FarQuest

TakeBacktheTech: Shero Saba Gul makes us proud!

A lot of my TakeBackTheTech posts focus on issues revolving around female harassment and online privacy. However, what I often miss to highlight is the amazing work that some brilliant women are doing on various fronts despite all the problems they face. Their achievements bring not just pride but also a ray of optimism for the rest of us. It makes us women realize the enormous power that we all possess and the wonders that each one of us is capable of making.

In our TakeBackTheTech lingo, we call such women “Sheros” - yes we just formed a feminine version of Heros

Today, I am going to talk about one such shero and her name is Saba Gul. Saba is Co-Founder and Executive Director,BLISS - Business and Life Skills School. Saba being passionate about empowering women through education came up with the idea of setting a school that equips girls and young women from rural Pakistan with essential skills needed to be entrepreneurs and enterprise women. Girls at BLISS do not just study but also work against stipends that make up for the wages they lose to attend school. You can read more about BLISS on their website.

Recently, Saba Gul achieved something to make us all feel proud specially as Pakistani women. She got selected as one of the finalists by Unreasonable Institute - which’s an incubator for social entrepreneurs. Every year this institute gathers 25 extremely talented social entrepreneurs from all around the world who have ideas and projects that can change the world for good. These entrepreneurs are then trained for six weeks by world-class mentors and are connected with several potential investors and partners. This year Saba has been one of these brilliant entrepreneurs.

Have a look at Saba’s presentation for Unreasonable Institute below:

Posted in Food for Thought, Social Good | No Comments »

The ‘Great Nepal-India-Pakistan Spinal Beetle Drive’ arrives in Pakistan

Source: Excerpt from PRESS NOTE, 11 November 2011, Lahore

Route: Kathmandu-Lucknow-Delhi-Amritsar-Lahore-Rawalpindi-Peshawar

The ‘Spinal Beetle’ making a fund-raising and awareness-raising subcontinental journey for spinal injury rehabilitation arrived in Lahore this afternoon. The 1973 Model VW Beetle, driven by journalist and civil rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit from Kathmandu, is also making the trip “to strike a blow for overland connectivity between the countries of Southasia,” he says.

The Spinal Beetle was flagged off from Kathmandu by President Ram Baran Yadav, and in Delhi it was seen off by actor Om Puri and the founder of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Maj. HPS Ahluwalia. It arrived in Lahore across the Wagah-Atari border in the early afternoon of 11 November.

The Journey: The 1973 model VW Beetle of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre (Nepal) started its journey from Kathmandu Valley on 4 November 2011. Coming down to the plains, it entered Uttar Pradesh and reached Lucknow on 5th evening. Westward, it took the National Highway-2 to Agra, getting on to the Grand Trunk Road originally regularised by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century.

The ‘Spinal Beetle’ arrived at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) on 7 November evening. Travelling further along the Grand Trunk Road, it stopped off at Chandigarh and Amritsar before arriving at the Wagah-Atari border. The Spinal Beetle will enter Pakistan via the Wagah-Atari border and, in Lahore, visit the Mayo Hospital. From Lahore, the car will ride the Grand Trunk Road as well as the M-1 motorway to Rawalpindi / Islamabad, and end the journey at the Paraplegic Centre in Hayatabad, Peshawar on 16 November.

Why the Adventure: The sudden rise of the number of patients over the last year has forced the Spinal Centre-Nepal to raise its service from 39 beds to 51. We seek to raise USD 110,000 from the 1100 mile journey, at the ‘rate’ of USD 100 per mile from friends and supporters worldwide. At midway, the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Delhi is 540 miles from Kathmandu. The final destination, the Paraplegic Centre in Peshawar, is 1100 miles away. About USD 35,000 of the USD 110,000 goal had been raised by the time the vehicle arrived in Lahore.

