Graduate Showcase

2023/24
2022/23


Ghussa (Anger)


Amal Khan
MA DVC | 2023/24

Instagram: @khata_meetha





Book cover: Ghussa









Growing up in a traditional Pakistani household, I witnessed the repression of female rage within my own family. Since childhood I learned to idealize my grandmother. She never got angry, never raised her voice, and was my safe space when being scolded by my own parents. Despite the hardships she faced in life with her own family, and then in her marriage, she was the emblem of love and forgiveness. While she was commended for her resilience, that praise inadvertently perpetuated the normalization of female silence in the face of adversity. 

When I began exploring Pakistani cinema, I noticed that depictions of angry women were almost nonexistent in our media. I wanted to study that gap and see if there was a way I could bring attention to it. Through the lense of a feminist framework, I took a critical approach to Pakistani cinema while considering cultural, historical, and religious norms of the South Asian region. This project stands in direct opposition to the idea that women must be contained, calm, and collected. 

This project is built on a critical analysis of films both pre and post Islamization of Pakistan, and how these films have added to the country’s cultural zeitgeist. In a film and media industry that largely employs the use of melodrama as a narrative device in both soap operas and films, I observe and critique the portrayal of women, and specifically female rage. I question how misogynistic (whether it means to be or not) Pakistan media is and how women’s issues are tackled, if at all. In modern media and tv are these issues being tackled differently and have we progressed since the last 50 years in a productive way? 

My project is loose and interpretive, but it is by a Pakistani woman and for Pakistani women. Growing up, I never had a resource like the one I am trying to create now. I did not feel represented, seen, or heard by any media. I knew I could not see myself Western media, and my exposure to local media was limited. I want women my age to use my project as a tool for education. If they have any previous interest in film, I want this to further fuel that passion. If they have absolutely no interest in Pakistani film, I want this project to serve as an introduction and hopefully a point of intrigue. 

I have spent almost half a year with this idea and this project. It started off with a keen interest in Pakistani cinema, but it became something much bigger. While doing the research and execution for Ghussa, I realised how personal it was. I reflected on my own childhood, my experience as a woman in Pakistan, and the stories of the women in my family. There is no right way to interpret my book Ghussa, but its intention is to invoke emotion, whether its anger, sadness, relief, or even confusion. Ultimately, my project hopes to serve as an educational resource but also as a site for catharsis. 



A mockup of one of my favorite rose eating, strange, unsettling, delighting spreads.
A black and white portrait spread from my book.
A spread featuring a poem written by me. 
A melancholic spread from the first half of my book.