There’s a delay between the moment that Maliha Abidi’s avatar flickers onto the screen and connects to her audio. In those first silent seconds, a chartreuse, stretched canvas reveals itself propped on the wall behind her. A crescent of a woman’s painted form, a graphic rose tucked into dark waves of hair, creeps out from behind Abidi’s silhouette. The woman’s outline is of Madam Noor Jehan, an award-winning singer and actress who made waves as the first female Pakistani film director, inspiring countless generations of women. Abidi partially eclipses Jehan in the frame, which seems fitting because although she is […]