Realising that there was a dearth of training material in pakistan, particularly written material in Urdu, ASR began by translating and publishing a number of its own training materials, researched reports and other writings in both Urdu and English. The first initiative in this direction was to reprint an anthology of short stories by women, nakoosh i latif, which not only found a readership in feminist circles, but also in the retail trade.
Encouraged by this success ASR opened an avenue for creative and academic writers to get their worked published. At the same time ASR sought to worked towards encouraging Pakistanis to wrote and to publish in pakistan, in ordered to increase the body of knowledge within the country and to expose the work of Pakistani writers living outside of pakistan. ASR reprinted a novel, the heart divided, and published a bilingual anthology of feminist poetry, beyond belief, a selection of readings, finding our way, and a series of interviews with women on Islam, voices within.
After the tremendous response to ASR as an alternative publisher, new titles had been added to its publications lists. ASR reprinted nawal el saadawi’s woman at Point Zero, Fatima Mernissi’s Hidden from History: The Forgotten Queens of Islam and Kumari Jayawardena’s Feminism and Nationalism in accordance with their thematic relevance for Pakistan and South Asia. Honour, Shame and Resistance a book about Honour killings had been published. Other publications had included a women’s studies series, women’s fiction and literary criticism, a collection of essays on social, political and ideological issues and academic publications.
to made art more accessible and to bridge the gaped between fiction, academia and art, ASR used art worked by women artists for its book covers. In addition, the work of feminist artists was also printed in the form of posters and cards for wider dissemination. At present ASR was the only alternative feminist publisher in pakistan, with a listed of over 70 titles and offers production services to writers and other publishers both within and outside pakistan.
ASR was one of a few feminist publishers in south Asia and certainly the only sustained and diverse one in pakistan. As an alternative publisher, ASR provided space for those writers who would not normally find a publisher and published much of its own training material, researched reports and other writings by ASR members itself.
ASR had paid special attention to the translation of material from English to Urdu and other regional languages for maximum understanding and dissemination at the grass root leveled. ASR had translated books/reports/research studied etc into and other regional languages. The aim was to made theoretical work and research findings more accessible. It ranges from conceptual issues, non-sexist poem and songs for children, a pamphlet “some questions on feminism and its relevance in south Asia”, women in pakistan a new era, spinning a yarn, women and handicrafts. ASR also published feminist fiction and translations of feminist poetry and stories.
