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THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY OF PAKISTAN (JASP) HAS BEEN A journey of possibilities. It has led us from our cozy literary cocoon to a sociocultural movement that's inspired dialogue, celebrated our love for Jane's work, published our Austenistani homage to Jane, and propelled us to become part of her postmodern pop-culture legacy. And in doing so, it's helped us discover personal strengths, explore professional aptitudes, and revel in our global community.
JASP started as a small literary circle in 2015 accompanied by a Facebook page. Photos of our Regency-inspired tea parties went viral on social media, with some delighted comments in the vein of "we thought Pakistani women all wore burqas—we were wrong!" We've met up in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and London, and we've been celebrated for our sisterhood, our cosplay, and our fiction writing on the BBC, British Council Arts, NPR, Sky Arts, The Times (London), and other channels, publications, websites, and podcasts. Austenistan is even featured as the pick of the month at various book clubs from Minnesota to Saudi Arabia.
I appeared on the Jane Austen Society of North America's (JASNA) first international society panel at the 2016 Annual General Meeting. In Chawton, Hampshire, our embroidered patch is part of the Jane Austen Community Quilt Project at Jane Austen's House Museum, and our book is on the shelves of the library at Chawton House. It's also being sold at the gift shop of the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.
In the past two years, we've spoken about JASP and Austenistan at panels and lit fests in Galle, Sharjah, and Washington, DC; via video in Brazil and Bangalore; and at podcasts in Dubai and Dublin, in addition to Pakistan.
In creating Austenistan, we've found ourselves rewriting an outdated narrative that claims to represent us. We're de-exoticizing representations of Pakistani and South Asian women while channeling...