SWAT: Women rights activists on Wednesday demanded equal opportunities of digital literacy, e-commerce, computer and internet technology and Artificial Intelligence for women to help them meet the modern-day requirements.

They made the demand while speaking at a seminar titled ‘Empower Women, Empower the Future’, organised by Pakistan Women Integrated Network at Khushal School & College here. The event was held in connection with the International Women’s Day to be observed on Friday (March 8).

“In this modern age when the world is performing tasks through AI, where men and women work together for development, in our country, women still face the basic issues of education, harassment and violence,” Huma Shakir, one of the organisers of the event, said.

She said she was helping local women get modern education, skills and to involve in sports. “We are training girls in 13 different skills, including gemstone cutting and polishing, photography, paintings, ecommerce, taekwondo, art and craft and beautician,” she said.

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Neelam Shaukat, head of the first women police station in Mingora, said women faced domestic violence and lack of share in inheritance. “We try our best to resolve their issues on the spot, also taking help from dispute resolution council,” she said.

Shahnaz Saleem, a representative of GIZ, a German development agency, said the organisation had established a women desk in government offices, where the issues of the gender from rural areas were resolved in time.

JUSTICE SOUGHT: The elders and family members of a youth, who was killed inside the Banr police station of Mingora on January 23, 2023, on Wednesday accused the police of siding with the accused in the case, and demanded of the department’s high-ups to take notice of it.

Talking to reporters at the Swat Press Club, Faridoon Khan, an uncle of the deceased youth, Ubaid Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Akhtar Ali Khan, PPP district general secretary Iqbal Hussain and social activist Zahid Khan, said wife of the one of the arrested accused, Amjad Rehman, had purportedly inflicted injuries on herself, but accused the victim’s family of it in a bid to alter the course of the case and shield her husband from being punished.

They said upon the complaint of Rehman’s wife, the police filed an FIR against uncles of the deceased, Akhtar Hussain and Yasir Khan, and also arrested them without conducting an investigation. They emphasised that as Pakhtuns the family of Ubaid would never take such a cowardly step against a woman.

They urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court, the chief minister and the police chief to ensure speedy justice to the family of the youth.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2024