KARACHI: The week-long Festival of Arts and Ideas organised by Sindh Madressatul Islam University offered a musical conclusion after The Sketches sang and performed on the poetry of Shah Latif Bhittai and other mystic poets.

Brimmed with students, the SMIU’s inner courtyard reverberated with the sound of mystic music late Saturday night as the audience danced with Saif Samejo, the lead singer of The Sketches band who presented verses of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Baba Bulhe Shah, Sachal Sarmast and other mystic poets.

The festival was formally concluded after week-long activities which included 40 sessions on various subjects and issues, screening of documentaries and films and quiz competitions in which students actively participated.

The week-long event organised by the SMIU concludes

Vice Chancellor Muhammad Ali Shaikh said that the festival was part of the SMIU’s effort to enhance the leadership qualities of students.

Ameena Saiyid, a former managing director of the Oxford University Press-Pakistan, said women in Pakistan were making a niche of their own in the country’s male-dominated business establishments and it was just a beginning.

‘Women are trained to be managers from young age’

Speaking at the distinguished lecture series, she said Pakistani women were trying to create a passageway for those waiting in the wings. “It is good to know that women in management in Pakistan are entering boardrooms and are trying to create a smoother passageway for those waiting in the wings.”

Ms Saiyid said she was not a feminist but had been working with men for decades and had encountered male prejudice, which took various forms.

She said the empowerment of women in Pakistan had trodden a painful course with every small victory snatched with the utmost exertion from the teeth of hardened prejudices.

She said unlike men, most women were trained to be managers from a very young age.

“Think of housewives. What are they if not managers? They manage an intricate unit like a household with its human and material aspects; they manage family politics and devise strategies for stretching what is usually a limited income, and take care of countless household and family needs.”

Ms Saiyid said women’s attempts to redefine their identities had had success; the context invariably remained the family.

Use of drones for emergency treatment

Prof Abdurrahman Tufan, a Turkish professor affiliated with the school of medicine in Gazi University, Ankara, said the use of drones should be enhanced in providing emergency treatment and supply of medicine in the Third World countries.

On a panel discussion on stereotypes for women, Shaista Muhammad Ali said women in Pakistan had enhanced their status tangibly through a long struggle spanning decades.

Former bureaucrat Dr Masuma Hasan said she had witnessed a sea change in the past decades regarding change in women’s status in the country.

Prof Dr Arfana Malah said that positive discrimination by which marginalised communities and segments of societies were being helped to emancipate, should continue until women in Pakistan and elsewhere did not gain status at par with men.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2018