February 14, 2019

‘She was a lioness’: Husband talks about Pakistani cyclist Sabiha’s life, achievements

KARACHI: “She told me that she would only get married to me if I promise her that I would never stop her from cycling, even if my mother asked me to,” said Muhammad Zahid as he mourned his wife and the fastest female cyclist of Pakistan Sabiha, who passed away on February 10.

The 32-year-old had been a force to be reckoned with when she first surfaced as the worthy competitor to 2010 South Asian Games silver-medallist and Wapda’s Raheela Bano in 2013, while the competition to remain the top cyclist between the two had started in 2012.

It has been almost seven years that Sabiha took over the mantle from Bano. She had become the second woman ever to win a cycling medal for the country at the South Asian Games when she bagged a bronze medal in Guwahati, India in 30km Time event with 50 minutes and 10.598 seconds.

Sabiha has been the national cycling championship four times in a row 2014 onwards.

This was something that Zahid, a national cyclist himself cherishes the most. Sabiha had won the second bronze in the 40km team trial.

“She did what she set out to,” Zahid told The Express Tribune. “She got two medals in that championship, that too in India. I was just over the moon. I knew she would make us proud. I still can’t hold my tears back. I just knew she was special. She would win a medal for the country. She loved cycling, even though we had limited means. Every medal she got I felt I won it too; she would always want me to be beside her.”

While being a female cyclist was one feat, it was another to be coming from a small village of Haripur, and also the first woman from Hazara division to become a professional cyclist.

She lived all her life in Haripur and also began training there, only to find her way to the city, in Peshawar, and then in Lahore to compete at the national events.

She started out as just a curious spectator when it came to cycling, but her interest only grew after witnessing the first event at college level.

In her own words from 2013, she had told The Express Tribune that she always wondered why women can’t ride a cycle like men do.

Her interest in cycling was piqued two years ago when she was participating in another sporting event for her college.

Sabiha hailed from a small village in Haripur, where women are not allowed to openly participate in sports and usually learn to be content with a domestic life.

“It all began when I was in Pania. I saw a women’s cycling event and none of the participants could ride properly,” Sabiha had told The Express Tribune in 2013. “Most of them kept falling, others couldn’t sit on the cycle properly, and I thought ‘how difficult could it be to ride a cycle’?”

But on her way back home she would hide from the people and continue training with her uncle’s bicycle, defying the norms as women are not openly seen or allowed to ride a cycle in villages, with every pedal she pulled only to become the most successful female cyclist from 2012 till the last national Championship in December 2018.

“She won six gold medals in December,” said Zahid. “In total she has 70 gold medals that she has won throughout her career. She was my motivation too… I was just counting her medals. I’m nowhere close, I only have two. But she was the most inspiring athlete to me. She also held the record in individual pursuit event that she first made with five minutes and 20 seconds and broke it again with five minutes and 19. I know that she had a special talent, even at home she wouldn’t train like other athletes do, her training would be in her room and then on the road, but mostly she would train on her own.”

Zahid believes that it will be difficult for him to get back to the sport too, as for him cycling meant a success for Sabiha.

“She was the star between us, but more than that she was my best friend. We were many things, not just a married couple. She would push me to do well too and I was told to be there to see her in each of her events. It was 2014, in Lahore, I remember she was losing a race, I couldn’t see it, so I left the stadium. Afterwards she said she lost because of me, because I was not there to cheer for her. From that time onward, I would make sure I’m there for her in every event. That same day she had won few more medals to make up for one loss,” remembered Zahid.

He believes his world has come crashing down and the people of Haripur are just starting to realise that Sabiha was a star in her field.

“They didn’t know as much, we wouldn’t talk about our cycling careers with everyone, but they would see me carrying our bicycles and show some curiosity, but nothing more,” said Zahid.

Sabiha had also went to Korea and Japan for different events and India twice.

Looking back at how it all began for Zahid and Sabiha when they met on a bus, where she was coming back from a championship in Peshawar, while he was coming home from meeting a relative from the city.

“Our love story began immediately; she told me about her dream of becoming the cycling champion, and for a year we struggled, but I told her that there would be nothing stopping her from her passion. I was brought up by a single mother as my father had passed away, and even if she had told me to stop Sabiha from cycling I would have refused, but luckily she loved Sabiha, she never did, instead Sabiha won her over with lots of gifts that she would get for her after coming from all these championships.

“She was also an electrician, a tailor, she knew many things, it was hard not to like her,” said Zahid.

Zahid was already in Army and cycled for them since 2009, he got Sabiha on stipend too for the department. He said that there was a time when Wapda would want Sabiha to join them, but she did not.

He said that last year, four months before the national championship she had a hernia operation, but she wanted to compete.

