contributed to improvement of the folklore archives and the library of the institute. She conducted research on various aspects of folklore, through the Institute and on her own. Her first research was on women in folk theatre in 1991. Recently, Lok Virsa requested her to update and enhance the book, which they published in 2011 as 'Forgotten Faces: Daring Women of the Pakistani Folk Theatre'. In the book, she chronicled the life of Bali Jatti, the first women to own a travelling stage theatre in Punjab, as a vehicle to capture the tradition of Punjabi folk theatre through the eyes of the female performers whose careers are spent in front of audiences of men who keep their wives hidden at home. The first review of the book,(Documenting Arts by Sarwat Ali) appreciated her ability to present these stage stars as real women who faced more than their share of troubles in their lives. She has also done research on other entertainment forms like folk circus, folk dances and folk natak (drama), and has mostly focused on women’s experiences in each of them. Her book, Taboo: The Hidden Culture of a Red Light District, is the first book-length ethnography that captures the fading traditional systems of prostitution in Pakistan, with their close relationships with classical music and dance, as they are steadily replaced by the more exploitative modern brothel systems. The culture of the prostitutes serves as reverse-image of mainstream Pakistani society with their female heads-of-household and male family members who serve no economic purpose. Saeed used this culture as a mirror for Pakistanis to assess their own gender relations. For this reason, the book became a cult classic among young English-speaking Pakistanis. The book was published in English and Urdu by Oxford University Press and has been translated into Hindi and Marathi by nonprofit groups in India. A Japanese translation was published by Commons in October 2010. She also contributed a shorter, more technical version of her book in an international collection of articles comparing legal systems for prostitution in Europe and Asia. Saeed has been actively involved in reviving Pakistani folk performance arts through organisations she has been associated with, and is also a folk dancer herself. Together with the Folklore Society of Pakistan she helped to re-establish the Manganhar folk singing genre that had almost died out in Pakistan. Media Saeed has been associated with electronic media since