Karachi's Kathak Dancers | AJ Shorts

On any regular Thursday, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine in Southern Pakistan reverberates with Sindhi folk music and hundreds of people dancing. But in February 2017, a suicide bomber attacked the shrine, claiming the lives of 88 people and injuring many more. ISIL claimed responsibility.
In an act of defiance and solidarity, Sheema Kermani travelled to the site a few days after the attack and performed the Dhamall, a form of dance rooted in the promise of spiritual trance. Videos of her performance spread across social media.
Sheema’s journey started long before the attack at the Sufi shrine. Sheema, 67, has championed activism and addressed social issues all her life. She founded the Tehrik-e-Niswaan’ (Movement for Women) in the late 70’s. Together with a group of actors and artists, Sheema went to different neighborhoods of Pakistan and put on a performance centered around the issues affecting that community.
Sheema continues to be a champion of women’s rights, both through performing arts and community outreach.
“Activism. That is what really is important in performing arts. That you provoke people to think. You move them to question their own lives.”
Filmed and directed by Karim Shah
Camera: Hasham Cheema, Andy Jackson
Producer: Andrew Smith
Editor: Andrew Phillips
Executive Producers: Deeyah Khan at Fuuse and Andrew Phillips
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#AJShorts #Karachi #KathakDance

[@PadminiBiswas]

In Chennai, one of our teachers was a Muslim. She was a trained Kathak dancer. Her husband and his family would not let her dance. Finally she had no option but got divorced in order to pursue her dancing career.

[@chaitanyabhargava5634]

I learned kathak for 8 years, Its a way of expressing our love towards god. Kathak is not only for women but only men and Transgenders can learn and perform as well. God bless you mam.

[@nrityashalaindia2067]

True,,,bravo

[@antikachakraborty3214]

How is Kathak related to loving God, can uexplain

[@aaravsingh6130]

@@antikachakraborty3214 may be because the stories told through these classical dances are mostly of gods n goddesses

[@abcxyz-]

Because it's a Hindu classical dance? I guess that's what relates it to Hindu culture?

[@PakiPardesia]

I have tears in my eyes. We need this all over the country. Bless you Sheema ji ❤️

[@sidra406]

Amazing crusader..love from India ...she should be invited to India to spread this wonderful message and be part of women empowerment globally

[@suhailansari4631]

بہت عمدہ اور عظیم کاوش - سلامت رہیئے ( دادی ماں ) امن ،محبت اور انسانیت کا پیغام ہر فرد و بشر کے لئے سلام و عقیدت - سبھی کو - سبھی کے لئے دعائیں -

[@deepakpradhan9904]

Kathak start with Lord Krishna and Radha Love . This is Dance of Love . Latter in Mughals era It's change a lot in its steps and its music .

[@Rohan-yz3mp]

Kudos to her and Al Jazeera ! Love from India ! 🇮🇳🇵🇰

[@meerasharma1010]

Love from India... Nari Shakti 🙏🏻🕊️💐🇮🇳🇵🇰

[@AshutoshGuptaiitb]

This is really beautiful. Al-Jazeera is truly amazing in putting stories in front of the world which other media channels never or rarely cover

[@chetanmale]

I amazed to see , a country like Pakistan have such people who spreading love & compassion through their dance.

[@anurakchhettry1140]

Country like Pakistan ! yes and they also don’t have any rss mentality.

[@krishroy5906]

Khatak Dance was originate in India.

[@ishitasingh5330]

@@anurakchhettry1140 what a shame. Comparing rss with pakistan. U r a fool

[@ishitasingh5330]

@@anurakchhettry1140 lady herself is saying she is getting threats for doing kathak and you are barking here in the name of rss

[@anurakchhettry1140]

@@ishitasingh5330 , no I’m not in that sense , I know rss is dirty .

[@anurakchhettry1140]

Love ❤️ and respect for Pakistan 🇵🇰 always from a Nepali American.

[@suhailansari4631]

I Salute You Mam ( Grand Mother ) V.nice , & Super Good job , God Bless You .

[@desmadrezai]

There's actually no verse in Quran forbidding you to dance. It's an form of art, expressing yourself to fullest. Not be ashamed of there bodies. Love your words!

