KARACHI, 24 January 2003 — Clad in shalwar kameez she looks like an ordinary Pakistani grandmother. A black leather bag, instead of a purse, hung by her side gives clue to Rashida Afghan’s profession. Rashida Afghan, a Sindhi, who has a masters degree in Urdu is Pakistan’s first woman photographer.
“In 1964 I began photography. It was a field dominated by men. My husband was a photographer and he taught me the craft. People were shocked. ‘What are you doing? Do you even have film in your camera? This is not a woman’s job!’ they would say. I did not get much encouragement from my male colleagues. Unfortunately even today after 39 years in the profession, attitudes have not changed.”
Rashida comes from a political family. She is a cousin of Asif Ali Zardari (ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s husband). But she hates taking pictures of political rallies and politicians.
“I stay away from politics now. In the beginning of my career I did go to cover political meetings and rallies. But a number of times there were troubles and violence and I had to run to save myself.”
Rashida, who has won a number of awards for her work, has limited her photography to wedding ceremonies and school events.
“The first time I took photographs was during the wedding of my friend. She was getting married in Hotel Metropole. She had requested me to photograph her wedding. But the problem was that she was getting married on the third day of my own wedding. My husband had allowed me to go. But when my friend’s would-be husband learned that a woman was to take pictures of the marriage he was very upset and assigned a man photographer to shoot pictures of the occasion.”
But pictures shot by Rashida turned out to be better than those taken by the male photographer. “It is amazing that people never take a woman photographer seriously even today,” she says.
Rashida lives and works in Karachi. She started with a Yashica 120 and now uses a Yashica 35 camera. “All cameras are alike,” she says. “Only the lenses have been upgraded. It is not the instrument but the professional touch that matters,” Rashida says.
She still works using old methods. “I don’t use umbrellas and modern techniques, but the result can be compared to any modern photography.”
Rashida loves black and white photography. “I take color photographs now. But the beauty and the art inherent in a black and white picture is not present in color photography. You can now get pictures in one hour, the machines do all the work. But I still love the old way of doing things with the black and white roll,” Rashida says. She has taken over 200,000 shots.
Rashida has encountered many situations where she had to face police wrath in political rallies or meetings. One such incident she recalled: “It was in 1981 or 1982 when I was covering a hockey match at the Hockey Club in Karachi…Samiullah was hitting a goal. The ball bounced and hit me on the forehead. I fainted. People sprinkled water on my face and then I regained consciousness.”
Rashida was very happy when a second woman, her daughter, entered the arena of photography. “My daughter….I am so proud of her. I have taught her everything I know, but I am sure she will excel me.” (Her another daughter is very religious and against photography…Her son does not work. “He says, I am a landlord, I don’t need to work!”)
Rashida is working on a project these days. She is taking photographs of old buildings in Karachi. “It is a tough job because the city is so congested. I have to watch out for the traffic all the time.”
Rashida attributes her successes to encouragement by her father and husband who supported her and encouraged her. “I was the first girl in my family to go to school.
“My father, who worked in the high court went against the family tradition and sent me to school and that too in a school where boys and girls used to study together. My husband taught me photography. He encouraged me and taught me the skills.”