A Normal Pakistani?

Aysha Bilal’s ‘A Normal Pakistani?’ celebrates the identity of contemporary Pakistani men to highlight the normality of her subjects. Bilal’s practice deciphers her personal experiences, as a Muslim Woman, and the interactions with Pakistani men. She relates to them as sister, as daughter, as niece, as neighbor, as student, as cousin and primarily as a Pakistani Woman, and therefore cannot identify them as the western labeling of ‘other’.

 

Bilal aims to reveal narratives associated with impact of challenges set by the changing socio-cultural and political discourse. She represents the types of Pakistani men through exploration of the notions of class systems engaging with Western Values in post partition Pakistan. Bilal’s portraiture also serves as the record of the perceptual and physical space between a Muslim woman photographer and her subjects, whether it be formal, casual, frank or restricted in relation to the socio-cultural and religious beliefs.

 

As result of hysteria of 9/11 and beyond, in multicultural societies majorly UK and US, various approaches towards self-representation have emerged in Pakistani men. Certain Pakistani men have denied the visual codes of Muslim representation, equally some have embraced these codes. Consequent to the forced push by media and larger societies, desire to associate with original identity and to adopt western codes of symbols has deviated the normality. ‘A Normal Pakistani?’ is a powerful allegory for the complex fabrication of identity of post 9/11 Pakistani men.