Maliha Abidi on

The Power of Art, Technology and Storytelling, on Art and Activism, Processing and Relaying Socio-Political Notions Through Art, on Representation, on 'Women Rise', Girls Education and Creating Impact and Awareness through Art

Maliha Abidi

A multidisciplinary artist—working across painting, animation, digital illustration, installation, an author of three books 'Pakistan for Women', 'Rise' and 'Journey to America', the founder of 'Women Rise'—a Web3 NFT initiative focused on women’s rights and girls’ education through art, and founder of BackPackX, a spatial computing platform centred on storytelling, VR based education, and innovation for marginalized communities, Maliha Abidi’s art and work advocates for women’s education and rights, representation, diverse voices, anti-racism, anti-discrimination and delves into notions on migration, identity, collective memory, societal pressure, unseen labour, climate emergency and mental health.

Abidi's art is vibrant, bold, inviting and engaging. It confronts perceptions and challenges preconceived ideas. Through storytelling, portraiture, colour and fusing artistic mediums and technology, Maliha Abidi's art propels awareness and creates impact, visually captivating and striking colours bursting with profound meaning, brushstrokes and digital traits moulding strength and tenderness, collective and personal memory, socio-political issues and portraits of women, representing their stories.

Born and raised in Pakistan, at the age of 14, Abidi migrated to the United States, an experience that shaped her art, as she explored and spoke through her creativity on the South Asian Diaspora, migration, gender, identity and social issues happening around her.

Relocating to London, Maliha Abidi pursued an MA in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, with her graduate show looking into the politics of hair, both the political context around hair and as a bonding element through everyday practices. Her work has been exhibited in London, including her digital animation 'Missed Calls' with Outernet, in New York, Paris, Karachi, and Miami, and she was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 – Class of 2025. Clients and collaborations have included, Adobe, Google, UN Women, Vital Voices, Malala Fund, Chicago Bulls, IPPF, Charity Water, Instagram, Snapchat, The Pad Project, UNHCR, Lonely Whale, Camfed, The New York Times, Quarto Books, Voice HQ, and Coinbase.

This coming autumn she will begin an MFA at Oxford University (Class of 2026), and before that is part of the group exhibition, 'Provisional We' and has a solo exhibition 'A Knock on The Door' in August.

Maliha Abidi evokes through art what she feels deeply about, showcasing women in education and in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), and cheering women through portraits of activists, artists, scientists, coders from around the world. Creating impact through her art, raising funds with 'Women Rise' for girls education and several non-profit organisations, Abidi's art is both a celebration of women and an active reminder of the issues our world faces. Our conversation began with what drew her into art and Abidi's journey into the creative realm...

Can you tell us a bit about your journey and what first drew you to art?

In terms of my journey into art, I didn’t think about starting to create art for a career, it was a very natural thing for me, it came as second nature.
I have been making art for as long as I can remember, but it really became very important to me after migrating outside of Pakistan, because I started to use it as a form of therapy and as a form of processing a lot of that grief of migration, home sickness and isolation in a new land.
It started that way, but then when I began to notice aspects about The United States, where I was living, that it wasn’t always this land of opportunity and the glamorised version that we were taught about outside of The USA, when that dawned upon me and I started to see a lot of inequalities, I set about to process that through my art as well.
When I saw a lot of gun violence towards communities on the margins, when the mainstream media wouldn’t be covering or giving space to something that the Muslim community would be talking about, or if something bad happened that a migrant wasn’t responsible for, how the mainstream media would treat that differently, then I felt quite helpless. I didn’t know how I was supposed to show solidarity. I was 15 or 16 years old at the time, how was I supposed to process it all.
So there were multiple reasons why I eventually started to take my art seriously, why it became such an essential part of my life and it has been something like thirteen years since that journey began.

Maliha Abidi

Amplifying voices, causes, exploring and speaking about important issues, whether it's education, women’s rights, women’s empowerment, you started to bring then these notions into your art early on?

I wasn’t initially thinking about those stories as any form of activism, or as I mentioned part of my career, it was more like, how one would write their feelings in a diary, I was relaying where my mind was at and what I wanted to be talking about.

Even with social media, I first used it as a way to keep in touch with people back home, with my class fellows, I didn’t have WhatsApp and I didn’t want to pay for a calling card to ring Pakistan. When I created my Facebook page in May 2012, thirteen years ago, I didn't think about the effect it could generate, it wasn’t what it is today, where everything feels like it’s under a microscope. It felt like a park, connecting and building communities, now it’s like a festival, big like Glastonbury, it’s so busy and so buzzing, even distracting at times. I am thinking about a new social media page, with a different perspective, just to document my journey of starting my MFA at Oxford University.

