Tag: pakistani women

  • ‘Sexist’: NADRA slammed for declaring men head of family

    ‘Sexist’: NADRA slammed for declaring men head of family

    Twitter users have slammed a sexist policy authorized by The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) after a user shared a screenshot of the message she received from the government organization that informed her that the husband was designated as the head of the household.

    The user went on to criticize NADRA as she had not nominated her husband as the head of the household, per the message stated.

    https://twitter.com/yougoglencocco/status/1640997625821380608?s=20

    The user further went on to question how this policy would become a threat for women trying to escape abusive marriages, because their private information is being sent to their spouses without their consent.

    Other women also slammed NADRA for refusing to recognize female agency, and pointed out how this policy alienates single parent households, especially with women who had escaped abusive relationships.

    Sharing their experiences of being turned away from offices while applying for their CNIC card, female tweeps blamed the policy that demands that a male guardian verify themselves as the head of their household.

    NADRA responded to the tweet by sharing that this policy was designed to guard family data from unauthorized access, because of which they had decided to inform the family head about procedures related to family data.

    “It is one of the security features to guard family data from unauthorised access. In order to maintain the integrity of family data, @NadraPak informs every family head about any processing through which someone becomes part of his family.”

    This tweet was bashed by Twitter users are regressive for refusing to recognize women as the head of their households, as activist and researcher Ammar Rashid tweeted that the government body should not have violated the privacy of women by leaking their data this way.

    “Maybe @NadraPak should try to institute measures to confirm identities that don’t openly violate the constitutional right to privacy of adult female citizens? Other countries seem to be managing data security just fine without such archaic rules.”

    Another user said: “A married woman is usually above the age of 18 and that makes her legally a citizen. She must have access to her OWN security features without having man govern her changes to the card.”

    https://twitter.com/dcfaiqalethal/status/1641077646548148227?s=20

    The Chairman of NADRA, Tariq Malik addressed the controversy in a tweet on Thursday, sharing that the policy did not discriminate against women from becoming the head of the household, and shared statistics that showed more women were nominated for this position than men.

    “@NadraPak policy of declaring head of family is not gender specific. See thru lens of #realdata 28 million citizens declared their mother, 291,039 declared their sisters, 116,800 men declared their wife as head of family. And, 3.69 million females who are self head of family.”

    Malik further went on to reveal that the backlash to this policy has encouraged the department to reform it in order to prevent discrimination of any kind:

    “Declaring head of family is self reported event. I have directed our Public Engagement Department to sit down with social scientists and subject matter experts to bring reform in policies and SoPs. Suggestions welcomed. We have revamped quite a few since a year.”

  • Ayesha Omar shares advice for women who wish to enter the industry

    Actor and singer Ayesha Omar was a guest on UrduFlix’s “The Shoaib Akhtar Show” where she offered advice to young women who wanted to form a career in the entertainment industry.

    Omar stressed that the most essential tip for women to remember is that if they’ve shifted to a new city, it is safer to live in an apartment building rather than a house:
    “I was just giving this advice to a girl who had shifted to Karachi and was an actor. She was terrified because someone had smashed the windows of her car outside her house. I told her it’s essential that if she’s living alone, she lives in an apartment rather than a house. This is for all women who are divorced, or moving out of their parents homes and want to live independently, it’s the safest thing for them to live in apartment buildings. Given the realities of this country, we have to adjust to it. You can’t change them. You have to be careful, you can’t fight everything.”

    The second tip Omar revealed was to learn to be independent, and stop relying on other people to complete your tasks:

    “Take care of your health and your expenses on your own. You cannot expect that you’ll find help out there. It’s your body and your life so take care of it. I take care of my own food, clothes and makeup wherever I go, and there is a lot of joy in doing so. You’re less stressed out as well… I’ve learned that if there are 20 people whom you keep requesting to do your work, those 20 people won’t do it. So you must conserve your energy and do things on your own.”

    Sanam Jung was also a guest along side Omar, and she also told aspiring actors to remember not to reveal your personal struggles to people in the industry.

