KARACHI: President Arts Council Pakistan, Karachi Mohammad Ahmed Shah on Thursday announced that the Second Women Conference would be taking place in the city on March 6 and 7.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Shah said that “We pay tribute to all the women who have excelled in every field. If women are put aside, all dreams of development are unfulfilled”.

He said that Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) will be followed strictly at the conference. The audience will be allowed to sit in the hall with a gap of one empty seat. Masks will be provided to those who come without them and hands will be sanitized at the entrance.

Secretary Arts Council Ejaz Ahmed Farooqi, rights activist Anis Haroon and writer and columnist Noorul Huda Shah were also present.

Anis Haroon said economic empowerment is the most important thing in the world today. The nations where women work equally with men are powerful today. Women’s fight is not against men but against patriarchy, which deprives them of their basic rights, she said.

Ejaz Farooqi said that “every child should have access to education. If a woman is not educated then her children cannot develop better. Education is an ornament to raise awareness and make women aware of their rights”.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2021