Awareness: The Spinal Beetle Rally is also an effort to raise awareness of spinal injury prevention, rescue, care and rehabilitation in the Subcontinent. In this effort, the Spinal Centre-Nepal is assisted by Indian Spinal Injuries Center-Delhi and the Paraplegic Centre-Peshawar.

‘Overland connectivity’: Kanak Mani Dixit hopes that the drive of the Spinal Beetle from Nepal through India and Pakistan will also help promote the goal of ‘overland connectivity’ across Southasian land borders so that there is high-volume people-to-people contact. “The visa regimes must be softened, and the people at large must feel free to move about,” he says.

The Trip So Far: After a gracious send-off from Ram Baran Yadav, President of Nepal, the Spinal Beetle left Kathmandu Valley and arrived at the Bharatpur Hospital. Interactions were held for the start-up of a spinal injury rehabilitation unit there, with the help of Spinal Center-Nepal. The Hospital committee contributed Rs 50,000 for the Spinal Beetle’s fund-raising drive. Having come down past Gorkha District of Nepal, crossing the border we came to Gorakhpur, where we learnt in Hindustan newspaper that Pakistan had allowed the opening of the Gorakhnath Temple in Peshawar after 60 year closure.

In Lucknow, the SIPS ‘super speciality hospital’ organised an interaction with patients and staff, and we met activists who were working on peace related issues, including India-Pakistan people-to-people solidarity. From Lucknow, we took a spanking new superhighway to Agra, which is on National Highway -2, and part of the Grand Trunk Road, whose original incarnation was built by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century. We will be following this road all the way to Peshawar. In Agra, we were greeted and hosted by the Physicians for Peace and Development, which is also affiliated with the Physicians for Social Responsibility. At the interaction with the doctors there, it emerged that there is no spinal injury rehabilitation centre in the city even though there were seven or eight neurosurgeons there. Some time was spent visiting the Taj Mahal, on the very day of Eid, and Agra Fort, the ‘power center’ of the Mughals.

In Delhi, a grand reception was organised by the Indian Spinal Injuries Center, with which the Spinal Centre-Nepal has been collaborating since the latter’s inception a decade ago. Speaking at the function, Major HPS Ahluwalia, founder of ISIC, lauded the three-country drive for helping spread awareness about spinal injury rehabilitation, and promised the support of ISIC both for the drive’s fund-raising objective as well as for the Spinal Centre-Nepal. The Director of ISIC Dr. HS Chabra repeated these sentiments, while journalist and peace activist Kuldip Nayar (born in Sialkot) lauded the Spinal Beetle participants for helping to raise awareness about people-to-people contact across Southasian frontiers. At the flag-off, actor Om Puri bowed in a ‘namaskar’ to the Spinal Beetle and talked about the importance of “dignity to the disabled”. Sending the Beetle off on its journey to Lahore, Maj Ahluwalia recalled his childhood in Lahore. He suggested that Dixit work to bring together a Southasian association for spinal injury rehabilitation. From Delhi, with an over-night stopover in Chandigarh, the Spinal Beetle arrived in Amritsar, to be hosted by Tejinder Singh Gogi, the hotelier and significant India-Pakistan ‘link person’. The team found time to visit the brilliantly lit Harminder Sahib (the Golden Temple) on the very night of Guru Nanak’s birthday.

The Mayuri Restaurant of Jalandhar: During the drive into Amritsar, the team stopped off at the road-side Mayuri restaurant at ‘bypass Jalandhar’. Only when the Spinal Beetle was already in Amritsar did Dixit realise that he had left all the passports and travel documents at the restaurant. Thankfully, he received a call from the proprietors, the Prajapati family. Upon return, there was joyous handover of the satchel. The grandfather, 96-year-old Barkat Singh, was originally from the village of Fatehgad near Sialkot. He asked that a fistful of earth be brought back for him from Fatehgad.

