Pakistan's Truck Art Promotes Girls’ Right to Play
March 5, 2021
Women Win, Right to Play Pakistan and the US Embassy in Pakistan have teamed up with award-winning anthropologist and filmmaker, Samar Minallah Khan, to paint trucks sharing messages advocating for Pakistani girls’ right to play and live lives free from gender-based violence. The project launched on March 1st's Zero Discrimination Day with a short behind the scenes video of the truck art process.
Truck art is a very popular art form in Pakistan and traditionally features portraits of celebrities painted on the back of trucks that travel all over the country. This cultural and colourful phenomenon has also had a major impact on women and girls' rights. Khan believes truck art has the potential to effectively spread awareness in rural areas where early marriage and customs resisting the idea of education for girls is common. The bold and vibrant trucks appeal to many and are portraying powerful themes related to the empowering of women and girls in the country.
Khan is the Founder of Moving Billboards, whom Women Win had partnered with to highlight girls’ right to play. Named the ‘Crusader with the Camera’ in the media, she uses film and other innovative mediums of communication for social change in Pakistan.
“The truck moves from one part of Pakistan to another, taking a message like a moving billboard from one remote region to another,” said Khan.
Girls' Right to Play Through Truck Art from WomenWin
Khan and her team of artists used the tradition to create and paint pictures of adolescent girls playing sport, accompanied by girls and women's rights messages on the transport trucks. The trucks then travel across Pakistan to help spread awareness of female rights in remote parts of the country. In total 40 trucks were painted and are currently in circulation.
“Let the girls play, let them get educated, let them live. Let them make the country proud. Just like boys, girls too should have rights,” says truck driver Omar Zaib in the video.
In 2019, US-based sport for youth development practitioners working with girls travelled to Pakistan and met with Khan to discuss her approach of using truck art and the intersection of media, advocacy and sport in Pakistan. The campaign, supported by the US Embassy in Islamabad and in collaboration with Right to Play Pakistan, started with Khan and her team engaging local truck drivers and owners, consulting with them on what images would be painted. The painting began in November 2020 and the trucks began circulating in December 2020. This project was a continuation on the approach, with a slight adjustment in theme that included paintings of girls playing sport.
It was part of a larger project called "Addressing Gender-Based Violence Through Sport and Play in Pakistan," with support from the US Department of State and the US Embassy in Islamabad. As part of this project, Women Win implemented an exchange program with the ultimate goal of empowering girls to exercise their rights in and through sport.
Women Win is a global non-profit that, through its GRLS initiative, empowers girls through sport. They were one of the project partners which won the 2020 Beyond Sport Global Award for Reduced Inequalities.