    “Never share your home issues or financial problems with anyone in the industry, because they take advantage and they will take you for granted.They will know how desperate you are for work, so they’ll call you at inappropriate hours,” she said.

    Watch the complete interview here:

  • Pakistani-American family arrested for abuse, forced labor of woman

    Pakistani-American family arrested for abuse, forced labor of woman

    A Pakistani-American family living in the United States of America (USA) has been sentenced on Monday to serve between five to twelve years in jail for physical violence and forced labor inflicted upon a Pakistani woman. Federal authorities have described this case as the ‘modern-day equivalence of slavery’.
    As reported by US newspaper Richmond Times, the three defendants, matriarch Zahida Aman along with her two sons, Mohammad Rehan Chaudhri (49) and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri (55), had used physical labor, verbal abuse and coercion against the survivor, Maria Butt, to get her to serve thousands of hours of domestic labor ‘for 12 long years’, said federal authorities in a statement.
    “Indeed, during the course of their illegal agreement and in furtherance of their criminal conspiracy, each defendant assaulted, verbally attacked and abused [the victim’s] children to carefully construct a climate of fear that continuously compelled her labor,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Miller and Shea Gibbons revealed in a court statement.
    Butt was married to Salman Chaudhri, the eldest son of Aman in January 2002 when she was living in Pakistan. She claimed that she had not met her husband before their marriage. After moving to the United States, Butt recalled her husband telling her that if she wanted to keep him happy, then she must fulfil the obligations of his family.
    Shortly after moving to the US, Butt was called in a family meeting by Aman where the victim was asked to surrender her legal documents, including the jewlery gifted by her family, as well as a notebook listing the contact numbers of her family members back home.
    Prosecutors note that due to this act, the survivor “had no legal documentation, assets of value or contact information for her family and friends within months of arriving in the United States. She was becoming completely dependent on the defendants for basic necessities and emotional support.”
    After her arrival, the survivor was forced to perform an endless amount of housework which included cleaning bedrooms, wiping down the kitchen and, as prosecuters pointed out, had ‘become a robot of the house’ who basically had to respond to all of the requests of the family members.
    Soon, the survivor was made to perform incredibly difficult tasks like moving the lawn with a push mover, hand-washing and line-drying area rugs, including painting the inside and outside of the family’s two-storey house. When she would refuse, the survivor was slapped or subjected to cruel punishments like in one instance, she was tied with rope and pushed down the stairs infrount of her children for simply using a family member’s phone to call her husband.
    “As the type of work the defendants required [the victim] to perform intensified, so too did the coercive scheme they employed to compel her labor,” prosecutors said in the trial brief. “The defendants used a combination of coercive means, including physical assaults, verbal abuse, isolation, starvation and threats of deportation to create a climate of fear that compelled [the victim’s] labor,” prosecutors said.
    The survivor’s husband, Salman Chaudhri, was not dtsying regularly in the family’s home, and had moved to Pennsylvania for his medical education and then to California to set up his practice. He got engaged to another woman in 2013. The survivor revealed that the husband did not take her, or their four children with him to California.
    Prosecuters also revealed that the family also tried to separate the survivor from her children. They revealed that the children were encouraged to spit on their mother, and had been convinced that she was dangerous. The children were also belittled and punished if they would ever show any kindness to their mother.
    In May 2016, the survivor managed to escape with her brother from Pakistan and had filed a police case with Chesterfield County Police detective Laura Kay, after which the family members were placed under arrest.
    “After two months of rebuilding her relationships with her family and gaining emotional courage, [the victim] contacted [her brother], who helped her leave the home,” prosecutors wrote. The survivor “subsequently gained full custody of her children, despite a contested custody battle with the defendants.”

  • Pakistani woman mountaineer summits world’s 11th highest mountain

    Pakistani woman mountaineer summits world’s 11th highest mountain

    Pakistan’s mountaineer Naila Kiani has successfully summited the world’s 11th highest mountain, Gasherbrum 1 (G1) today. With her recent achievement, Naila has become the first Pakistani woman mountaineer to scale three peaks of over 8,000 meters.