The Rallyists: Kanak Mani Dixit, Founder-Chair of the Spinal Centre-Nepal, is driving the Spinal Beetle. He is accompanied by Shanta Dixit, board member of the Spinal Centre-Nepal and educationist. It was Kanak’s trekking accident a decade ago, resulting in a broken back, which led to the establishment of the Spinal Centre-Nepal. Dixit has been a journalist since 1971, and has worked to maintain Nepal as an ‘open society’, fighting King Gyanendra’s autocracy and challenging the Maoist party to stand by the peace process.

Done it Before: The Spinal Beetle has done the Kathmandu-Dhaka stretch twice, in 2002 and 2005, to generous response.

About the Spinal Centre Nepal: Inaugurated by Sir Edmund Hillary on April 2002, the Spinal Centre-Nepal will be ten years old in 2012. Originally catering to patients from ‘traditional accidents’ such as fall from trees and cliff-sides, spinal injury victims of ‘modern-day accidents’ related to construction, rock mining and traffic events are increasingly filling our wards. We offer physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, medical care, counselling and home rehabilitation. We are also involved in prevention. The Spinal Centre is run by the non-profit Spinal Injury Sangha – Nepal.

Website: Details of the ‘Great Nepal-India-Pakistan Spinal Beetle Drive’ are to be found at www.sirc.org.np. The site also gives information on online support and pledges.

Lahore Contacts:
Farjad Nabi, Phone: 322-4491969
Dr Waseem Iqbal
Head of Department
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Combined Military Hospital
CMH Lahore Medical College
Lahore Cantt, Pakistan
Office: +92-42-6699-36174
Cell phone: +92-333-5600-504

Peshawar Contact
Ilyas M Syed,
CEO, Paraplegic Center
Hayatabad, Peshawar, Pakistan
Phone: 92-919217900-2

Kathmandu Contact:
Esha Thapa, Director, Spinal Centre-Nepal
Tel: +977 11 660847/48
spinalinju@wlink.com.np
eshthapa@hotmail.com
www.sirc.org.np

Posted in Social Good | No Comments »

June 20: Let’s unite to fight Sexual Harassment

Just late last night I noticed a hash tag #EndSH taking rounds on Twitter. Reading a few tweets made using this hash tag made me soon realize that June 20 is being observed as a day to speak out against sexual harassment, abuse and violence. As reported in this blogpost the #EndSH initiative is brain child of Egyptian startup HarassMap. However, realizing the importance of curbing this menace, people from various parts of the world specially Middle East have now jumped on the bandwagon.

Sexual harassment and similar issues have always been close to my heart mainly because of the number of lives it effects and also because being a woman I have also faced harassment myself not once or twice but several times; most recently on a flight while coming back from New York. While I regularly tweet, blog, write, speak on this topic, today, I would rather borrow someone else’s words to address all the men out there and show support to #EndSH from Pakistan. I believe creating awareness among men about this issue is as or perhaps even more important as it is for women.

During my recent trip to US as part of the IVLP (more on this later) I met Dr. Robert Jensen at the University of Texax, Austin. Wonderful Dr. Jensen, who proudly calls himself a staunch feminist gave me his book “Getting Off - Pornography and the End of Masculinity” after I told him about my interest in ending the various forms of VAW(Violence Against Women). I have started reading this book already and each chapter of it is turning out to be a paradigm shift for me.

Below are the words of Andrea Dworkin who became the force of change for Dr. Robert. How? Read below and you’ll get to know.Andrea told men in 1983:

“I don’t believe rape is inevitable or natural…..Have you ever wondered, why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It’s not because there’s a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence……We do not want to do the work of helping you to believe in your humanity. We cannot do it anymore. We have always tried. We have been repaid with systematic exploitations and systematic abuse. You are going to have to do this yourselves from now on and you know it.” -1

If you also wish to eliminate sexual and other forms of harassment from within your society, then start nurturing your human side and encourage others around you to do the same. Let’s live to see the change that we all have been wanting to see for ages.

