Cracked Borders

This small series of images were created to visualize the connectedness between Indian and Pakistani Punjabi women. During the 1947 partition, Punjab was violently split between the two nations. Intergenerational trauma has seeped into the lives of Punjabi women today. These images show that despite a shared identity having been split between outside power, the interconnectedness remains. 

In 2020, I held a print sale of a couple of these images to raise funds for the Farmers Protest in India for the Khalsa.  

Team

Photography: Simrah Farrukh
Creative Direction: Aditi Mayer
Models: Aditi Mayer + Sumeera
Accompanying poem by: Sumeera

Calls to prayer muffled by the sound of torn hearts weeping in panjab

my sister living across rivers because in textbooks her panjab is not my panjab

we jhummar along cracked borders seeping blood into the harvest of panjab
farmers hydrating their crops with the crimson water that streams through panjab

with each step, my paranda pulls me back into my sister from panjab
souls braiding onto one another as a barcade protecting panjab

qawwali melodies sing as panjabi women bow to bounty of the most high for panjab
agonizing devotion that the rivers flow back into the home that once was panjab

how i pray i could take the bullets out of my sister's flesh in 1984 from dehli to panjab 
how i pray i could take the bullets out of my sister's flesh today from delhi to panjab


Sumeera



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