The Road Not Taken

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by…and that has made all the difference”

--Robert Frost

Although one of the most frequently quoted, the Frost quote had me somewhat puzzled for most of my life. I used to think it simply meant that the road that one chose would make the difference in the type of life one led, but just recently I started to ponder upon another, perhaps hidden meaning. I started to think that maybe Frost is sneakily suggesting that there is, in fact, something special about that “road less traveled” itself. Perhaps he is suggesting that we take those risks that we are all so afraid to take and to live our lives in a way that, albeit different from the norm, is one that we can wholeheartedly call our own. Don’t be a DRONE…TAKE the road less traveled and see where it takes you. JUMP into the abyss if not only to see where you land. It may turn out to be a better place than you have ever been…

So, I decided to do just that. Thus begin the magnificent mal-adventures of Anisa and Suhail. On July 31, 2010, my husband, Suhail Butt and I embarked on “the road less traveled” – we decided to live and work in Pakistan for a year amidst the growing Taliban attacks, intense heat, load-shedding, and incredibly precarious political conditions. Well, if the destination weren’t so ‘interesting’, it wouldn’t be an adventure, would it?

Why, you may be wondering?

Here was our line of reasoning and why we chose Pakistan: Development in Chicago was slow due to the “Great Recession”, which directly affected Suhail’s line of work (check out his website at www.suhaildesign.com). Suhail had been getting calls from his uncle in Pakistan, who owns a full service design and build firm, telling him of numerous projects in Pakistan and the Middle East for which he needed an architectural/interior design component. The gears started shifting in my head toward the fashion industry in Pakistan and the vast variety of fabrics, trims, and notions I would be able to work with to produce a new line out there for my own venture, NISI (www.nisichicago.com). I had always wanted to start a small fair-trade facility for women to produce my clothing in Pakistan, offering not only fair wages, but opportunities for underprivileged women to gain skills and training that would empower them to support themselves and their families. The facility could be affiliated with the school projects that Suhail has been working on in the northern areas (www.actualsizeglobal.org). In addition, having lived in the West for most of our lives, we wanted to experience our own country as adults and as anthropologists. The possibilities seemed endless…

I have called this blog feminEASTa – a cross between fashionista and feminist, because it is not only how I view myself but also what I believe to be the inspiration for the NISI women’s empowerment project. The EAST simply refers to my experiences in the EAST -- how they continue to mold and affect me, how I perceive feminism in the East in contrast to the West, and my experiences with women of all levels of society.

Although this blog will focus primarily on fashion and feminism related to my experiences throughout the course of my travels, I will most likely also talk about various random stuff that interests me such as food, politics, and other social and cultural issues.

Stay tuned and please feel free to leave your comments.