Footnotes:
-1 Robert Jensen, Getting Off - Pornography and the End of Masculinity,South End Press,2007, p7

Posted in Social Good | 1 Comment »

Koolwall: The cool wall nearest you!

“I am old and at this age I really want to do something for the community than myself” - said Raul and his words resonated with me immediately. I met Raul in the Silicon valley during Eighth Innovation Journalism conference at Stanford. Silicon Valley as most of you may know is symbolically speaking the Mecca for technology companies and start-ups. At places like these, I would often expect people to talk just business and profits. Talks that merely revolve around making more and more money tend to be least interesting for me. I believe in “The People-Centered Model of Business” shortly referred to as the PC-MOB that my friend and mentor Ramla Akhtar introduced to me long time back during my senior years at university. So, it was really pleasant to meet Raul who has similar beliefs as I could sense from his upcoming project Koowall.

Koowall is what can be seen as yet another social collaboration website, however, what makes it different from several social networking websites already out there is the philosophy behind it. Raul looked pretty disturbed with idea of how often a bunch of people gain popularity online, become social media stars and often overshadow the conversation by several others. He believes in living the true sense of community where every member of the community has a voice that can be heard. It is upon this belief that he has created a really cool wall that would encourage people to share information in a communal manner.

Raul gave me a tour of the Koowall community that he aspires to build and walking through the streets and alleys of Koowall made me all excited; because this was something that I have been looking forward to have for so long. Yes, I have already seen the interface of Koowall which is yet to be launched - envy me!

I use twitter religiously and love it but what irritates me the most about it is how I am almost always unable to dig out what I tweeted say two months back or for that matter even a week ago. However, Koowall is likely to make my life easier. How? Naah, I am not going to let the cat out of the bag yet. I would rather want you to wait for the official launch of Koowall or rush to be part of the private beta which is coming out on 27th of June.

I would encourage you to grab a private beta invite by subscribing at Koowall website and see what Koowall can do for you. I already have at least a few things in mind for which it can be used in Pakistan (6) . Yes, envy me again . You might want to follow Koowall on Twitter and Facebook too.

Koowall has got an aesthetically pleasing UI. I also had a discussion with Raul on how they can make Koowalling safe and secure and was glad to see his commitment about doing the same.So, I am positive that all those of you who decide to use it will have fun. Happy koowalling!

Posted in Tech Talk, Social Good | 3 Comments »

Fatherless Child ~ tasha miller

A touching story of millions of girls around….

Fatherless Child

A fatherless child was born one day.
She never asked for this life,
but it’s hers, anyway.

As she lay in her crib
at the hospital ward,
the other fathers come,
the other babies are adored.

She has no last name,
her birth certificate, incomplete.
There won’t be a proud Daddy
counting the toes on her feet.

That first day of school,
she knew something was wrong.
All the other kids brought a man
named “Daddy” along.

She had heard that word,
but what did it mean?
She didn’t have one of those,
at least not that she had seen.

She asked many questions
over the next few years,
but there were no answers,
just a set of deaf ears.

As she grew up,
the dream formed in her mind.
One day she’d get answers
and her lost Daddy, she would find.

She laid in bed every night,
giving him a face.
She rehearsed every moment,
every word, just in case.

She imagined a happy meeting,
a day full of hugs and tears.
The vision became perfect,
polished over the years.

She couldn’t believe it,
when the day actually came.
She finally had a story
and most of all, a name.

They wouldn’t let her search
until she was on her own.
She knew this was something
she had to do all alone.

She made many cold calls,
the answer was always the same.
Then she found someone
that knew that name.

The woman said,
“That is my son”.
The girl knew it was over,
her journey was done.

She learned all she could
in that one call.
As she hung up, she realized,
‘that was my grandma’!

She had what she needed,
the time was here.
She dialed his number,
the phone trembled next to her ear.

When she heard his voice,
she felt her heart flop.
Everything was still.
Time seemed to stop.

She told him the story
and the part that he played,
how she was his daughter,
the one he had made.

