In our own Backyard

During a time of severe Islamization under the military dictatorship of General Zia Ul Haq in 1980s Pakistan, which fostered an increasingly oppressive environment for women, Lala Rukh involved herself with the women’s movement, co-founding the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and commencing a life-long commitment to political activism. Rukh was proactively involved in the Forum’s activities when local printers controlled by the government in Lahore refused to print their protest materials and newsletters. Rukh began screen printing, designing and producing many of the WAF’s provocative posters that called for the equal rights and freedom of women.

In the latter half of the 1980s, Rukh also set up printmaking workshops to assist women involved in similar movements in the region. In Our own Backyard is a screen printing manual that was devised by Rukh for these workshops, which would usually take place in her own backyard in Lahore.