Concern voiced over impact of Talibanisation on women

ISLAMABAD : Speakers at a seminar on “Talibanisation and protecting womens right” have expressed concern over the rise in religious extremism and its impact on women. To mark the International Womens Day here on Saturday, a number of seminars, report launchings and gatherings stressed the need for collaboration of men and women to end violence against women.
On the occasion, the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma) launched a report titled “From classroom to newsroom: promoting media as a career for women in Pakistan” by Uks (NGO). Focusing on diverse issues faced by women in the country, the events were actively participated by women rights activists, political leaders, academicians and journalists.
In addition to discussing backgrounds and present status of the issues faced by women, they also pointed out new avenues towards their solution. The report by Uks was based on interactive workshops the organisation conducted in various universities with the title of Promoting media as a career for women in Pakistan. These workshops were aimed at raising the profile of women in Pakistani media.
With the objective of bringing together prominent women journalists to interact with dozen of women journalists and mass communication students at various universities, the organisation under the banner of Pakistani womens media network in collaboration with the Internews Pakistan arranged four interactive workshops.
These workshops were conducted in Fatima Jinnah Womens University, Rawalpindi; Peshawar University, Lahore College University for Women, and Karachi University. In addition to pointing out impediments to women in joining mainstream media, the report also includes recommendations for media stakeholders to promote and support a higher profile of women in media.
Sharing her observations, Uks Executive Director Tasneem Ahmer said that a big number of girls opted for studying mass communication, but a very few joined the media practically. She said that physical mobility, social mindset and harassment were the main hurdles in the way of women joining this field.
Federal Minister for Population Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman of Standing Committee on Education Razina Alam, Marvi Memon, Shereen Arshad and Dr Rukhshinda Perveen also spoke on the occasion.
They said that there was a need to create more job opportunity for women to make them economically empowered. They said that Talibanisation was the extreme form of already existing male-dominated set up of the society. Meanwhile poster exhibition titled “Unite to end violence against women,” depicting the miseries of women in the society opened at Nomad Art Gallery.
Portraying the works of various experienced and amateur artists, including Anjum Ayub, Sadia Hyat, Humera, Maylene Rasmussan, Ilona Yusuf, Nadeem Ahmed, Abbass Shah, Ajrumand Awan, N H Kazmi, Zia Zaidi and Sonya Bajwa, the exhibition grasped the attention of large number of people.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:3/8/2009