ISLAMABAD: A book titled ‘Malka Aliya Laila: Paintings on Stories of Sex Workers in Pakistan’ was launched on Friday.
Organised by Gallery 6 in collaboration with the East-West Center Association–Islamabad Chapter , the event drew artists, academics, writers and students eager to witness the unusual intersection of art, public health and lived realities of women on society’s margins.
The book featured expressionist paintings based on true stories Dr Faisel Arjumand encountered while conducting fieldwork on HIV/Aids in the early 2000s.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Health with World Bank support, he had to map sex workers across cities and interview them for the national Aids Control Programme.
“What I saw, heard, and felt was unbearable,” Faisel recalled, adding that “these were not just data points, but human experiences etched into memory.” Through painting, he said he found a way to process and share them.
Art critic Cosima Brand, speaking at the launch, described the work as “art that speaks directly to the soul”, adding that the paintings humanised sex workers by capturing their resilience, sorrow and dignity beyond the conventional gaze of art.
A multimedia presentation of selected works was also shown, followed by a discussion on the ethical and artistic dimensions of portraying marginalised women. Participants noted that the conversation itself was rare in Pakistan’s public sphere, where sex work ws often hidden and stigmatised.
By the end of the evening, the consensus was clear: Malka Aliya Laila was more than a book. It is an artistic and humanitarian statement — bridging medicine, research and art to give voice and dignity to women, too often silenced in society.
Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025