Pakistan's obedient daughters: Nice, calm but never angry

Girls in many Pakistan households are supposed to be nice, calm and pretty and in doing so they need to suppress their anger at all costs: this is the central theme of a new quirky graphic novel.
"The Suppressed Anger of the Pakistani Obedient Daughter" is designer, illustrator and improv artist Ayesha Tariq's take on hurdles faced by Pakistani daughters.
Girls there often suppress their anger.
"Because girls are supposed to be nice, calm and pretty. It would be a crime if she were to displease somebody. Our society and religions emphasise a lot on respect of authority figures. Sometimes this creates such a divide that it either causes fear or a great distance in communication. A lot of words remain unspoken," says Tariq.

"The Suppressed Anger of the Pakistani Obedient Daughter," published by Penguin Books, was originally the author's thesis.
The book's central character is Sarah, a 17-year-old girl from a conservative urban family who has to do all the chores of the house, keep her family members happy, keep her reputation clean, so that people don't gossip about her and always look good so that she can be a good candidate for the marriage proposals that come her way.

All this really upsets Sarah, but being an obedient daughter, she can only suppress her anger. However, this time Sarah's patience runs out and she cannot hold it in any longer.

"I had proposed a few ideas to my advisors and this being the third one that I scribbled down because I had gotten scolded by my parents and didn't think much of it. At that time, I had almost zero belief in my own ideas. I used to browse online and look at various works and always wanted to be as good, hence thinking that my ideas and skill are not good enough.
"I'm lucky that my advisors urged me to think more about the theme. So, I reflected over my own experiences, talked to different girls and conducted some surveys in order to draw a more relatable picture," Tariq told PTI.