Launch of WWF report on Women Wildlife Park Rangers: Hidden Figures

Report Launch

Hidden Figures Book Launch and Discussion (feel free to edit it; can also be more poetic and a "tribute to the bravery of women rangers, etc.") It’s a report about women wildlife rangers and the report being launched.

Unfit Ball Hai Dunya Meray Agay: Grips Theatre

wow junior

Unfit Ball hai Duniya Meray Aagay” deals with an issue that is of concern to us all these days – the preservation of our environment.   The play begins with Chiya, a little girl who lives with her grandmother in the village of Gandpur. Her world revolves around a tree and the hope it gives for a green future. When Chiya is taken to the city by her Aunt and city-slick cousins, she is lost in a confused world of noise, pollution, machines and fast food. Her cousins initially make fun of her because they do not understand Chiya’s concern about the use of pesticides and the importance of organic food. Eventually Chiya wins them over to her cause.  Not only do the children refuse to accept the consumerism of the world they live in, but they convince their families, teachers and friends to make some vital changes towards a better environment.   “Unfit Ball” is a play that promises to entertain the audience in the true Grips tradition of songs and laughter, and carries an important message for both children and adults, making it a wonderful evening of family entertainment.

Gen Z Unfiltered: AI, Identity & the World Ahead

wow junior

Writing has always been a feminist tool of resistance and imagination. Today, as AI-generated content becomes increasingly widespread, questions about the future of authentic writing, ethics, creativity, and voice have never been more urgent. The next generation is growing up at a crossroads: a world where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries, traditional career paths are being rewritten, and social awareness is evolving faster than ever. In this dynamic space, Gen Z is forming its own voice—bold, questioning, honest, and deeply aware of the world around them. This panel brings together students from Bayview Academy and KGS to explore the issues that matter most to them. Through discussion, they will examine: — Is writing becoming more or less meaningful in an AI-saturated world? — How do we protect literature and creative expression? — How do young people build their own voice amidst rapid technological and social change? Their perspectives offer a window into a rapidly transforming future, where creativity, ethics, and self-expression intersect in powerful and unexpected way

Radio Play: Sammul

pop up

A 20 minute radio play. Sammul is an inspiring story of a young girl from Balochistan who dares to reimagine her father’s clay pottery tradition through modern creativity, photography, and online entrepreneurship. Rooted in Pakistani- Baloch culture, Sammul celebrates dreams, heritage, and the courage it takes to stand by what you believe in—even when the world resists.

The Power of Funny

workshop

Ever wondered how stand-up comedy really works - from discovering your voice to landing the perfect punchline? Join famed comedian, broadcaster and WOW Festival favourite Sandi Toksvig for an exclusive Stand-Up Comedy Workshop! Drawing on decades of experience on stage, radio, and television — including QI and beyond — Sandi will guide you through joke structure, storytelling, timing and performance with her signature wit and insight. Known not just for her comedy but for inspiring others, this workshop is a rare opportunity to learn from one of the most respected voices in British comedy and performance.

Power of Care

panel

Caring for a child with a disability, whether autistic, living with Down syndrome, or facing any developmental challenge reshapes a mother’s world. For many, the journey begins with navigating therapies, schools, and daily routines. But for some extraordinary women, that journey expands outward: into creating awareness, championing inclusion, and even founding institutions that support countless other families.

Awaaz II film : Changing Minds

Film

Each individual needs to act and speak against GBV. Aawaz II PSMs promote positive message to address GBV and child marriage and highlights how positive messaging can change local discourse leading to wellbeing of women, girls and other groups.Aawaz II PSMs are 2-3 minute long videos promoting behavioural change against GBV and child marriage. 3 videos of Aawaz II on GBV and child marriage will be screened followed by interactive discussion with participants.

AI for Artisans

panel

This panel conversation invites participants to move beyond the hype surrounding artificial intelligence and take a more grounded, human-centered look at its real-world implications. Rather than treating AI as an abstract or inevitable force, the discussion explores what it actually means for people whose work is rooted in craft, cultural memory, and place. With a particular focus on artisans in the Global South, the panel examines how creativity is inseparable from community, environment, and livelihood. Panelists will reflect on the opportunities, tensions, and risks AI presents for makers who work with their hands, inherit generational knowledge, and depend on local ecosystems. The conversation aims to slow the narrative down, asking whose futures are being shaped by AI—and how technology can engage more responsibly with craft, culture, and survival.

