Every year on March 8, the world celebrates “Women’s Day”. As on every occasion, in order to make this day special, Google always has a great surprise in store for us all.
This year Google-Doodle decides to pay tribute to 12 female artists from all over the world. These artists used doodles to tell a story about themselves.
The stories are a series of narratives and comics describing the personal story of 12 women from 12 different countries.
“The narratives represent ‘a moment, person or event that has impacted their lives as women”, described Google’s blog post. “The artwork has been translated across over 80 languages and shared on Google’s search page in countries around the world”.
Among these women is an artist from Pakistan, Saffa Khan, currently residing in Manchester, UK. Saffa is a freelance illustrator and printmaker, born in 1994 in Dera Ismail Khan. Her work is mainly on themes of home, identity, race, culture, religion and mental health which deconstruct and translate daily feelings, conversations & intimate thoughts.
The doodles displayed on Google are actually a work in progress from her picture book ‘Vutun’- Homeland.
Her artwork tells a story of our home country, Pakistan from the eyes of a child.
With her artwork, she wants the world to get familiarized with Pakistan’s culture and the people living here. Her visual story gives you a feeling of wandering in the bazaars of Nowshera and being allured by the mellow yellow mango stalls, the smell of fresh chai and colorful clothes being sold in the markets.
In her story, she mentions something inspiring. She says that she went to the smallest school located in the city. This shows that it doesn’t matter how big or expensive your school is, as long as you have the passion in your heart, anything is possible. The way she talked about her teachers in her story shows how they, as a women, played an important role in shaping who she is now.
Saffa Khan created a story which would make any Pakistani, living abroad, homesick. It’s a tale told by a true patriot.
According to CNBC, Lydia Nichols and Alyssa Winans, Google’s project leads for International Women’s Day wrote, “We hope that the combined power of words and images help bring these stories to life in a way that invokes feelings of understanding, empathy and spirit of the day.”
Here are the rest of the 11 female artists with their beautiful doodles that Google showcased.