“I told her not to, but she was stubborn,” said Zahid. “She went in and won six gold medals, and we had just returned home from Lahore on December 28, she was fine. It was only 20 days ago we found out that she has cancer, skin cancer. She had the problem with kidney stones, but it was never that big, she never had any difficulty before, but in the last 10 days of her life, she stopped eating, and then she just left us. I still can’t believe she is gone. The doctors never told us she had cancer before.”

Like Zahid, Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) secretary Syed Azhar Ali Shah remembered Sabiha as a ‘lioness’.

“She was brave, she was a lioness. I saw here in December, there was some swelling on her face, I asked her but she never told me what was wrong. She fought till the end and none of us could even imagine she will be gone so soon,” said Shah.

However, Zahid believes he would never meet anyone like Sabiha again; no cyclist or human would measure up to her spirit.

“She was never arrogant, she was never boasting, she was humble. She would say if she would be arrogant then Allah will not like it. She was a simple girl, just Sabiha Bibi when I met her, but she changed everything for herself as an athlete, she changed me as a cyclist too. I know I will never meet a women as inspiring as her, even if she would fall she would get up during the training and in life, even if she would bleed she would make it easy for us around her. We’ll see this year if any female cyclist takes her feats further at SAG. I don’t think so,” concluded Zahid.

The Express Tribune

February 14, 2019

Moot stresses need to ensure cybersecurity for women

Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday warned against potential dangers associated with the use of internet as anti-state elements as well as criminals have invented mind-blowing techniques to achieve their nefarious designs and commit crimes, especially against women, by using the cyber space.

The event titled ‘Cybersecurity for Women’ was organized by the Government College for Women University Sialkot. Adviser to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Maj Gen (r) Sohail Shafqat and Lt Gen (r) Ghulam Mustafa were prominent among those who spoke on the occasion.

In their speeches, the speakers threw light on the enemy tactics through which the youth, especially the women, were unknowingly and unintentionally becoming a part of the anti-Pakistan agenda under the fifth generation hybrid war imposed on the country to divide the nation through different means by creating confusion and chaos under the influence of a storm of narratives and different ideologies.

The speakers said that cybercrime is a global phenomenon and that with the advent of the technology, cybercrime and victimization of women are also on the rise. They said information technology being a tool in the hands of criminals and anti-state elements has become a potential threat against women. They said cyber bullying is increasing day-by-day and women are often the main target. It is believed that more than 80% of the victims of cyber bullying in Pakistan are women and children, they said, and added that online harassment sometimes makes it virtually impossible for the women to use internet and the victims usually do not even know how to seek help and where to report the issue.

The speakers said hybrid conflict where focus is shifting to subversion on religious, sectarian, ethnic and social issues needs a comprehensive strategy to ensure that people, especially the youth and women, stay aware and steadfast against the propaganda onslaught launched through a soft offensive by using internet and the cyber space.

They said people, especially the women in Pakistan, are not trained to understand the complexity of the online content. Highlighting the risks of hacking and misuse of personal information, they also cautioned the young female students about terrorist groups increasingly using cyber space for recruitment and radicalization of the youth. They sensitized the participants about potential threats of promotion of liberal ideologies, drugs business, violence and sexual harassment on the internet. They also highlighted the role the academic institutions can play in sharing good practices in order to promote safe surfing guidelines.

Daily Times

February 14, 2019

SC judge cautions against weakening workplace harassment law, urges govt to strengthen it

A Supreme Court bench on Wednesday expressed concern over “whispers to weaken the law against women harassment at workplace”, during the hearing of a contempt case against Justice Mansoor Ali Shah filed by former federal ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace, Yasmeen Abbasi.

Abbasi had issued a contempt notice to Justice Mansoor in 2016 after he had issued her arrest warrants, following which the police barged into her office to take her into custody.

During the hearing, Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Kashmala Tariq, who appeared before the court today, told the bench that there were “zero complaints” of harassment from Sindh. The claim was dismissed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, who observed that absence of complaints did not mean the issue of workplace harassment did not exist in the province.

“People feel reluctant to talk about this matter,” he remarked. “The problem is that you [Tariq] have not taken women into confidence.”

He said that the authorities should develop a mechanism that would make it easier for women to lodge complaints and directed the attorney general and provincial governments to submit responses on the interpretation of the law against harassment at workplace.

He suggested that if provincial governments meant to amend the law, they should do so to strengthen it so that women can easily come forward and file complaints of incidents of harassment at workplaces. He also said that the attorney general and provincial advocate generals should provide legal assistance to the court by consulting international law.

“We should be ashamed of ourselves if we can’t protect women from harassment,” he said.

The hearing was adjourned until the first week of March.

