KARACHI: As a prelude to the Lux Hum Women Leaders Award 2020, its organisers held the Hum Roundtable, a set of panel discussions on topics such as ‘Women on the front lines of a transforming world’ and ‘Pakistani women at the crossroads’ at Governor House here on Tuesday.

The first panel discussion on the topic of ‘Women on the front lines of a transforming world’ was moderated by Dr Maria Zulfiqar, dental surgeon as well as a journalist, while politician Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, social activist Dr Fouzia Saeed, researcher Nazish Brohi and entrepreneur Amin Hashwani made up the panel.

Speaking about why there has been no big change happening for women in this country and why even in this day and age marriage is given a priority instead of education when it comes to women, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said that people expected the governments to bring this change in thinking whereas the people sitting in parliaments, the electables, had closed minds. “These parliaments don’t want change. They only toe party line. You need open minds in the parliaments. And what to say of men when even the women there don’t apply their own minds,” she pointed out.

Pondering over why women have to work twice or thrice as hard to prove themselves, Fouzia Saeed said that capable women anywhere would find male guardians volunteering to help them even though the women themselves may not need it. “It is some kind of an abba [dad] syndrome that draws all these men to her for unwanted help. Pioneering women, doing something new find it more difficult to prove their own capability and then as more women join her they get to have an easier time,” she explained.

Nazish Brohi spoke about pro-women laws. “There was a time when parliamentarians would not even be willing to pass a resolution on honour killing and now there are some nine pro-women laws which have been passed, so the change is there,” she said.

Amin Hashwani said that there was a need for jump-starting giving rights to women. “We are a developing society that is still behind in giving rights to women but we need do something in this regard, and not for the sake of just women but for the sake of this country,” he said, adding that Islam talks of women liberation instead of women discrimination and thus liberation is more a part of our value system. “Don’t worry about men being ready for change, you should think about whether you are ready for it or not,” he said.

The second panel discussion on the topic of ‘Pakistani women at the crossroads’ was moderated by social entrepreneur Sadaffe Abid while rights activist Anis Haroon, mountaineer Samina Baig, stabbing victim Khadija Siddiqui and advocacy professional Dr Omer Aftab completed the panel.

Anis Haroon said that women in Pakistan needed a level playing field, which they have not got in 72 years now. “The role of women here is a confused one,” she said. “There are set stereotypes of women in books and in the media, and there is a need to change the mindset. There are women specific laws here now but there is no implementation of these laws because what concerns women is not thought of as important enough by most people,” she said.

Samina Baig spoke about her own struggle which was made less difficult for her thanks to family support. “My brother used to tell me that he will teach me how to climb mountains when I am older and he did. He was always on my side,” she said.

Khadija Siddiqui, who was stabbed 23 times, said that she wanted justice and her attacker punished but everyone would say to her to forget it and stop pursuing the case. “Even in my family they wanted me to give it up, but my father was my biggest supporter during that time,” she said. “There were also some people who said that I must have done something to provoke the attack, pointing fingers at even my character. Their mindset made them focus on the victim instead of the attacker,” she said, adding that she then turned to social media to bring her attacker to justice.

Dr Omer Aftab, the man behind the white ribbon movement, said that his colleague had got breast cancer and during her hospital visits she would notice women who would only come to seek help at the fourth stage. “But breast cancer has better chances of cure when caught early. It is sad how taboos here prevented the women from going to the doctor and go through so much pain and agony. It is an illness associated with women so it is discriminated against,” he said.

Earlier, president of Hum Network Sultana Siddiqui shared her vision for the Hum Women Leaders Award. “We have always paid special attention to promoting Pakistan’s positive image by promoting positive subjects and raising important issues which prompt one to think,” she said. About the award, she said that they came up with the idea to celebrate inspiring women and highlight their work.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2020