These mediums have provided her with a powerful tool to address the problems of nationalism, specifically those surrounding the Indo-Pakistani conflicts and the violent legacy of the 1947 partition which divided the two countries.
[9] The subject of Abidi's earliest venture was a trilogy of humorous video diptychs that put spotlight on the ongoing hostility between Pakistan and India.
Even though these videos showcase the visual differences, the fact that Abidi herself plays both the roles puts emphasis on the cultural similarities between the two nations.
Applying a keen ethnographic eye to elements of Pakistani culture and politics, dialogues and a conventional narrative are often absent in her pieces.
When the Muslim masses retired indoors to end the day’s fast, Abidi staged scenarios that portrayed members of Pakistan’s religious minorities – Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrians.
It is presented to viewers as a problem of perception, subtly questioning the inability of Pakistan's political vision to guarantee equal rights for all its citizens, regardless of religion.
[10] The threshold between the security of private life and the increasingly violent & unpredictable public space in contemporary Pakistan is a recurring recent interest for Abidi.
[11] In her video work An Unforeseen Situation (2015), Abidi relates to a series of state-run competitions, organized by the Ministry of Sport in the Pakistani region of Punjab in 2014.