Dawn

The News: Shame if we can’t protect women against harassment: Justice Azmat

February 14, 2019

KU hosts Global Women’s Breakfast

KARACHI – Women scholars at all stages of their careers gathered in the Multipurpose Hall of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi (UoK), to shape, establish collaborations, and talk about women’s progression in chemistry.

The event held as a part of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), “Global Women’s Breakfast” which aims to empower women in chemistry. The event was also associated with “the International Day of Women and Girls in Science”, established in 2015 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to empower women in science and technology.

Highlighting the importance of the occasion, Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary said that at the same time this Global Women’s Breakfast was being held in many countries all over the world. He said that this event was organised to address the challenges women in chemistry faced.

He expressed serious concerns over social compulsions that restricted Pakistani women to work freely for the progression of the country. He regretted that Pakistan was one of a few developing countries where women were deprived to have basic human need of clean toilets in the public places. This deprivation also lock up women at their houses, he pointed out.

We have every reason to celebrate women empowerment, Choudhary said, adding that in previous times, only elite class was sending their women for education, but in recent times the situation is clearly flipped. It is observed that females are in great numbers than males in our higher learning institutions, he said.

As a matter of fact, educating a woman is impacting more important than educating a man, as the female has to take the lead in training the kids of her own, he observed.

Choudhary pointed out that challenge in this situation was higher ratio of females in equation, but they are rarely seen on leading posts in academia and industries. Then there are number of other challenges which both male and female have to find the solution for, he said.

In an open discussion, female members of the ICCBS faculty, including Prof Dr Bina Siddiqui, discussed about the primary causes of why women weren’t more self-confident. The female chemists said that the Global Women’s Breakfast intended to assist women chemists to expand their network of contacts, both locally and internationally.

They pointed out that the common perception of society was that women were delicate and not equal to men as they are not able to carry out hard work like men do. They asserted that as far as inelegance was concerned there is no difference between men and women. Women are equally capable of performing tasks as men do, they said.

In fact, there are few responsibilities which nature gave only to women, like bearing a child, giving birth of a child, nursing and taking care of child and family, the chemistry scholars observed. The nature has made women very strong but what they need is a supportive attitude from family, spouse and society to continue their carrier after completion of education, they said.

The Nation

February 14, 2019

‘Women to be given opportunities for change in police force’

Police as a first respondent have a pivotal role in combating violence against women and violence can be reduced through effective use of existing support mechanisms, observed police officials, legal experts and other civil society representatives at a consultative gathering here on Wednesday.

The Legal Rights Forum under the umbrella of ‘Pakistan Forum for Democratic Policing’ organised the consultation, titled ‘Role of police in combating violence against women and support mechanisms’, at PMA House Karachi.

Speakers said women and girls had been facing violence and discriminatory behaviours even at their homes, while discrimination at state and society levels had increased their miseries. They said that in every third household women faced various types of violence and less attention was paid to psychological violence, which badly affected the efficiency of women.

Former inspector general of police Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui said structural change in police was crucial and he had been assisting the department through trainings and other interventions so as to create a greater impact.

He said women had great potential and would be given opportunities to bring about a change in the police department. Women police officers should be empowered and given key posts, which would reduce violence against women.

Senior Superintendent of Police East Karachi Captain (retd) Azfar Mahesar said women had been facing discrimination and violence at the hands of close relatives in most of the cases. He emphasised the need to change the mindset and include more human rights-related material in te police training curriculum to sensitise police officers.

Mahesar said the police department had been recruiting directly BPS 16 grade inspectors with law background to resolve legal and other procedural issues to minimise human rights issues. He said over 1,000 inspectors would be hired and they would conduct trainings and sensitise officials on new laws, particularly women-friendly laws.

The SSP said that he had appointed a woman as the first female station house officer in the Khairpur district to challenge the stereotypical mindset. He noted that resistance came but he kept doing the same practice to change the mindset.

He said the police department established a women and children protection cell at regional level and women police officers were dealing with survivors. He called for the need to give privacy with rights to women for empowerment.

Inspector Khurram Awan, focal person for South Zone, said survivor women could easily share their issues with females; therefore, women police officers had been designated to redress their grievances.

He suggested establishing female help desks at each police station to support survivors of gender-based violence. Mahnaz Rehman of Aurat Foundation said everywhere women faced violence and discriminatory behaviours, but due to a continued struggle women had now been challenging the stereotyping and putting up resistance for their rights.

She said that though there were some good laws, women were unable to get benefits from those laws due to lack of awareness and implementation of the laws. LRF executive director Malik Tahir Iqbal, Shariq Ahmed, Manzoor Ahmed, Fouzia Tariq and others said women were resisting discriminatory practices, and this was resulting in a better change, but there was a need to continue advocating for rights at all levels.

They said suggested that violence against women could be controlled through close coordination between police and citizens with mass level behaviour change campaigns through media and other sources.

The News