    She summited G1 with five other mountaineers including Sirbaz Khan, Sohail Sakhi, Sajid Sadpara, Shehroze Kashif and Imtiaz Sadpara.

    Naila is a banker by profession, she is a mother of two and is also a trained boxer, a mountaineer, and an adventure enthusiast. 

    Read more – Samina Baig creates history, becomes first Pakistani woman to summit K2

    Naila in July summited K2 and became the second Pakistani woman to scale the K2 and the first Pakistani woman to do it in her first attempt.

    Samina Baig, a mountaineer from Gilgit-Shimshal Baltistan, was the first Pakistani woman to reach the top of K2 in July this year.

  • ‘More power to her’: Inspiring story of female rider delivering food

    ‘More power to her’: Inspiring story of female rider delivering food

    A LinkedIn user named Fizza Ijaz recently posted about receiving her order from a female KFC rider, Meerab.

    Meerab belongs to Lahore and is currently pursuing a degree in fashion designing.

    “Today I ordered KFC in Lahore and received a call from a female saying: ‘Hello, I am your rider speaking’,” the post read.

    “I got so excited that I stood outside the gate to receive her and we (my friends and I) spoke to her for a good 10 minutes about many things including her pursuits, passion and bike riding skills. Meet Meerab from Youhanabad, Lahore.”

    “She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Fashion Designing and does her night duty as a KFC rider to cover her fees. She intends to remain a rider for another 3 years until she graduates post which she plans to launch her own Fashion Brand!”

    The post has received over 50,000 likes and over 1,500 comments.

    Meerab’s university fees are paid by the KFC Female Higher Education Scholarship Programme.

    Asma Yusuf, KFC Pakistan’s Cheif People Officer (CPO), commented, “Thank you so much for the shoutout Fizza Ijaz Meerab makes us so proud! She’s not only a KFC Pakistan Dame Rider but is also continuing her education journey with the KFC Female Higher Education Scholarship Program. Indeed, there’s no force stronger than a woman who has decided to rise.”

  • Samina Baig creates history, becomes first Pakistani woman to summit K2

    Samina Baig creates history, becomes first Pakistani woman to summit K2

    Samina Baig, a mountaineer from Gilgit-Shimshal Baltistan, has become the first Pakistani woman to reach the top of K2. At 7:42 am today (Friday), Samina Baig and a Pakistani team of seven successfully ascended the treacherous peak of K2.

    The team consists of mountaineers Samina Baig, Eid Muhammad, Bulbul Kari, Ahmed Baig, Rizwan Dad, Waqar Ali, and Akber Hussain Sadpara.

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Samina Baig on her achievement.

    “Samina Baig has emerged as a symbol of determination, courage and bravery of Pakistani women,” tweeted PM Shehbaz.

    The second-highest summit in the world, K2, is 8,611 metres above sea level. It is considered to be the most hazardous and challenging summit in the world.

    In 2013, Baig became the first Pakistani woman to summit Mt Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

  • Gender Gap Report: Pakistan ranked second-worst in the world

    Gender Gap Report: Pakistan ranked second-worst in the world

    Pakistan is the second-worst country in the world in terms of gender parity as per the Global Gender Gap Report 2022. In a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday, Pakistan is ranked 145 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index.

    The report examined gender differences in 146 nations in a variety of fields, including politics, health, economic opportunities, and education.

    The report says that Pakistan is a nation where women have the least proportion of senior executive and legislative jobs.

    “Pakistan is the country where women have the smallest share of senior, managerial and legislative roles (4.5%), compared to Jamaica, where women represent 56.6% of workers in that category, or Togo, which has the highest share of women in senior roles,” revealed the WEF report.

    Labour-force participation of women has also seen a reduction of 1.9 percentage points in 2022.

    Pakistan was one of the five nations with a gender gap of more than 5 per cent — the others being Qatar, Azerbaijan, China, and India.

  • Exclusive: Adnan Siddiqui reveals Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie’s reactions on his desire of kissing her

    Exclusive: Adnan Siddiqui reveals Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie’s reactions on his desire of kissing her

    Actor Adnan Siddiqui is currently enjoying the positive feedback to his home production, Dum Mastam, featuring Imran Ashraf and Amar Khan.