She heard him speaking
and the words that he said.
But this wasn’t in her dream,
it was a nightmare, instead.

He said he didn’t want a daughter,
her dream would never be.
She was only a weed
growing under his family tree.

Now, what would she dream about?
This was the only dream she had.
All she ever wanted was
to be a daughter to a Dad.

~Tasha Miller

Source: http://tashamariemiller.tripod.com/id1.html

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Posted in Food for Thought, Female Harrassment, Social Good | 6 Comments »

TakeBackTheTech: We are step closer!

It was the last day of the 5 day incredible journey that they call FTX (more on FTX later). I was feeling heavyhearted for the period I was surrounded by nothing but positive energy and pleasant people, was coming to an end. Cheekay Cinco from APC was conducting a workshop on Online Security and Privacy and what she announced in the middle of the workshop cheered me up completely. It gave me a new hope, a new motivation to move ahead with greater determination. Guess what? According to APC, the best TakeBackTheTech campaign that came out last year was from Pakistan Alhamdulilah.

It convinced me that what we have been doing since Novemeber 2009 is being read and people are benefiting from it and that’s enough for me to say that slowly and gradually we are moving ahead - one step at a time towards changing attitudes!

I thank all those who have been following this campaign an/or have been part of it directly or indirectly. Hope the momentum continues and together we keep bringing about a positive change!

A quick recap of the major events that we have so far organized under the banner of TakeBackTheTech are:

1. P@SHA and Bytes4All introduced TakeBackTheTech in Pakistan in Novemeber 2009
2. In January 2010, Jehan Ara of P@SHA and myself conducted a workshop for the legal community in Lahore. We shared about Cyber Crimes, PECO and TakeBackTheTech with a group of 80 Lahore High Court lawyers including 2 senior judges.
3. In February 2010, National Strategy Workshop was conducted in Karachi.
4. In June 2010, first ever Feminist Tech Exchange (Train the Trainer program) was organized in Islamabad.

Other than this since Novemeber 2010, we have been advocating this campaign online via Facebook, Twitter, Blogs - we tweet, blog,compose TBTT songs, create post cards, create localized logos ( a few can be seen above) and do everything that we can to raise awareness regarding ICTs and VAW.

We hope to do a lot more this year InshAllah. Will keep you all posted.

PS: For those who do not know what TakeBackThetech is? Check out my blog post:
Let’s TBTT!

PPS: To read all TBTT related posts I have written so far, please check out the “Female Harassment” category of my blog here.

Logos Customization Credit: Hinstance

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Posted in Personal, Female Harrassment, Social Good | No Comments »

TakeBackTheTech: Stop having fun at our expense!

I was in grade 9 when few of my seniors presented a humorous stage play, on how women spend most of their time in finding the right cosmetics for them and then the rest of the time using those cosmetics. We laughed madly watching that play and expected that everyone would praise the group for coming up with such a funny piece; but the principal’s reaction was totally unexpected. She did not encourage the group of young girls at all and criticized the play severely - she had a valid reason to do so. The principal was of the opinion that if we being women do not respect other women, how do we expect men to respect us and not make fun of us?

At that time we felt the principal was over-reacting and there was nothing wrong in being funny but now after 11 years I have realized, she was right. Now I know what extent mere humor can go to, eve-teasing is considered humor too, eve-teasers think there’s nothing wrong in having a little fun, in a little name-calling, in a little whistling, in a little touching but their *little* humor and fun makes women end their education, their careers and even their lives. Don’t take my word for it, read this news from BBC and you will understand how heinous a crime it can become.

Just yesterday, on Facebook, a young guy commented on a group picture of women comparing women with footballs. He thought he was being funny but it seriously offended me and several other women. The sad part is, despite our informing him that he is being offensive, he didn’t apologize.He felt it’s our fault that we don’t have a sense of humor. It’s men like him who feel they can even walk over women, crush them under their feet and laugh out loudly because it would be great *FUN* !

