Laraib Asdaf
Laraib Asdaf is the founder and curator of the public archive, ‘Purana Pakistan’ on Instagram. She completed her undergraduate in History, Political Science and South Asian Studies from the University of Toronto in 2021 after which she moved back to Pakistan to follow her passion for Education and History.
Her work in Education mostly caters to low-income families. She taught at Harsukh in Thethar Village (Lahore) under the guidance of Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja from 2021-2023 while simultaneously working for the Learning and Assessment Design Team at The Citizens’ Foundation (TCF). Laraib moved to Karachi in 2023 and has since been working as a field researcher in Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the University of Oxford.
Throughout this entire time, she has been dedicated to maintaining ‘Purana Pakistan’ (@purana_pakistan), which continues to be the largest public archive for Pakistan on Instagram.
SUNDAY Sunday 3rd March
Chronicling Mughal-Sikh Women: Power, Politics, And Patronage
Location: Hall 1
This panel will look at women lost or buried in historical narrative from the Mughal era till more recent times and the mark they left on literature, politics, architecture and other spaces. It will also explore this theme of women considered "bad" through characters like Razia Sultana, and Rabia Basri and . The idea is to celebrate these remarkable women and the impact they had on their communities, examining both historical and present-day perspectives. It explores how when viewed through a non patriarchal lens how female relationships and support has shaped history.
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