But that's how my journey in art and growing into it began and what my mindset was at the time, it all unfolded organically.

Project IPPF by Maliha Abidi "Maliha created an animation and a series of illustrations to help International Planned Parenthood Federation shed light on the strength, bravery and determination of refugee women in fragile humanitarian settings. In this series Maliha also celebrated female frontline workers." —https://www.malihaabidi.com

Project Lonely Whale by Maliha Abidi "In honour of Women's History Month, Lonely Whale teamed up with Maliha to showcase six women across the planet that are advocating for climate action, including Ridhima Pandey and Vanessa Nakate. Maliha also collaborated with Lonely Whale to draw portraits of inspiring individuals, all with different star signs, for their Sea Signs series."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

Project Charity Water by Maliha Abidi "Maliha worked with Charity Water on a series of illustrations celebrating activists working to better their communities. Charity Water is an organisation that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. The artwork included illustrations of Idalina Roia, the WASH Director at World Vision Mozambique and Kanupriya Harish, Executive Director-Trustee of Jal Bhagirathi Foundation in India."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

So far you’ve written three books, ‘Pakistan for Women’, ‘Rise’ and ‘Journey to America’, can you tell us a bit about each book and your experiences around them.

My practice is interdisciplinary, so at times I fuse mediums and I see publishing as a medium for creating art.
When I was thinking about ‘Pakistan for Women’, I would visit a local bookstore where there were books with lots of interesting stories alongside art, some from various regions, the Rebel Girls books were big at the time, however, in all those different books, I didn’t notice many women or stories from Pakistan. The only one was of Malala Yousafzai which was wonderful, I absolutely love Malala and the work she does and has been doing for such a long time, she’s an inspiration for millions of people around the world. It is though I think so incredibly dangerous to put that kind of pressure on one person and have one story represent an entire country.

I wanted to talk about many Pakistani women and represent their stories. I reached out to some publishers, but at that time, nobody wanted to publish the book I had in mind, and I wasn’t familiar with how to go about it. I eventually went through crowdfunding, so many people supported the project, and as a result, the first book was self-published.

Pakistan for Women by Maliha Abidi "The book features illustrations and true stories of 50 inspirational women from mountaineers to astronauts to educators to activists and more. It's a celebration of Pakistani women that often are overlooked and it advocates for the idea that if these women can achieve their dreams through hard work and dedication –so can all the girls, reading their stories because representation matters."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

The second and third book were through traditional publishers. ‘Rise’ was published by Saki Books in London, and ‘Journey to America’ by Quarto Books.

‘Rise’ was like an extension to ‘Pakistan for Women’, a book where we wanted to bring together even more stories. I’m so grateful for the Saqi books team, Elizabeth and my editor Lynn Gaspard. It was a great experience, as I was writing that book, I also felt like I was educating myself about all of these incredible stories which I hadn't previously dived deeply into. You would think that as an artist, the art not the research part would be the smoother bit for me, but I found it was the opposite, as when trying to illustrate portraits of great women, I put a lot of pressure on myself, constantly questioning whether I am capturing how amazing they all are.

‘Journey to America’ was a collaboration with Quarto books where we were trying to focus on migration and stories of migrants who came to America and built various things or contributed to the American society in various forms.

Rise by Maliha Abidi, published by Saqi books " RISE, was published in April 2022 and it celebrates the inspirational stories of 100 remarkable women of colour. From the entrepreneur with a homemade marmalade business who went on to found Women’s World Banking, to the educator who built the first university in the world; these trailblazers have risen above challenges to reach dizzying heights."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

Journey to America by Maliha Abidi published by Quarto Books "Journey to America, Abidi’s 3rd book profiles 20 immigrants and children of immigrants who have affected the nation’s culture or business. From showstopping entertainers to game-changing activists to brilliant scientists, these first- and second-generation Americans show the determination and innovation that has shaped the country we know today."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

Amazon UK Saqi Books Foyles WaterStones Barnes & Noble Blackwells Amazon USA Quarto Books USA

You mentioned you work in different mediums, that includes digital art, animation, you founded ‘Women Rise’, and showed ‘Missed Calls’ with Outernet. What is ‘Women Rise’ and how do you feel when you work with the digital realm?

