Actresses break taboo

last updated 8 January 2015

Islamabad, Pakistan

A group of leading Pakistani actresses have defied religious convention by staging a performance of The Vagina Monologues, the internationally successful play in which women discuss their own anatomy in intimate detail. Several Western feminists, including the play’s author, Eve Ensler, attended the performance, which was held in private before an invited audience. “This is a society where it is taboo to talk about—or even say the word—sex,” said Nadia Jamil, one of the performers. “The idea of standing up and saying the word ‘vagina’ is ludicrous, unimaginable.”