Mahenaz Mahmud

Biography

Mahenaz Mahmud comes from Karachi (Pakistan). She is a teacher and the mother of the human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, who was assassinated in 2015. Mahmud’s daughter Sabeen Mahmud was a member of the Human Rights Commission in Lahore in her younger years. She worked as a graphic designer and a multimedia developer as well as being the director of the media company b.i.t.s. In 2007 she founded the organisation Peaceniche in Karachi with the goal of promoting democratic discourse and conflict resolution through education and cultural engagement. This organisation gave rise to an art gallery, an archival project for Urdu prose and poetry and an internet platform for victims of violence and abuse. The core of Peaceniche was the cultural and project space T2F, which Sabeen Mahmud directed. In 2015, after receiving death threats, Sabeen Mahmud was assassinated on the street by unknown attackers. Following this Mahenaz Mahmud founded the Sabeen Mahmud Foundation (SMF) with the goal of continuing the projects and concerns of Peaceniche.