Salima Hashmi

Salima Hashmi (Urdu: سلیمہ ہاشمی‎) (born 1942) is a Pakistani artist, cultural writer, painter, and an anti-nuclear weapon activist. She has served for four years as professor and the head of the National College of Arts. She is the eldest daughter of one of Pakistan's most renowned poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and the British-born Alys Faiz.

She represents the first generation of modern artists in Pakistan who carry an artistic identity different from indigenous artists. She is known for condemning the Pakistan and India's nuclear programs, she is among one of the few Pakistani intellectuals who condemned the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in 1998. She has received Pride of Performance for her works.

Personal life

Back ground

Hashmi was born to Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Alys Faiz in 1942 in New Delhi, India. She has one younger sister, Moneeza. She is a maternal cousin of Salman Taseer, the former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan. She migrated with her family to Lahore during the partition of India in 1947. She grew up in Lahore. After studying design at Lahore's National College of Arts (NCA), she moved to England in the early 1960s. She studied at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham. She received graduate diploma in art education in 1965. She also studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, US. She married Shoaib Hashmi. The couple has son Yasser Hashmi who studied at McGill University Canada. Shoaib Hashmi, her husband, retired from a teaching position at Government College University, Lahore, and was also a popular co-star with her in comedy television shows in the early 1970s.