In light of the US-led “War on Terror” in which the Pakistani state has and continues to play a pivotal role as a frontline ally, this special section of TDR on Performing Pakistani Politics provides an urgent insight into the role of performance as artivist intervention for a citizenry confronting the tide of rising extremism as well as imperialism.

Sext of Saudade , the precursor to Jihad Against Violence , is a collaboration between a Pakistani American woman and an Italian American woman. The play interrogates the contradictions and corroborations within a butch/femme dynamic informed by various identity markers including gender, sexuality, class, and race.

The tropes of mainstream and peripheral transgendered performers are explored for their playful negotiations in the body politic of Pakistan.

Jihad Against Violence , a collaboration between two Pakistani American women, is a dramatic and poetic depiction of the struggle (emotional, physical, and psychological) against violence of any kind toward women in Pakistani culture.