Raqs e Fana

pop-up

Raqs-e-Fanaa (The Dance of Destruction) is a powerful dance-theatre performance that stages an unsettling encounter between Prakriti—Mother Nature—and The Architect, a symbol of elite-driven development and unchecked capital. Through the grace of Kathak, the piece traces how harmony, balance, and beauty are gradually interrupted, controlled, and consumed in the name of progress. The performance is a haunting reflection on what is destroyed when nature is reduced to a resource.

Men, Masculinity & Allyship

Baithak

What does it mean for men to show up as allies in the pursuit of gender justice? This session examines how masculinity shapes power, responsibility, and inequality. Moving beyond performative allyship, the conversation centres accountability, emotional literacy, and the everyday choices men make that either reinforce or challenge patriarchal norms. Drawing on lived experience, panelists explore how gendered power dynamics impact women, marginalized communities, and frontline workers, and why reimagining masculinity is essential for more just, inclusive, and sustainable futures. A grounded, solution-oriented discussion that invites men not as saviours, but as partners — learning how to use influence to create space, not dominate it.

Whose Story Matters? Gendered Citizenship in Pakistani Television Drama, Music and Public Art

workshop

Led by Prof Dr Amina Yaqin, this interactive workshop examines how Pakistani television drama shapes and reflects ideas of gender, citizenship, and gender-based violence. Through guided discussion and selected drama clips, participants will explore who gets to tell stories on screen, forms of storytelling including melodrama and romance, and how themes such as marriage, honour, inheritance, and coercive control are portrayed in popular narratives. The session invites audiences to critically reflect on the representation of normalised behaviours, social stigmas, and emotions that trigger discomfort, empathy, or trauma. Combining audience discussion, small group engagement, and reflective exercises, the workshop creates space for dialogue on how media narratives represent lived realities—particularly for women—and how viewers interpret, respond to and are impacted by representations of gender and violence in everyday popular media content consumption.

Cancer, Chaos and Creative Ethos. Angeline Malik in Conversation with Mariyum Nawaz

fireside

In this powerful session, Angeline Malik reflects on her journey as a cancer survivor, exploring the chaos, resilience, and creative strength that shaped her healing. She highlights the critical gaps in women’s health research — how symptoms are often dismissed, misdiagnosed, or misunderstood — and why systemic change is urgently needed. Through personal storytelling and advocacy, Angeline calls for a deeper commitment to women-centered healthcare, early detection, and research that finally takes women’s bodies seriously

Women as Stewards of Nature: Leadership and the Feminine Divine (WWf)

Baithak

This session explores women as natural stewards and leaders, "friends of nature", whose intimate relationships with land, water, wildlife, and culture are essential to keeping ecosystems alive. Across mountains, rivers, forests, plains, and coasts, women act as the eyes and ears on the ground, protecting biodiversity through care, knowledge, and courage. From mountain landscapes where Wildlife Sheroes safeguard leopards, medicinal plants, and fragile ecosystems, the baithak examines how women-led conservation and monitoring emerge from lived connection rather than distant management. These women embody a mountain consciousness, observant and resilient, offering a distinctly feminine lens to conservation. The session journeys into stories and symbols, where a woman transforms into a dolphin to protect the river, echoing programmes such as sakhi, and reflecting the mystic bond between the feminine and water. The dolphin, often imagined as a female guardian, becomes a symbol of fluid intelligence, protection, and kinship with rivers. In agricultural plains, women steward the land from sowing to harvest, especially in cash-crop landscapes like cotton. They serve as vital connectors between nature, livelihoods, and sustainability, holding ecological knowledge that bridges soil health, water use, and community well-being. We also explore forests and mangroves, including sacred landscapes such as Karoonjhar, where the divine feminine is inseparable from nature, and regions that serve as strongholds for species like vultures. Across traditions and local folklore, women, species, and ecosystems intertwine, each reflecting and sustaining the other through story, ritual, and belief. Finally, the session would acknowledge the vulnerabilities of women, species, and ecosystems alike, highlighting how environmental degradation, climate change, and social inequities threaten these relationships, while also revealing women’s leadership as a powerful pathway toward resilience and regeneration.

Between Sisters: Messy Months and Mighty Women

Baithak

Dr. Asma Manzoor analyzes the nexus between gender and hygiene, shedding light on how gaps in sanitation infrastructure and hygiene access disproportionately affect women’s safety. She underscores how these systemic shortcomings translate into increased risks of harassment, violence, and exclusion in both public and private spaces.