It is for this reason that we need to continuously educate men on how disturbing their funny remark can be for women, we need to teach them that there is a fine line between humor and indecency and crossing that line can end up making them eve-teasers, rapists and killers!

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Posted in Personal, Female Harrassment, Social Good | 3 Comments »

Want LSD trip?

This post is specially for those who want to go on an LSD. trip If you don’t know what LSD is, no use reading ahead - better go and get yourself a glass of Lassi! What…you don’t know about Lassi either. Duh…now you better get some water and drown in it, as they say in Urdu “Chullo bhar paani main doob maro” . Yes, don’t underestimate me, I can bully too at times (this btw by no means allow you to sue me under PECO as it has lapsed )

Anyway so while you drown or drink lassi, let me share my experience of taking LSD. My friend PTA and a few bad kids introduced me to it just a few days ago - ahh yes, didn’t mommy tell you catch such habits from a bad circle of friends?
It was a fine day when I suddenly heard about Facebook getting blocked and following it YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr and Google yes GOOGLE also got blocked (even though Wikipedia, Google and Flickr are back now but several other sites still remain blocked) While I was trying to comprehend what has happened and was busy judging who’s right and who’s wrong, a few friends got hurled with life threats for they had protested against blasphemy but had also protested against blanket ban of Facebook and other useful sites. With a netbook in one hand and cellphone in another, I marched into the living room to catch up on the latest news and it was then that I read this horrible news: Daewoo Hostess who was kidnapped and gang-raped earlier this year has been kidnapped again, this time along with her sister. However, as of now when I’m writing this post, updates are that she has been kidnapped along with her mother - I have this feeling that not much attention is being paid to her case this time in media, have only seen a single channel reporting the news and havn’t read about it in any newspaper yet even though 2 days have passed since this news broke; shows there’s some hot shot involved in this case.

After reading this news and being subjected to minute by minute updates regarding PTA banning different sites, I felt as if I’ve gone on an LSD trip and effects are somehow still the same. As pointed out on The GoodDrugsGuide (Wondering though what’s good abt drugs? :S) I feel my “consciousness has been profoundly altered- something has completely erased the normal filters and screens between my conscious mind and the outside world. With these filters down, more information rushes in. I sense more, think more, feel more. I became aware of things normally filtered out by your mind, visual, auditory, sensory, emotional.”

I’m in a weird state of mind at the moment, my sense of humor has become unpredictable, I feel euphoric one moment and extremely depressed the next! What else can you expect from a person who has been deprived of access to knowledge and has fear of being raped should she speak against anything - yes the Daewoo Hostess also spoke against what happened to her and here she is again on mercy of the mighty!

I feel hopeful one moment and feel totally hopeless the next moment, as I know might is taking over the right as the right doesn’t have the might to fight the wrong!

I just hope this LSD trip ends soon and I get back to my normal optimistic self…

PS: I wonder why people use LSD and other drugs specially sleeping pills when Lassi can solve all your problems? I have been taking good night sleep for the past few days just because of Lassi

PPS: Jehan Ara thinks MCFlurry will make me feel better. Wonder why McFlurry is not used to end LSD trip?

PPPS: On a serious note, I by no means support Facebook specially after reading this article. Still I don’t want PTA to dictate me, even my Allah(SWT) has given me the choice to decide what is wrong for me and what’s right. Imagine if Allah(SWT) had not given us this choice. Computers would switch off during prayer timings even if you are doing any urgent task, you would be dragged out of bed and be forced to offer Fajr prayer on time even if you are ill and the list can go on and on….

