About This Show

Taking its name from a collection of feminist poetry, the production WE SINFUL WOMEN gives voice in melody and movement to the words of the Pakistani Urdu feminist poets Ishrat Aafreen, Kishwar Naheed, Zehra Nigah and Fahmida Riaz,  Protesting the suffocating repression in their physical and emotional lives, these poets courageously wrote with both confrontational anger and ecstatic lyricism.  First published in 1990 in Lahore, Pakistan, and in 1991 in London, the ground-breaking collection of feminist poetry WE SINFUL WOMEN, translated and edited by Rukhsana Ahmad, gave a glimpse of the situation in which women had few rights, and even their dance and poetry were considered blasphemous.

This production embodies the outrage and tenderness encapsulated in the concentrated language of poetry and dance.  Though written over 25 years ago, the poems express sentiments and situations still being acted out in 2019 – including in the United States.