'Women Rise' was again like an extension of my ongoing research and my art practice, but it was also a new frontier in terms of Web3 as an emerging space which had predominantly been a white male dominated space.
My husband had mentioned to me a bit about Web3, I then looked into it, and we founded the platform ‘Women Rise’. It’s about to be four years since its existence, and at the core of it, is an art project with the element of social justice to it; we built a community of more than 80 000 people from around the world who believe in girl’s education.
Through the platform we campaigned for girl’s education, community led, it raised over $130 000 and we were able to donate to several organisations, including the Malala Fund, SOL Afghanistan, Pad Project and Girl effect. We also collaborated with wonderful organisations such as Girls Who Code, which went beyond conversations or spreading awareness but was an actual tangible collaboration where people can participate and interact.

The Pad Project by Maliha Abidi "For International Day of the Girl 2021 Maliha worked with The Pad Project; creating four artworks to raise awareness and funds to support Afghan girls’ education. The campaign raised $25k. Another collaboration saw Maliha creating three art pieces for a 2 day campaign for period poverty."—https://www.malihaabidi.com

Project Women Rise founded by Maliha Abidi "Women Rise is an NFT project of 10,000 pieces, based on 453 hand-drawn traits. Women Rise is an extension of the work that Maliha has been doing for a decade as an artist (using art as a tool for storytelling and social justice) but in Web 3.0. The Women Rise collection has over 5,000 holders and has gathered over 80k followers across different platforms." www.womenrise.art

Supporting girls' education and women's rights, using art as a tool for campaigning, 'Women Rise' has generated impact through—BackpackX, an educational initiative that uses VR 360 video animations, exploring important issues with the power of art, technology and storytelling, teaching children from marginalised communities, working with partners in Pakistan including Zindagi Trust and British Council to deliver workshops; through—collaborating with Synchrony running an NFT Art Studio activation at The Girls Who Code Fair; through—the launch of Qissa meaning 'story' in Urdu, that will amplify diverse voices of women and girls from around the world; through—a partnership with CAMFED - the Campaign for Female Education; through—helping communities, launching five 1/1 pieces celebrating influential Black women with 100% of the proceeds (primary and secondary) from this collection donated to five organisations that are supporting and contributing to Black women owned businesses, Black artists, and non-profit orgs working to support Black communities in education, healthcare and mental health; through—an Art Residency partnered with Voice HQ, supporting female creators from underrepresented communities; through—fundraising, donations of over $130k to Pad Project, Girl Effect, SOL Afghanistan and Malala Fund; https://www.womenrise.art/impact

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Maliha Abidi, Missed Calls, Animation, Expanded Cinema shown at Outernet in London "Animation that captures the chaos that surrounds us daily and reflects on how frequently we drown out our own voices, overwhelmed by societal expectations, obligations, and the endless noise of the world. It invites the viewers to consider moments of disconnection and the emotional toll of navigating life amid constant distraction, particularly within the context of migration and separation." — Maliha Abidi

For your Royal College of Art graduate exhibition, you explored the politics of hair, connecting hair to both resistance and control, to storytelling, historical and political notions, can you tell us more about that?

It’s such a bitter sweet moment for me, because I don't want my time at the RCA to end, i’ve gotten so much out of it, enriching collaborations, being able to study under such incredible tutors and collaborate with my peers. It’s all been wonderful and I was thinking about how much this entire journey has supported me and help nurture my art, and the project I did for the graduate show was about the politics of hair, the connecting moments it can perpetuate within a home setting and the political notions around hair. I was exploring how mainstream media manipulates hair and identity connected to the hair, how it’s viewed in Islamic context, as well as Western contexts, and how it’s viewed in relationship to women’s autonomy as well as how much the lack of autonomy exist within these conversations, and yet on the other side of that, in domestic settings how hair can be a bonding experience for so many South Asian women and beyond that as well, for various other cultural communities.

Maliha Abidi, The Faceless Barber (acrylic and oil pastels on canvas, 130 cm x 160 cm) "The painting reflects on a childhood memory of navigating gendered spaces in Pakistan, where beauty salons were exclusively for women and barber shops for men. […] the painting questions where lines of segregation are drawn and blurred, and how identity shifts to occupy these boundaries." — Maliha Abidi

Maliha Abidi, Seem—The Politics of Hair (Acrylic on canvas, 120 cm x 150 cm) “Explores the politicisation of hair, its weaponisation against a women in both Islamic and Western contexts. It reflects on the lack of autonomy women have over decisions about their hair, connecting this to broader issues of control and resistance. The piece was informed by the artist’s research into global politics surrounding the discourse on hair, as well as personal memories of hair as a site of bonding with families. These narratives combined with archival materials on women’s autonomy during the Partition of 1947, shaped the work’s layered composition.”— Maliha Abidi

Everyday practices, the domestic settings you mentioned, connecting it to memory, are shown in some of your paintings depicting your family members and your family's history.