Posted in Tech Talk, Personal, Female Harrassment, Social Good | 2 Comments »

[Happy] Women’s Day

Wrote and shared with friends on Women’s Day - posting it here a little late :$

So, Women’s Day was celebrated again today with much zeal and fervor. Since yesterday I have been hearing speeches, discussions on “How” to improve the overall situation of women rights in Pakistan. I was sitting in my air-conditioned office, when I started getting Women Day wishes - i surely felt great and HAPPY! Life is good Alhamdulilah, I got to study from one of the prestigious private institutions of Pakistan, have been working at a well-known company, get three meals a day and snacks to munch on in between, wear nice and expensive clothes, travel by car, party out with friends when I feel like and so life’s beautiful. I’m privileged, educated and hence empowered so yay HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY but yes there’s a huge BUT! I decided to work for this campaign TakeBackTheTech a few months ago. As part of the campaign, I keep researching on women issues on a regular basis and specially before speaking at any event or writing on the topic for any publication. Without exaggerating I would say that what I get to read about women issues does not let me sleep properly at night. I traveled to Lahore to deliver a presentation to the legal community there, the presentation was witty but least did people know how much stress I had to undergo in trying to prepare that presentation - stress that followed reading about how women suffer, how they r brutally raped, tortured and murdered. Call me sensitive or altruistic but yes I DO feel the pain of those women even when I don’t even know them.

Days before my travel young maid Shazia was brutally murdered in Lahore and the alleged murderer belongs to the legal community of Lahore. After the incident I traveled with another agenda in mind that perhaps I’d be able to change mindsets of a few after talking to them on women issues and they in turn will do something about girls/women like Shazia.. The presentation also went great and I was hopeful ( may be I still ‘am) that something would happen. Little Shazia will get justice! I remember mentioning in my presentation at Lahore that we ALL empowered CJP because we wanted justice for ALL. I had this faith that now after freedom of judiciary, anyone irrespective of his class/creed can get justice but I was WRONG! Weeks later, it was announced that Shazia died because of anemia and malnutrition ( yes anemia can fracture your ribs, your skull, your arm and your nails can get plucked out because of malnutrition) It was a clear enough sign that the alleged murderer will be freed and poor Shazia won’t get justice. However, i still had this little hope that CJP will intervene, I remember him saying in several speeches that once restored, he’ll ensure justice for EVERY Pakistani. Shazia was also a Pakistani and I knew CJP wud keep his word but ahh I was wrong. With due respect, CJP Sb has been restored and now he probably has forgotten his promises or perhaps a death of a poor maid is not even worth his attention. I really don’t know what’s going on except that Shazia died a painful death and nothing was done about it.

Similarly, several Shazias suffer regularly and while in all speeches we say “We SHOULD”, we seldom say “WE WILL ” (I’m no different either) Everyday I see a new NGO forming up in the name of Women Rights, yet I know it’s not even safe for me to walk half a mile alone - eve teasing is fun for many and I haven’t seen any NGO doing anything about it (Please enlighten me if any NGO has - I’m ignorant!) may be because they SHOULD but they WON’T…any way I digress! So, I was saying there are many Shazia’s around us and in presence of them, I really don’t know if I can be HAPPY!

Oh I know I know….women have MashAllah progressed a lot too in different fields and there’s certainly something to be Happy about it but yet what cancels the effect is that very few out of those *successful* women are doing something for the betterment of other women around them. I’m not Happy because I cudn’t do anything about Shazia and many other Shazias, I’m not Happy because I didn’t do even a single thing today to bring a smile on the face of one such Shazia but one day, yes one day I WILL InshAllah and that day I’ll proudly stand and say Happy Women’s Day.

Till that day, I keep it in the brackets (duh my software engineering background, which tells me that anything in square brackets is optional) So, if u think you have done something practically for even a single Shazia today, be Happy and celebrate else think again and maybe do something before you become another Shazia (God Forbid)!

………………..o
Stay safe! -|-

Posted in Personal, Female Harrassment, Social Good | 3 Comments »

TakeBackTheTech: National Strategy Workshop Day 2

So, dear readers, here comes the live blog from National Strategy Workshop Day 2.

Posted in Female Harrassment, Social Good | No Comments »