[@my-gc1id]

I love her omg🥺 I want to learn kathak from her

[@arharsh46]

i think your title implies plural.. 'dancers' not 'a dancer' i was hoping to see more than one kathak dancer in karachi, and more about how the classical dance culture is thriving in the city, how it have evolved etc, and here it was about a dancer who is also an activist in women rights.. it a great work and kudos to her but the title is wrong for the given subject

[@lifeofsahani]

Think about all the women centric folk dances that got lost with time because people got converted & started living in a society that looked down upon dancing!

[@moopmoopmeepmeep8167]

The dancing throughout the video and particularly at the end is looks so joyful and expressive! It's disgraceful that anyone would be against such beautiful, harmless, and simple enjoyment and expression.

[@nhagoldman8230]

Love it ♥️ Keep it up 👍 Love from Lahore.

[@chaturbhujbhojwani6117]

Dance is art and it's God gifted.

[@rp7159]

I hope that with this Vedic dance form we can attract the ladies of Pakistan to Vedanta.

[@lll2282]

kathak is orginally hindu dance from, started from rass leela hindu folk stories of radha and krishna, and kathak itself is sanskrit word which means story , the sargam and taals used are typical in all hindu classical dance which were orginally temple dance forms around 2500yr old. its funny to see how pakistani reject everything which is hindu and indian yet their entire culture is based on it xd. although in islam gungroo,music,dance are all banned seeing them perform, well thanks for keeping our culture alive haha.

[@rudyboy1690]

Pakistan and India are similar in their hate too. The way she described the atmosphere of Pakistan, for a moment I thought she was talking about India.

[@nazrinbegam1047]

Bhut accha kam kar rahi he mem aap best of luck

[@groevensen9132]

How inspiring !

[@waqasrizvi2098]

Like this video want to work with Mam Sheema Kirmani

[@samuelnavkar]

Very nice Apala Verma

[@sureshdhru7097]

Address please

[@northern5428]

good work, keep going

[@shujah4ever]

There is so much trouble in Pakistan for all kinds of people not just women. But the part of Pakistan belong to Land Lords like Bhutto family and others are worse for women.

[@mnraihan]

Salute dear madam.i also learnt kathak

[@india-inc163]

Pakistan sld repsect minority...in India we do the result is Abdul Kalam ...Sania Mirza....Sikhs in Indian Army...Paris n Jain business houses ...this will go on ..Be like InDia ..a pularist awesome place

[@gudagi2391]

We dont want to be as india. We respect our minorities, but what you are doing to your minorities. Watch kashmir and Dehli riots.

[@idontknowyouitseems_4370]

@@gudagi2391 sadly these incidents hurt India's pluralistic values. But what you should know is that we have a right wing government currently and these things happen whenever a right wing takes over. When Pakistan will have it you'll know it.

[@AbJuly]

This isn't Kathak, it's mujra. Kathak is derived from the word Katha which loosely translates to "storytelling of God's and scriptures" The various mudras itself have a divine depiction. You can't substract Hinduism out of Kathak and replace it with something else.

[@Himanshu-pg5cv]

Yes Kathak is the art which depicts the story of God(especially Lord Krishna) in the form of expressions, dance and music.

[@ishitasingh5330]

Wow very true.

[@jeongbun2386]

💀💀💀

[@abcd-sr4ov]

Astaghfirullah

[@prasanthpanicker8224]

Fanatic Muslim men will not utter a word on this.

[@330MillionGods]

shuja : rape is still very rare in India, although they are highly publicized by anti-hindu media. where as Islamic oppression of women is all over the world.

[@adolfhitler3037]

Fir v islam santi doot he yehi bolte raho.....

[@Sunil-dl9ep]

Oasis of hope in a savage paradise 🤔!

[@Carbon703]

Why Aljazerra always shows the negative side of Pakistan as their are lot of Postive things in Pakistan,Aljazeera should highlight that too.

[@Khansaabkhan]

Versus positive???? Like name me one haha

[@sajaljain8843]

how is this negative for pakistan?

[@Himanshu-pg5cv]

Sorry bro I did not find anything negative in it.

[@amimulahsan3734]

Because Pakistan is full of negatives. And not accepting this is another negative thing. If you want to change, first you have to acknowledge your problem.

[@robertbilliom6198]

Those Are glory of Pakistan you can say. Living in such a conservative Community they are doing a lot.

[@hammadthegreat]

more propapaganda than art regards

[@danielcuevas5899]

Haram! Haram!

[@jeongbun2386]

Oh no!