Coded Inequality: Gender, AI & Equity

panel

This panel examines the critical intersection of gender, artificial intelligence, and algorithms, and how AI-driven systems increasingly influence everyday decisions, access to opportunities, and social justice. It will explore whether contemporary AI and algorithmic technologies are being developed with gender sensitivity, or whether they continue to reproduce and reinforce structural biases and exclusions. The panel also highlights the urgent need for more women at the forefront of the AI and technology industry, emphasizing that inclusive design, ethical innovation, and algorithmic justice are not possible without women’s active participation in AI development, policy-making, research, and leadership. By centering women’s voices, experiences, and expertise, the discussion aims to promote fairer, more accountable, and socially responsible AI systems.

Entrepreneurship Beyond Formality: The Untold Power of Women’s Informal Businesses: Dr Lalarukh Ejaz

Bites

Quiet Builders: Parsi Women, Philanthrophy and Karachi

Bites

Veera Rustomji is a multidisciplinary artist from Karachi. Her practice deals with uncovering historiographical power structures portrayed through materials which explore geographical influences, religious iconography and archival methods. She holds a BFA from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) and an MA from Chelsea College of Arts at the University of the Arts London (UAL), where she was awarded the UAL Postgraduate International Scholarship. Veera produced a body of documentation capturing the erasure of island life and coastal heritage within the Indus Delta for the Mead Fellowship and her site-specific investigations coexist alongside literary and community-based archives from public and private collections which examine the Zoroastrian diaspora. Veera is also the co-director of the Urban Repository Archive (URA) housed within the Department of Fine Art (IVS), which explores how student-lead research responds to the changing landscape of Karachi. The session will highlight how Zoroastrian and Parsi women in Karachi have shaped traditions of care, philanthropy, and education within the city. Drawing on photographs, newsletters, and private family archives, the talk traces women’s roles in healthcare, schooling, research, and community organisations, past and present. It will also explore why acknowledging and archiving these histories is urgent, and what is at risk of being lost if these stories are not preserved. This talk explores physical archives that highlight Parsi-led work in Karachi, with a focus on the community's women in the early twentieth century, a time when photography and formal documentation were limited. The images bring to the forefront how women in Karachi today continue traditions of care, research, and philanthropy through organisations such as the Karachi Zarthoshti Banu Mandal and Mama Parsi High School, as well as through materials preserved at the Dastur Dr Dhalla Library and Y.M.Z.A. Library. By looking at photographs and printed records, the talk asks where community legacy could be derived from, and why it is important to acknowledge and preserve the stories of women who might otherwise be forgotten.

Defying the Storm

Film

Defying The Storm” chronicles the immense contribution, decades long struggle and unionization of Lady Health Workers in Pakistan. Through exploring the role of Lady Health Workers during floods and disasters the documentary also explores the crucial yet often ignored link between climate change and labour rights.

Sunset Soundscape: DJ Lyla

pop up

A DJ set to boost energy, brighten the mood, and set the perfect vibe for the day.

Bayzuban Kahanian

film

Short films developed in Machar Colony under the WOW Gender Grants, followed by a panel conversation

Reimagining Qawwali: A journey of the soul Wajiha Naqvi with Mashal Chaudhry

fireside

Showcase from one of the grantees with a short intro and conversation - 30 minutes

Rang e Kathak With Nighat Chaudhry

performance

We are honored this evening by the presence of Nighat Chaudhry—Pride of Performance awardee, Kathak exponent, and an artist whose work transcends borders, time, and form. Through her dance, she continues to redefine spirituality, identity, and womanhood. With a Master’s degree in Dance Education and a diploma in choreography, Nighat Chaudhry has been an active professional Kathak dancer for over four decades. Her interdisciplinary journey encompasses not only performance and choreography but also sustained engagement with women’s rights and the deconstruction of popular religious narratives in Pakistani society. Through the performing arts, she has consistently sought to reinterpret cultural and ethical life codes, encourage artistic expression, and highlight the richness and diversity of Pakistani arts. In recognition of her exceptional contribution, she was awarded the prestigious Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan. Kathak Souls Dance Company Nighat Chaudhry also introduces Kathak Souls—a pioneering dance ensemble founded and nurtured under her vision and guidance. The company dancers embody her artistic philosophy and bold new vision of establishing Pakistan’s first Kathak performing company. The performers you will see on stage today are: Arham Sharif Hashmi Alena Akmal Insha Hashmani Minah Jasir Abro Shanzay Yousuf Since its inception, Kathak Souls has brought its work to major national and international stages, including the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, the Global Encounters Festival in Dubai, and the National College of Arts, Lahore, having begun shaping a new celebratory, innovative, and transformative narrative for Kathak in Pakistan.