    While promoting his film, the Mere Paas Tum Ho star exclusively opened up on his interesting interaction with his costars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie after wrapping up their Hollywood film, A Mighty Heart.

    He revealed earlier that while chatting casually after their wrap-up, Adnan expressed his desire for there to be a kissing scene between him and Jolie in the film, in front of the entire cast.

    Actor Momin Saqib hilariously added that, “Angelina kay pati dev wahan thay, aur inho ne ashleel baatien shuru kardi.”

    Earlier he also shared details of the incident on Tonite With HSY.

    Brad took it jokingly and just laughed it off whereas Angelina gave him a sly smile. The Salt diva also took it as a spirited joke.

    In 2021 he shared throwback photos with Angelina and Brad Pitt from a party at Taj Mahal.

    He wrote, “What are the odds that some bygone treasures will pop up on my phone memory a day after I mused about what memories leave in their wake when they come calling!”

    Adnan Siddiqui Recalls Time With Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt

    “A Mighty Heart will always hold an indisputably prized place in my heart for professional and personal reasons,” he referred to the film with Angelina Jolie.

    “Looking at these photographs, I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to go back in time at The Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba and relive the glory days.”

    The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom and was co-produced by Brad Pitt. The project also starred the late Irrfan Khan and released in 2007.

  • Nine Pakistani female entrepreneurs flying to US for mentoring, networking

    Nine Pakistani female entrepreneurs flying to US for mentoring, networking

    A programme financed by the United States (US) Embassy and introduced by the Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) Islamabad, sent nine Pakistani women entrepreneurs to the US this week.

    The Accelerator Programme for Women Entrepreneurs is a one-of-a-kind training programme and competition that offers women-owned Pakistani start-ups exposure to American business tools, coaching, and mentorship.

    450 women-owned companies responded enthusiastically to the programme. The top 12 start-ups were chosen for a 15-week Founders Institute Acceleration Programme after a comprehensive round of mentoring sessions and pitching contests.

    Nine women entrepreneurs were chosen from among the 12 start-ups for an in-person acceleration exchange. Women entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to attend important conferences and visit the offices of big corporations like as Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal during their tour.

    They’ll also stop by 9 Mile Labs, Kiwi Tech, Angel Pad, and Alchemist, all of which are situated in the United States. Throughout the eight-week programme, the participants will have many networking opportunities and will pitch to selected US-based investors on both the east and west coasts.

    Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin-Ul-Haque said that this initiative offers Pakistani women entrepreneurs connectivity to global startups and foreign investors, speaking at a ceremony organised by the TIE Islamabad chapter before the departure of the Pakistani women entrepreneurs to the United States.

  • Love gone wrong: Pakistani woman married to Indian returns after spending four years in Jail

    Love gone wrong: Pakistani woman married to Indian returns after spending four years in Jail

    A Pakistani woman who spent four years in an Indian prison, after living there without a visa, has returned to the country with the help of Pakistani authorities, reports Arab News. Indian authorities handed over Sumaira and her daughter to Pakistani authorities at Wagah border.

    As per media reports, Sameera Abdul Rahman was born in Karachi. She met an Indian man in Qatar and married him by going against her family. Her husband brought her to India without a visa in 2016. Later, both of them were sent to jail.

    In 2017, Rahman gave birth to a daughter in prison. Rahman was released from jail and placed in a detention centre after paying a million-rupee fine to the Indian government.

    Read more- Pakistan rescues woman in love gone wrong, saves wife left in Indian jail by husband

    In a message, she sent through her lawyer to BBC, Rahman had earlier said, “I have been punished by law for the mistake I made, but my sorrows and pains are not diminishing. The family had already separated, but now the husband in India has also turned away. At the moment, my only recourse is my country, Pakistan.”

    In 2018, the Pakistani High Commission was given consular access to Sumaira Rehman. Later, the Interior Ministry in Islamabad received a letter from the Pakistani High Commission confirming Sumaira Rehman’s nationality.