How bankrupt, morally crippled, and psychologically cowardly must a state be for the rhythm of a 75-year-old woman’s dance to shake the throne of its power? On that turbulent night of May 14, 2024, when renowned classical dancer, human rights activist, and pioneer of the cultural movement Sheema Kermani was arrested from the streets of Karachi, the world witnessed not just state repression against an artist, but the ultimate, naked self-deception of a dying state apparatus. On paper, the ridiculous and routine legal sections hurled against her—violating Section 144, unlawful assembly (Section 147), or blocking roads (Section 341)—concealed a deep political panic. Because to autocratic and bankrupt rulers, nothing is more dangerous than truth, art, and free will. What else could one expect from a bankrupt Pakistan—a state that cannot feed its starving citizens, a state that has permanently mortgaged its dignity and economy to the international financial market?
What was Sheema Kermani’s crime? She wears a saree, puts a large red bindi on her forehead, performs Bharatanatyam on stage, and most importantly—she lives on her own terms. She is a woman who has demonstrated at every step of her life that she does not feel the need to seek ‘permission’ from any patriarchal dictator or so-called elders to survive in society. In a fundamentalist and patriarchal state like Pakistan, this refusal to ask for ‘permission’ is the greatest crime. Even during the oppressive days of General Zia-ul-Haq’s dark military rule, when the throat of culture was being choked, Sheema Kermani did not sit at home. She chose classical dance as the ultimate language of protest. She believed that when a society is rendered speechless, every posture of the body, every blink of the eye, and every sound of the ankle bells (ghungroos) can become individual bullets of defiance.
Today’s Pakistan is economically crippled. Its policymakers roam the world carrying a begging bowl of international aid. When ordinary citizens stand in flour lines and fight, spilling blood, the masters of that state do not bat an eye. But the moment an elderly woman steps onto the street to advocate for women’s rights and equality, or stands on stage and uses the language of the body to lash out against exploitation, the state suddenly wakes up from its slumber. Why is the sound of a woman’s ankle bells such a great danger in a state where the roar of guns, the open swagger of terrorists, and the rampages of religious extremists are completely tolerable and normal? The answer is very simple. Because terror or weapons only take away physical life, but art and truth shatter the walls of fear in people’s minds. And the greatest fear of a declining state apparatus is conscious human beings. They want loyal, obedient, silent puppets who will not question, will not protest, and will live with their heads bowed down. Sheema Kermanis represent a giant question mark in that culture of submission.
Looking back at history, whenever power wants to hide its fragility, it strikes at culture. Sometimes it is the fatwa to cover the face, sometimes the decree to silence a woman’s voice, and sometimes the attempt to choke the life out of intellect. But history has also taught us that human souls can never be chained. Remember 2012. When the courtyard of the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan was reddened with the blood of hundreds of innocent people in a suicide bombing by religious extremists, this very Sheema Kermani rushed there. Standing atop heaps of corpses, even before the stains of blood had dried, she performed the Sufi ‘Dhamal’. That dance was not mere entertainment; it was a triumphant celebration of life standing in the face of death, a magnificent battle of light against darkness. Today, when that same fearless voice is sought to be imprisoned through legal chicanery, it becomes clear that the fire of that dhamal still sends shivers of fear down the spines of the oppressors.
Those who want to dismiss this incident as a simple or isolated police action also harbor a kind of opportunistic blindness deep within their minds. They are afraid to face the truth. Society always wants a controlled, prescribed, and so-called ‘polite’ society where women remain locked in the corners of rooms just to execute commands. Sheema Kermani shattered that toxic and subservient wall of silence forever, which is why today she faces the dark chambers of a prison. On the other hand, those who invoke the excuse of so-called culture to seek justification for this arrest or remain indifferent are the invisible accomplices of that very same exploitative system. The language of progressivism does not suit their mouths. When they say, “Oh, what’s the big deal about reacting so much, that’s just their culture,” it must be understood that they are actually indirectly defending the criminal. Standing in a convenient position and keeping silent or compromising in the face of a specific injustice is by no means progressivism.
This hypocrisy of patriarchal society is glaringly obvious. Has any man in society ever been subjected to state oppression or arrest simply for using his own body, wearing clothes of his own choice, or expressing his own opinion freely? We all know the answer. But so-called elite men do not have the courage to admit this truth publicly. Because admitting this truth would collapse the card houses of patriarchy they have decorated for centuries. Those who want to make a mockery of feminism actually live in that sphere of privilege where they never have to take to the streets to protect their existence, never have to cower in fear over their own bodies, or wonder how visible or hidden they must be. It is this blind privilege that has numbed their conscience. Therefore, those who still consider feminism an exaggeration or unnecessary fuss are implicitly part of this exploited and diseased structure.
Sheema Kermani’s arrest has exposed yet another grim truth before our eyes—the apathy of a vast section of intellectual and civil society. When streets worldwide are stained with the blood of Masha Aminis, our tendency to drift along with this mainstream current is a symptom of extreme moral decay. We often forget that no matter where injustice occurs, its ripples will eventually reach our doorsteps. Sheema Kermani is not fighting alone for herself; she fights for all those women of South Asia who face invisible harassment every day within and outside their homes. Her unwavering courage reminds us that standing tall with a straight spine is not a miracle; rather, it should be the normal state of human existence. But the sheer amount of lonely struggle and price required to perform that normal act in a state of subjugated and bankrupt mentality is proof of the sickness of our social system.
This blind repression by the state machinery is not merely a conspiracy to silence an artist; it is essentially a reflection of that broader social structure where denying a woman’s independent identity has become the norm. Whenever society senses winds of change, the old and rusted forces grow even more violent. Sheema Kermani has repeatedly proved throughout her long artistic and political life that art is not just food for entertainment, art is a weapon of resistance and liberation. On that very night of her arrest in Karachi, the fall of all those moralizing hypocrites who claim to be progressive but fail to stand tall with straight spines in moments of crisis essentially took place.
Finally, it must be said that by locking Sheema Kermani in prison, the state may find temporary relief, but the fire of her ideals that she has ignited can never be extinguished in any prison. Her arrest is not an isolated event; it is a document of the ultimate moral defeat of a bankrupt, cowardly, and directionless state. When a state fears an artist, wants to put shackles on a dancer’s feet, and sends free-thinking people to prison, it must be assumed that the fall of that state is merely a matter of time. Sheema Kermani did not lose that day; defeated was that state apparatus which is incapable of tolerating even a single speck of light standing against the darkness. No prison or autocratic ruler has the power to stop the triumphal march of truth and beauty; and precisely for this reason, Sheema Kermani and fearless people like her show us the path to liberation through the ages.
