Trucks are often used as moving billboard, sporting random images of heroes with guns or females with skimpy clothes, and off course, the all-time quote – “Buri nazar waale tera muh kaala.” However, Pakistan has come up with a unique idea of using trucks for spreading the message of rights of women.
Girl’s rights is making grounds in Pakistan as rights activist and documentary filmmaker Samar Minallah is rallying truck drivers to help spread awareness about girls’ education across the country, including remote areas, through their unique art.
Child Marriage robs a girl child of childhood and her right to education. #RaiseTheAge #ChildMarriage #TruckArt #AdvocacyThroughTruckArt pic.twitter.com/NolzY77gLa
— Samar MinAllah Khan (@SamarMinallahKh) October 21, 2018
Trucks are now seen carrying huge paintings about girl education, giving rights to girls in inheritance, and condemning evil practices of brides exchange to settle disputes, Swara and early marriages.
The campaign started when a truck driver, Haji Khan, decided to change the painting on his vehicle from that of a film star to the portrait of a girl carrying a school bag with a smile on her face. The painting also carries an inscription that says “education is the basic right of a girl. Send your daughters to school”.
According to Gulf News, a truck painter at a workshop in Peshawar suggested Khan to carry the imagery as it would help curb negative practice; Khan agreed.
“Truck art is a big source of publicity as the vehicle roams from Khyber to Karachi and its target audience is the rural population where most of these evil practices prevail,” said Samar Minallah, a social worker, anthropologist, documentary filmmaker and the architect of this programme.
She came up with this idea through discussions with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UNESCO, who are now financing her project.