Some of these paintings are lovely memories, and I'm able to represent brown women on a canvas, with some of those brown women coming from my family and my family's history, yet it’s not limited to a person I'm depicting, rather the paintings speak to stories of other women too, and on issues from migration, displacement, loss, hope, resilience, to everyday practices and heritage.

It becomes a collective experience when people view your work

Yes a collective memory, and I really appreciate sharing those stories.

Maliha Abidi, Yahan Betho (Sit Here), Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 150 cm x 120 cm "Inspired by the artist's memories of her aunt braiding her hair as a young girl, this painting is an exploration of how, for many women globally, hair embodies a profound sense of connection. [...] In South Asian culture in particular, these everyday practices carry deep emotional significance. Yet such nuances are often lost in mainstream retellings, which tend to reduce the narratives of brown women to simplistic portrayals of oppression"— Maliha Abidi

‘Provisional We’ is a group exhibition you are part of, it identifies the concept of imperfect solidarities, what are you presenting and what are you next looking forward to?

It’s an amazing group exhibition that I am grateful to be a part of, thanks to the curator’s Noor Albar and Hyunwoo Lim, who are Curating Contemporary Art students at the RCA, and were kind enough to include me in the exhibition. I am presenting two paintings and an animation.

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'Provisional We' at Handbag Factory is showing from 10th to 14th July 2025, curated by Noor Albar and Hyunwoo Lim, with works on display by artists Mengyuan Tong , Maliha Abidi , Jangho Yoon , Wonyoung Shim , Junghun Lee , Sarah Isabelle Tan , Pan Yihan , Farah Aljnaidan , Meredith Gunderson , Ross Deeley , Gabriele Risso and Emma Witter

The organisers relay that they started "with the question of what is an urgent issue to us, here and today in 2025, we began by questioning the tension of care. What it means to care for the other in a world where otherness is either no or erased. We wondered what it means to empathise and how to do so. This led us to the concept of ‘imperfect solidarities’, a proposition that suggests empathy being an act of accepting differences without demanding them to be validated. So, who do we want to address with these ‘imperfect solidarities’? People’s parallel realities – spaces shaped by different logics, often pushed to the margins and kept out of sight – and bringing them to the centre, if only briefly. This exhibition explores subversive curatorial methodologies, asking us and the viewer to stop and listen, understand – or not."
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In August I have a solo exhibition called 'A knock on the Door' and I'm trying to organise a trip abroad, as travel is a very important part of my life that inspires me in a different way. Then I start my MFA at Oxford, which though I am very excited about, I’m trying not to think too much about, I’m aiming to live in the moment, otherwise I become sad,—that RCA is almost ending, then Oxford will too, and I will be sad about that before experiencing it, that’s why I don’t like thinking too much about it or anything coming up.

It's about sharing stories and supporting each other.

Women Rise!

Project Adobe by Maliha Abidi, "Maliha was one of the creatives selected for the Adobe Stock Artist Development Fund programme. This programme is part of Adobe’s commitment to supporting and promoting accurate, inclusive representation in stock imagery. Maliha’s project included diverse depictions of women at work, across different fields and occupations." —https://www.malihaabidi.com

Maliha Abidi is a Pakistani-American artist and author based in London. She primarily works across painting, animation, immersive experiences, digital illustration, and installation. Born and raised in Pakistan, she migrated to the United States at the age of 14. Her experiences of migration, combined with a focus on gender, collective memory, and the South Asian diaspora, have shaped a multidisciplinary art practice spanning over 12 years. Her work has been exhibited in London, New York, Paris, Karachi, and Miami.Abidi has been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 – Class of 2025. She is currently pursuing her MA in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art and will soon begin her MFA at Oxford University (Class of 2026).She is the founder of Women Rise, a Web3 initiative focused on women’s rights and girls’ education through art, and BackPackX, a spatial computing platform centred on storytelling, VR based education, and innovation for marginalized communities. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, reading, cycling, and exploring new coffee blends. Clients and collaborators include Adobe, Google, UN Women, Vital Voices, Malala Fund, Chicago Bulls, IPPF, Charity Water, Instagram, Snapchat, The Pad Project, UNHCR, Lonely Whale, Camfed, The New York Times, Quarto Books, Voice HQ, Coinbase. Maliha has spoken on numerous panels, both in-person and online on creating inclusive communities and as an early adopter in the NFT space. Maliha has also been interviewed on news programmes such as Good Morning America and Inside Edition and has even conducted interviews herself, such as with renowned activist Malala Yousafzai.

https://www.malihaabidi.com

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