KARACHI: As a child, Dr Darakhshan Jabeen Haleem was not interested in science. Today, she is the dean of Karachi University’s science faculty.

“When I was a child I was more interested in science fiction than science,” she said while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Women and Science — Opportunities and Challenges’ organised by the British Council Library at their Ismat Chughtai auditorium on Thursday evening.

“I didn’t even know I could become a scientist,” she said when the moderator of the talk, Dr Maryam Rab, director of research and monitoring unit at the British Council, asked her to introduce herself.

Dr Haleem, who is a professor of neuroscience, said she was a good student and inspired by her class teacher to pursue higher education. “I still remember she said my name meant bright and I would shine after I finished school and I did. I got a Fulbright but could not avail the opportunity as my mother refused to send an unmarried girl. A year later, I was married and I went to pursue my PhD in London,” she said.

In her path to attain her goals, Dr Haleem faced gender discrimination at several levels. “When I was nominated for the PhD, I was their top candidate but they wanted me to step back and let a man — who was second on the list — go. They said I wouldn’t be able to do it as I was married and had a child,” she said.

“I faced the same issue again when it was time for me to become a professor, then dean and even faced this problem when I was nominated for VC of the varsity. They simply said that a woman had never held the position so they could not proceed with me,” she added.

Sitting next to Dr Haleem was young organic chemist Dr Hina Siddiqui of the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry.

Dr Siddiqui, who was more interested in studying pharmaceutical sciences at KU, said she made a mistake in the varsity admission form and ended up with chemistry. She added that once she started her programme at the university, her interest grew and she pursued it further. Discussing her career, she said that she went to a university in Kansas (US) for a year’s research and training, finished her PhD in 2010 and also went to study in Germany. Today, she is an assistant professor at the research institute.

Also on the panel was Dr Khadija Qureshi of Mehran University, who is the first woman to have a PhD in her field of research. She is a former head of the university’s chemical engineering department.

In a short time after completing her PhD, Dr Qureshi discussed how she went from being an assistant professor to head of the department.

“I completed my PhD in 2011 and when I came back I was an assistant professor then a full professor, when they offered me the chance to head the department. I said if Benazir Bhutto can become prime minister, then why can’t I be head of the department?”

“However, not everyone was pleased. A teacher of mine who was an associate professor then was very upset with me and asked me to step back. During my tenure we had a very tense relationship — now that he is head of department, things are back to normal,” she said, adding that he became a professor in her tenure. “You,” she said addressing the young girls in the audience, “have to take the first step.”

After the introduction, the moderator discussed a research by the British Council titled Understanding Female Participation in STEM Subjects.

The panel discussed the socio-cultural context of Pakistan and how young girls were seldom encouraged to pursue math and science from an early age and later, as these are subjects considered to be more ‘suitable’ for men.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017