joyful dance moves. To round up the session, arts & craft activities will get the children thinking about what it means to be part of a community.

Aftermath

There is no victory after trauma - it is a long slow process to understand what happened and what has been lost, not just from around us but from ourselves. In that moment, blindly reaching out in the dark, sometimes the only thing that brings us through is the hand that reaches back. Featuring (dancers) and music by La Mimi.
Director: Gillian Rhodes

Aloo Gosht

This performance is a contextualisation of the idea of Chadar (cloth) and char dewari (four walls) and what goes on inside... It's an attempt to try to understand the nature of relationships, power dynamics and the cyclical repetition of toxic behaviours of engagement. A physical manifestation of toxicity that is found in most human relationships.

Drum Circle led by Shazia Moosa and Pireh Moosa

Typically, people gather to drum in drum "circles" with others from the surrounding community. The drum circle offers equality because there is no head or tail. It includes people of all ages. The main objective is to share rhythm and get in tune with each other and themselves.

Self Defense

While all women learn how to safeguard themselves having training that tells you how to deal with different situations and opponents is a valuable life skill. Trainer Dr. Haiqa Nasir.

Register Now

Manufacturing Consent

Incidents of sexual violence in relationships, domestic violence, a lack of pleasure around sexuality and exploring demonstrate the importance of understanding the concept of consent. Despite the centrality of this concept, it has received little focus whether through law or through its interpretation in the courts. Exploring the notion of consent through several laws relating to women, this talk by Maliha Zia Lari will discuss how this discretion and its interpretation has been instrumental in controlling girls and women’s behaviour, their sexuality or in understanding how and scope of sexual violence committed against them.

Lessons from Community Building and Collaboration

The bite will explore how khwaja sira activists approach community and movement building in a city which both nurtures and works against them. It will also address cancel culture, misinformation and the prevalence of internet bullying preventing people from coming together. The bite will help build understanding of communities of care as spaces to look out for each other with all our messiness and flaws and create space for making mistakes and redemption.

Breaking the Cycle of Silence

Muna Khan - A short discussion on how female journalists face unique risks and challenges while reporting, such as sexual harassment, physical assault, online abuse, and gender-based discrimination.

Dramatic Reading: Kaaga Tantra

Nimra Bucha & Sarmad Khoosat
A reclaiming by Female storytellers of the fable: Owls & Crows have a centuries-old rift to rule the kingdom of birds. Owls often attack Crows at night which cost them many lives. To deal with this grave situation, King of Crows, "Megh Varan" calls upon his ministers & advisors and makes a strategic move, "Kaaga Tantra".

Ang Sung انگ سنگ

We are a fragmented, divided humanity, with each person and interest group vying to “succeed” and get ahead of others at all cost. We measure worth in money and power rather than connection and service. The earth is shifting as we weep, so much of the human population is being displaced and disenfranchised. The Mountains are sliding and glaciers are melting, we are becoming aware of our fractured reality in a way we were not before. Most of these calamities are a direct result of human activities, borne of choices we have made in favour of greed, avarice, material consumption and constant expansion of profit margins. If we are to learn from nature and life on Earth as it has survived over millennia, we are left with no way forward but to learn to coexist harmoniously, with cohesion, interdependence and cooperation.

Can Women Have it All? Workplace practices that Encourage Women's Participation

We may have made many strides in the work place but only recently have experts made the term "the second shift" accepted in everyday language. What is the second shift? It is the labor of domestic duties women do after their 9 to 5 jobs ensuring they remain in a cycle of work that goes beyond her paid 8 hours. In "Can Women Have it All?" an all women team from the Center of Excellence for Responsible Business will facilitate a baithak on good workplace policies that encourage women's participation, whether they are mothers or single.
Facilitators: Nazish Shekha - Head of Research, CERB, Sameen Akhund, Rajaa Bokhari, Safia Hussain

Lens of Women

How women see themselves and the world when they break away from the male gaze. Stories on screen, the visual of women when they break away from the manic pixie dream girl and create for women.
Panelists: Fatimah Sattar, Nirmal Bano &
Tazeen Bari
Moderator: Haya Fatima Iqbal

Stand Up Comedy with Mehrub Moiz

A revealing and riveting stand-up show to blow your mind and tickle your fancy!

Naseebo Lal

A power house Punjabi Folk performer who has become an icon for indeginous voices, styles and is leading a revival of folk Punjabi style in mainstream music. She will perform songs that showcase the power of community and continuity.
Moderated by Sarmad Khoosat

Group Photo

Aab Beeti

A set of interwoven audio stories, that share first person accounts of Floods. They talk of the visceral fear, the inescapable pain and the ongoing trauma that survivors cannot walk away from. No matter how much we use words like rebuild we cannot move past the debris of those broken lives."

Manduva

Sarmad Khoosat & Lahore Biennale Foundation
‘In cinema, as in any other art, the truly indigenous style can be evolved only by a director working in his own country, in the full awareness of his past heritage and present environment.’ -Satyajit Ray. Mandva is an exploration of seven and a half decades of Pakistani cinema. An attempt to initiate archiving and reading of our very indigenous cinematic syntax. We have loved and owned it sometimes but also hated and abandoned it intermittently. It’s our heritage and let’s reclaim it, to inspect, dissect and interpret."

Metabodies - Digital Exhibit

Lahore Digital Festival (LDF) has curated the works of five emerging women artists in line with the theme of the festival. These works evoke dialogue between viewers and turn their digital screens into gallery spaces. The works will be presented via a digital gallery space, which will be embedded into WOW Pakistan's website.
Additionally, to create a sync between the physical and the digital world, screens will be available for audiences at Beach Luxury

ReAct

React my sister, my mother, my friend
React to break the silence that deafens!

ReACT is an interactive installation for women to enter a space to express themselves. Give color to their rage, and scream, laugh and freely release themselves from the bonds of silence that was imposed on them by themselves and the society. "

The Box & This Is Not A Game

While we are talking of Ral Mil let us not forget those that society pretends don’t exist. Those in Jail, whom the justice system has failed in so many ways. This will have installation as well as a game component to give people an idea of how the system works against them and what the prison and gallows can do to shatter all sense of community.

Push

Photovoice exhibit showcasing the lives and work of midwives (including response during floods in 2022) in South Asia, with a focus on Pakistan, highlighted in a photo gallery with narration of stories. The photographs will highlight the work of midwives and the lives of the families they work with.

Telescope

Get up close and personal with the skies with Cosmic Perspectives bringing their most prized telescope to show everyone the beauty of the stars, the planets, and the moons up above us.

Red & Green Flags

It is a life sized board game; a variation of snakes and ladders game, where red flags bring you down and green flags lift you up. A fun way to get young adults thinking about behaviors and for young kids to just enjoy the game.

Marketplace

It is a life sized board game; a variation of snakes and ladders game, where red flags bring you down and green flags lift you up. A fun way to get young adults thinking about behaviors and for young kids to just enjoy the game.