Laraib Abid, Pakistan. She is working as a Senior Manager Monitoring in International Non Governmental Organization PATRIP Foundation and GFC. Here, she also focuses how women living nearby border areas can be empowered.
She is also the founder of Mashal campaign that focuses on Women empowerment and interfaith harmony. She did a Masters in Gender Studies from University of the Punjab, Pakistan.
“If I talk about Pakistan’s context, our major institutions play a huge role in gender roles formation. The main issue over here is that still majority of the women aren’t considered equal to men. Their choice, mobility, wishes all are dependent on men. It’s normal for a man to hang out, travel and earn but for women, cooking and doing home chores are considered as an asset instead of her professional achievements. She is supposed to look after the family, cook and clean home even if she is earning. This is a grassroots/micro level problem that directly affects the overall behavior and life of the people. Until daughters and sons both aren’t treated equally we can’t come out of domestic violence, sexual assaults/ harassment, eve teasing, honor killing etc. When a daughter is asked to iron clothes of her brother, polish his shoes, cook for him and that brother doesn’t take a glass of water by himself and can take decisions of his sister’s life then how come we can achieve equality. The institutions i.e. education, marriage, politics, health, family and media all gets influenced by this.
“My mother, who is my inspiration always told me to be a good human being first. She never forced me to be an expert for home chores but supported me for my achievements on a professional level and on how I want to bring a positive change. Today, if I am able to inspire even a single person that’s because of her.
She asked me to think and work like a human being not like any gender, so if there’ll be men or even a third gender suffering because of other genders, I will work for that too.”