The Pakistani Students’ Association is promoting female empowerment through dance in its spring cultural show this weekend.
The dance will be among a few PSA cultural performances at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Nazmi Ahmed, a UF sustainability studies junior, is choreographing the dance. She has never taken a dance class, but she said she has been dancing on her own since sixth grade.
Now, the 21-year-old is using her passion for dance to promote feminism and peel back the stereotypes of Pakistani and South-Asian cultures.
Ahmed said the dance’s feminist message was inspired by the speech by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that opened Beyoncé’s song “Flawless” because it made her think about her South-Asian culture.
“Back in the day, we were educated up until the point where we got married — and that’s it,” she said.
A young, educated woman, she said there is more to aspire to now than marriage, and she is using dance to get that message across.
The dance will consist of four sections. Three will be performed to music by Pakistani artists and represent the different facets of women within the culture. One section will be a reproduction of “Flawless,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said the sections show the fragile, cultural and fearless sides of women. The finale brings them all together.
The 22 dancers are from different cultural backgrounds, and many are part of PSA, Ahmed said.
Farah Naz, a UF accounting sophomore, will be performing during “Flawless” and one other dance. The second-year PSA member said they are showing that women in her Pakistani culture aren’t oppressed and have the power to do what they want.
“It not only promotes feminism, but it also promotes Pakistani culture,” Naz, 19, said. “And it shows how we shouldn’t be misrepresented by Pakistani terrorism.”
Ahmed said the song “Flawless” is not meant to tell parents their way of thinking is backwards. Instead, it’s about making them understand their daughters have just as much potential as their sons do.
“This is our generation,” she said. “We’re filled with potential. We’re filled with spirit and change, and we’re going to make a change in this world.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 4/3/2015 under the headline “Pakistani Students’ Assoc. prepares feminist-empowerment dance”]
From left: Christine Diaz, a 22-year-old UF psychology senior, Bushra Rashid, a 20-year-old UF sociology junior, and Rana Al-Nahhas, a 20-year-old UF psychology sophomore, practice a dance to a portion of Beyonce's "Flawless" at the Reitz Union on Monday. They'll perform the dance at Pakistani Students' Association's 19th annual cultural show "Humara Saturday Night Live," featuring Pakistani-Dutch singer Imran Khan.
