Rumana Husain

Born in 1952 in Karachi (Pakistan)
Lives and works in Karachi (Pakistan)

Rumana Husain is the author of Karachiwala: A Subcontinent within a City (2010) and Street Smart: Professionals on the Street (2015). She has written and illustrated over 60 children’s books and developed numerous teachers’ manuals for several publishers including Oxford University Press, Danesh Publications, ERDC, Kathalya Publications (Nepal), Nami Children’s Books (South Korea), Butterfly Works (The Netherlands), Pratham Books (India), and the Bookgroup, which she co-founded in Karachi in 1988 and was its Director from 1996 until 2000. Husain trained as a graphic designer but has had an evolving career: from teaching art to making fabric-toys and quilted artwork, as an innovative school head, teacher-trainer, book illustrator and writer. She also contributes reviews and articles to national newspapers and magazines. She co-founded NuktaArt, a bi-annual art magazine, published for ten years, of which she was Senior Editor. She worked as Head, Activism & Outreach at the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights from 2001 to 2008, and was teaching at and also heading the CAS School from 1986 to 1996. She is an Honorary Director on the Board of the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF), Honorary General Secretary of the Karachi Conference Foundation and a Founding Member and Member of the Executive Committee of I AM Karachi – a social movement.

She writes of her performance for KB17: “Karachi has been my muse for as long as I can remember. I would like to portray this city’s diversity by donning various head covers and dopatta worn by Karachi women.  The various head gears, placed on a wooden rack, will be put on for a minute or two each. The following will be at my disposal: A shuttlecock burqa worn by many Pathan women; a white embroidered chaadar worn in particular by Delhi Saudagran women; a black abaya worn by Shia women of Iranian origins; a ‘Marvi’ dopatta worn by women of Thar;  a ‘rida’ headgear worn by Bohra women; a tie-dyed chunri over my head; a net dopatta over my shoulders; a glittery, studded abaya worn by many Sunni women; a hijab covering my hair; a saree pallu over my shoulder worn commonly by women from different backgrounds; a saree pallu in the front like the ones Parsi and Gujarati women wear; a scarf tied over my head like a turban (it’s the new trend); and a chuna-huwa single-coloured dopatta around my neck.”