Four States of Being: Aatish | Aab | Mitti | Hawa

performance

A performance that transforms the classical elements into musical expressions of feminine experience. Through voice, rhythm, movement, and visual art, Babar Sheikh and collaborators celebrate the many energies of womanhood — fierce, fluid, grounded, and free.

Pledge To Unlearn

Interactive

Pledge to Unlearn - unlearning is not a loss - its a space to grow - Lets pause and choose again

Romantic Provocations

Interactive

Romantic Provocations is a roaming, shape-shifting exhibition that blurs the borders between art, science, politics, and public imagination. Part laboratory, part collective pause, it invites visitors into a living system where romance becomes method and friction becomes fuel. Across eight provocations, from algorithmic desire to intimacy by design, artists, scientists, and designers unsettle familiar narratives and open new ones. Multiple storylines unfold at once. Conversations remain porous. Ideas migrate across cities and disciplines, gathering new meaning as they travel and it all begins at WOW in Karachi. Visitors don’t simply observe; they participate in a slow, evolving negotiation of belief, desire, care, and disobedience. The result is a living archive of contradictions, gestures, and connections: a collective attempt to build worlds where love is disruptive, ambiguity is defended, and complexity is a shared inheritance

Bayzubaan Kahanian (photo exhibit)

Interactive

Short films developed in Machar Colony under the WOW Gender Grants, followed by a panel conversation

Leaf lab

Interactive

Step into a hands-on, heart-led workshop celebrating natural colour, heritage craft, and the joy of making slowly. Inspired by practices rooted in care, imagination, and integrity, this session invites participants to explore sustainable creativity through tactile, zero-waste methods. Together, participants will experiment with food-waste dyes, such as the rich hues of onion skin, while learning about ancient mordants and time-honoured techniques. We’ll also dive into leaf tapping and collaborative tapestry-making, using found foliage and reclaimed textiles to create new stories from what already exists. This is a truly regenerative experience: zero kilometre, zero waste, and full of meaning. Participants are encouraged to bring an old dupatta, kameez, t-shirt, or any beloved piece in need of revival. For walk-ins, a small collection of factory excess or discarded fabric will be available so no one is left out. Join Leaf Lab to reconnect with nature, reimagine the materials we already have, and rediscover the quiet magic of sustainable craft.

WOW CAST

Interactive

Step inside the podcast playground! Ever wondered what happens when you flip a podcast on its head? Welcome to our interactive podcast booth, a space where festival-goers become the hosts and star guests! Explore our newly launched podcast, WOWCast, meet some of the stars of the show, then grab the mic and create your own episode with the guidance of media students ready to bring your wildest ideas to life. Expect the unexpected, capture crazy amazing content, and see just how far a podcast can go when you take the rules and throw them out the window. Your voice. Your story. Your chaos.

Navigating Justice System by 7

Interactive

Game - will work well in the main market

Reimagining Our Planet: An Eco-Co-Creation Map

Interactive

To co-create an interactive map designed to engage visitors, especially children at the WOW Women Festival. We will be re imagining our world centered on a collective art activity where participants co-create a global map, shifting its representation from political borders and national names to a living, integrated system of rivers, birds, plants, and insects.It will generate a powerful visual statement on ecological literacy and the disconnectedness of all life. This will be a two-layered installation, where the underlying layer represents regional carbon emission percentages, physically linking ecological richness with global climate accountability and human impact. The final piece will be a powerful testament to collective environmental consciousness, created by hundreds of hands, demonstrating that Earth is a shared ecosystem, not a collection of independent countries.

Infinity and Beyond

Interactive

The Karachi Astronomers Society aims to engage and educate festival-goers about the wonders of space and astronomy, offering hands-on experiences through high-quality telescopes. Their presence at the festival is designed to spark curiosity and inspire a deeper interest in science and space exploration, particularly among young people. By blending education with entertainment, they create a memorable and unique experience that brings the universe closer to attendees of all ages.

Lets Build minds: Brick by Brick

Interactive

The activity invites children into a playful world where imagination comes knocking and curiosity opens the door. There are no right or wrong builds here; fun is the only goal. Every piece is an idea waiting to be shaped. In this open, creative space, children build doors, pathways, homes, and worlds of their own making—learning that they don’t have to wait for doors to open, they can build them themselves. Through play, collaboration, and storytelling, the activity nurtures confidence, problem-solving, and self-expression, reminding every child that even the smallest ideas can lead to something extraordinary.