Ayesha Tariq's Graphic Novel 'Sarah' Brings Out The Struggles Of Being A 'Good' Girl

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Khushboo Sharma

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Ayesha Tariq’s Graphic Novel ‘Sarah’ Brings Out The Struggles Of Being A ‘Good’ Girl

IWB Post

September 1, 2019

Infused with the right dose of humour, Pakistani artist Ayesha Tariq’s graphic novel Sarah presents how a ‘good’ teenage girl juggles with societal pressures and family expectations.

‘Sarah: The Suppressed Anger of the Pakistani Obedient Daughter’ complies an account of the everyday struggles of a ‘good’ and ‘Obedient’ teenage girl.

The graphic novel was initially Ayesha’s thesis when she studied at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. The illustrated novel was an outcome of a series of interviews and discussions with many girls of the artist’s age. What resulted was an amalgamation of experiences and stories that appealed to a lot of girls from everywhere in the world.

Hailing from a middle-class urban family in Pakistan, the protagonist Sarah often witnesses her dreams being crushed and is at the receiving end of subtle as well as open misogyny. While her brother is allowed to do as he pleases, Sarah is constantly restricted by her family even in the matters of studies.

Sarah raises a number of issues in the novel. She tells her mom about the inappropriate touching by her paedophile uncle but is asked by her mom to not discuss the topic. She is even expected to wake up in the middle of the night and warm food for her brother who gets back to home at 3 in the night.

Here are some of the illustrations from the novel: