Nasreen and Hasan Askari open Karachi museum with her 1,piece centuries-old collection from trade crossroads. As a young medical student in s Pakistan , Nasreen Askari had an encounter that would shape her for ever. After asking the mother of a sick boy routine questions about his family history, the woman looked outraged.
Marching Askari outside, she took off her colourful shawl and laid it on her lap. It awoke her curiosity, which grew into a lifelong passion for collecting unique textiles crafted by the diverse communities of Sindh and her attempt to understand the narratives documented in the cloth.
She said the textile traditions of Sindh were among the oldest in the world, dating back centuries to the ancient Indus valley civilisation of south Asia, which was centred in the province. In a reflection of the geography of the region, which has a long history of being an east-west trade crossroads, she said the Sindhi fabrics she had collected represented a unique synthesis of traditions spanning not only Pakistan but China, India, Iran and central Asia.
Most of the fabrics in her collection have been woven on a handloom and are made using natural dyes from roots, leaves and flowers, traditions that continue in the smaller rural and nomadic communities of Sindh, even if diminished in the face of modernity.
The exhibit, Colours of the Indus, drawn from a collection endowed to the museum by a Pakistani benefactor that had lain forgotten until Askari dug it out from the archive, was a huge success.
