Female Singers and Muslim Tradition in Pakistan from 1947 to the Present

FAIN: TW-50185-12

Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ 07043-1600)
Fawzia Afzal-Khan (Project Director: July 2011 to September 2013)

Development of a documentary film that examines the role of secular and religious female singers in Pakistan and their contributions to the musical legacies of the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent.

By telling the stories of women singers from Pakistan in our 5-minute trailer and full-length documentary film, we will convey to American audiences the complex and evolving nature of gender, class, and religious issues in Pakistan today, where the struggle for its soul is being waged by religious extremists on the one hand, and by the cultural artists we will be showcasing, on the other. These female artists represent the best hope for a secular and progressive Pakistan, and therefore, their lives and negotiations for recognition in a male-dominated culture must be highlighted, understood and supported by as wide a swathe of audiences as possible in America. Though largely unheralded and neglected in the history books, Pakistani female singers have made a significant, enduring impact on the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent's internationally-renowned musical pantheon.

Associated Products

Pakistani Female Singers 1947-to Date (Article)
Title: Pakistani Female Singers 1947-to Date
Author: Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Abstract: Abstract: In this essay, I would like to begin fashioning an argument about the place and importance of women singers in Pakistan by evaluating their mediation of secular and sacred spaces, which in turn will help us understand the evolution of Pakistani culture and the impact of women on it and vice versa. Such a project might also help dislodge some pervasive stereotypes in the West about the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, its culture, and its women.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.confluence.org.uk/category/spotlight/
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Confluence

Feminist Mediations: From Melody Queen to Muslim Madonna: Pakistani Female Singers Mediating Secular and Sacred Space. (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Feminist Mediations: From Melody Queen to Muslim Madonna: Pakistani Female Singers Mediating Secular and Sacred Space.
Author: Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Abstract: My essay fashions an argument about the place and importance of women singers in Pakistan, as a way to understand the evolution of Pakistani culture and the impact of women on it. The female artists I will discuss represent the best hope for a secular and progressive Pakistan, and therefore, their lives and negotiations for recognition in a male-dominated culture must be highlighted. Thus, a contemporary concert featuring the internationally renowned female Sufi (sacred/mystic) singer Abida Parveen, raises questions about affect and the politics of gender. Her appearance on stage, with her wild curly hair framing her manly face as she sways to the music she sings, the audience clapping and swaying along with her, celebrates the quest for divine love, through a language steeped in earthly metaphors of what has could be variously interpreted as hetero or homoerotic desire. Juxtaposed with a closing shot from a 1970 film featuring a song by playback singer Noor Jehan (another major female singer of Pakistan), shows a popular actress of that era, the voluptuous Firdaus, lip-syncing and dancing to Noor Jehan’s famous song, “Sun Wanjhali Di Meethri Taan” (Listen to my beautiful flute”), as her earthly lover/beloved Ranjha plays in the foreground on his flute, his long hair and effeminate get-up the mark of a Sufi dervish (saint). Such contrasting musical styles, the first representing the sacred, the second secular, raise questions regarding the place of music and female performers in Pakistani society: If human love is a reflection of the divine, how can love songs be the mark of the devil? How can women as both objects of desire and desiring subjects, be sinful creatures as extremists looking to ban music and female performance insist?
Date: 7/21/2012
Conference Name: International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) Annual Conference, Santiago de Chile

Facebook Page: The Nightingales (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Facebook Page: The Nightingales
Author: Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Abstract: A documentary film illustrating the history of Pakistan through the lives and careers and beautiful songs of Pakistani women singers from 1947 to the present.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: www.facebook.com/MelodyQueentoMuslimMadonna/info

Facebook Page: The Nightingales (Web Resource)
Title: Facebook Page: The Nightingales
Author: Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Abstract: A documentary film illustrating the history of Pakistan through the lives and careers and beautiful songs of Pakistani women singers from 1947 to the present.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: www.facebook.com/MelodyQueentoMuslimMadonna/info

Blog for comments on Film Trailer at Pakistaniaat.net (Blog Post)
Title: Blog for comments on Film Trailer at Pakistaniaat.net
Author: Masood Raja
Abstract: Pakistaniaat is a web journal and the editor has created a blog for readers--mostly academics-to comment on the project
Date: 03/01/2013
Primary URL: http://pakistaniaat.net/2013/03/bridging-cultures-through-film-from-the-melody-queen-to-the-muslim-madonna/#comments

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