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PESHAWAR, March 8: Though various NGOs in the NWFP observed the International Women’s Day by organizing seminars, meetings and displaying banners on Saturday in the city, womenfolk at large still remained unaware of the importance of this day.
A teacher, Saeeda, 30, said that a woman nothing had changed for her in society.
“Women organisations celebrate the international day of women, but Feb 12, which is the national day of women, is not celebrated here and the reason is quite obvious. The World Women Day is just a show for the international organisations to mint money,” a newsmen on the condition of anonymity told Dawn.
Celebrating the World Women’s Day on March 8, an NGO, the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), arranged a meeting at a local hotel here on Saturday.
The body gathered almost 30 women organisations working in different districts of the province.
Participants hailing from Mardan, Swabi, Takht Bai, Malakand, Charsadda, Nowshera and Swat were trained in Development, Planning and Management (DPM) by the SPO for a period of almost two years. The DPM course certificates were also distributed among the participants.
Samina Naz, a DPM trainee, told Dawn that this course had helped her a lot in understanding her role as a development activist. She had learnt to plan different projects and make budget with the help of this course, Ms Naz said and added she felt more confident about what she could do now. The participants expressed views on the status of women in the NWFP through a role play and poetry.
Fouzia of Swabi expressed her views on social injustice and maltreatment of women in a poem. Madiha from Mardan in her poem ‘Unfettered Prisoner’ depicted women facing all the social barriers.
A play staged by a women organisation of Charsadda depicted the plight of women in our society. The farce quite well mocked at the social evil of dowry and ignorance.
SPO Programme Coordinator Zarka Iqbal read out a poem of Parveen Shakir Bashiray Ki Gharwali showing how women in our society are maltreated.
Aurat Foundation has displayed banners in the city to aware women in particular and public in general of their political and social rights.
WOMEN CENTRES: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will provide sport equipment for the newly-established women’s centre for the Afghan refugees in the NWFP.
According to a UNHCR press release issued here on Saturday, provision of sports equipment for the centre would provide a recreational facility for the refugee women and girls.
This announcement was made by the UNHCR on the World Women’s Day, but the plan will be put into practice after Muharram.
The world body will provide sport equipment to women’s centre in Old Bagzai Camp located in Kurram Agency. This camp is exclusively for the women of refugee camps who have no recreational facility.
In the next three months, the UNHCR will establish women’s centres in nine Afghan refugee camps and each centre will receive 10 table tennis boards, 100 volleyballs, 100 karamboards, 200 skipping ropes and 200 frisbees.
These women’s centres will not only provide sports facility, but also provide a place for discussing problems for the Afghan women among themselves.
