The story of the "peace and religious harmony" mural.

Once upon a time, I discovered an international program called the Art Mile Mural Project. I was inspired by the beautiful work that was being created through the project to arrange mural making with my country of Pakistan.

On Sunday, June 14th, I made a mural on 'Peace and Religious Harmony' with the children of Katchi Abadi, a shantytown inhabited Christians. The mural depicts a woman and a man reaching out for a bright world where children of different religions are holding hands in harmony.

As is often the case with the minority in a country (whether religious, racial, or cultural), the Christians of Katchi Abadi experience discrimination. Because of this, I was excited to do a mural about peace and religious harmony with these children. Children from Funkor, the school where I teach art, worked side by side with the Katchi Abadi children on the mural.

While other countries contributed murals that are made from canvas and acrylics, I was concerned because acrylics and canvas are very expensive in Pakistan. I wanted to make a beautiful mural keeping in mind the economic conditions of our country. To do so, I remembered my grandmother, who used to make the most beautiful quilts from scraps of cloth she collected. This mural too is made from some recycled pieces of cloth, as well as some new ones.

Before the project with the children began, I prepared the background for the mural, which included a man and a woman standing on each side with arms reaching out towards the central open space.

I started the activity by asking the children, "Do you want to know what this man and woman are reaching out for?" I heard an excited "Yes," and I told them they were reaching out for peace. Then, we cut all the human figures and the religious symbols from different colored pieces of cloth, and then joined them like a puzzle before sewing them onto the background.

Since sewing is associated with girls in Pakistan, the girls volunteered to work on the mural, but later on the boys desperately wanted to be a part of the process as well. Some of the boys were very good at sewing different pieces of cloth, especially one boy named "Sunny Samuel." Later, I found out that Sunny Samuel works in a tailor shop in place of going to school.

We made this mural on an empty plot land next to the slums of Katchi Abadi, which are surrounded by houses that belong to the wealthy. While the children were working, an elderly man with a white beard got out of his house and started shooing away the children, mumbling that they were a big nuisance and had destroyed all the plants. I told him that the children and I were making a mural, and, if he allowed us, we would finish in peace. "What is the mural about?" he asked. I told him the title of the mural, "Peace and Religious Harmony."

After that, the man didn't bother the children any more. Later, he even brought his own granddaughters, who had never met the Katchi Abadi children, to help make the mural.

When the mural was finished, the Christian children recognized their symbol of the cross and the Muslim children recognized their crescent and moon. They also saw children of different religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, and Sikhism holding hands in harmony. The mural making was a happy, meaningful experience for the Katchi Abadi children, who learned through art that there are many Muslims who respect their religion.

I want this mural to be the voice of all the beautiful children of Pakistan who want peace. There are many of us in the Muslim world who are the most compassionate, tolerant and humane people, but somehow extremists have muffled our voices, and we are often perceived badly in other cultures. Through organizations like the International Child Art Foundation and the Art Mile Mural Project, it is possible for our true voices to be heard.