LAHORE: A thought-provoking talk on ‘the resilience and timeless impact of women’ was held with actor, host, child protection activist and therapist Nadia Jamil as the guest speaker at the Lahore Fort.

The talk was organised by Aga Khan Cultural Services Pakistan (AKCSP).

Nadia shared with the audience her different life experiences, showing how passionately she cared for children as a child protection activist. She gave a brief reference to her childhood as well and how she did not grow up as a confident child. To her, life was not a bed of roses, it’s not easy but one must rise to the challenges and stand confident amidst odds. She also shared her journey of socially relevant theatre and how Ajoka picked her and offered her roles in its plays. As an actor, she said, she was more than confident rather a lioness when it came to stage or television acting.

Nadia Jamil told the audience about her work with SOS and Edhi Foundation, saying that she found a great relief in social service, serving humanity was all about life and its reward was seeing the society blossom.

Mentioning TV plays, the famous TV star said her observation as an actor was that in most of the plays girls were shown dying to get married or they wanted to win over their rich bosses, but these topics were not the real issues of society and the drama makers needed to move forward from such subjects.

“To an actor, ego is the most useless and boring trait in one’s personality and during my acting career I learnt a lot from the best actors such as Sania Saeed, Samiya Mumtaz and other talented artistes without any ego issues. We learnt a lot from each other as actors.”

Nadia Jamil said as an actor she would never focus only on her character but the whole script and if the script was good, things could go smoothly.

“I am always interested in constructive criticism, because critics could bring betterment to one’s personality.”

Nadia held the young generation in high esteem, saying the young generation was too much into social media and social media had helped in breaking many walls. She said the present-day woman was far ahead than the previous generations and women were doing great in every field.

She underlined the need for a positive approach towards life, empathy and respect between men and women as it could lead to a healthy society.

She stressed that women should not be considered fragile and urged on women to bravely face the challenges of life.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2025