She Inspires 2016 – celebrating Female Entrepreneurs

She Inspires 2016, the most talked-about storytelling platform, was hosted by Zoya Ishaq to celebrate womanhood in Pakistan. The event was based on discussion panels consisting of various women entrepreneurs with various backgrounds. I also got a chance to listen to female philanthropists and other “empowered women” who talked about the issues they face. My colleague will share more about how she sat through 10 hours of amazing energy and I would share about how I (a young boy) was inspired by these stories.

Let me bring to you an issue discussed by the representatives of Depilex Smile again Foundation. The issue of acid attacks. Ms Masarrat Misbah, a cosmetologist, philanthropist and director at Depilex Beauty clinic & Depilex Smile again Foundation, came on stage to talk about the plight of acid attack victims.

She explained how these women experienced the epitome of physical and psychological pain due to petty issues such as not having given birth to a son, husband or other male relative being drug addicts, marital issues due to dowry, etc. The pain of these women does not stop with the attack as these women continue to face social problems and are traumatized for life.

Acid attacks highlight the ignorance of our male-dominant society and it is appalling that these attacks are not restricted to rural or tribal areas but occur in urban areas too. Ms Masarrat added that lack of education is not the only factor for men committing such heinous acts but detachment from religion also contributes to this. Another thing that she questioned was the upbringing of the men in our society where men are generally led to believe that they are superior to women in their roles in life. She also went on to say that the present law body has strong laws against such acts but the main problem lay in the lack of implementation of these laws.

Despite all this, Ms Masarrat insisted that even though things seem difficult for women in our society, they’re not powerless against injustice and can empower themselves with persistence and resilience. Two such empowered women, (acid attack victims) decided to join Ms Masarrat on stage to talk about their own experiences. This I feel changed my thought process in many ways and I feel it may just be necessary to share these experiences.

•Margaret – Her husband set her on fire after dousing her with petrol because he was unsatisfied with the dowry. This attack took away her lower lip and caused her neck to collapse. She hid in her room for a year and wept throughout. Her case was taken up by Ms Masarrat and she was registered for medical care which funded all her surgeries. Not only that, she is also receiving training to become a beautician, also under Ms Masarrat at Depilex. Margaret is now a proud mother of a 4-year-old son, a beautician and an empowered woman in many ways.

•Naureen – She was divorced by her unemployed and lazy husband 28 years ago. 3 months after the divorce, she was attacked by her husband with acid while she was picking up her daughters from their school. Unfortunately, her daughters were also affected by the attack and they were admitted to a hospital. Naureen was operated upon but could not afford the subsequent medical bills. She reached out to the Depilex Smile again Foundation who not only paid her medical bills but also trained Naureen as a beautician and helped her open a parlour. She constantly mentioned that she could not have done anything without the support of her strong daughters who actually told Naureen about Depilex. Another empowered woman.

The focus then shifted to how such issues can be resolved and what needs to be done to eradicate such evil from our society. For all those entrepreneurial mindsets who want to do something about it here maybe a few things to think about;

1) A need to evoke a sense of justice in each individual and a will to act for the sake of that justice.
2) Advocating such issues through media. At present, the media is insensitive and lacks empathy as most T.V channels only care about ratings and content that drives these ratings.
3) The youth needs to be more proactive and form a group that particularly notes down all such atrocities committed against women and then pressurizes society to take necessary action.

After this, we had a representative from Hair to Help, founded by Syed Fahad Ali in 2012. Hair to Help is an organization that makes wigs with donated hair for women who are undergoing chemotherapy. Statistically, 60% of female cancer patients regard hair loss as their worst fear regarding cancer. However, people are generally hesitant to help because of the taboo associated with hair and magic in our society. I wanted to highlight these stories so individuals and readers may take them seriously and consider creating more solutions.

Generally, the event was appreciated and regarded as a success by the audience. The audience mainly comprised females of all ages, but the majority belonged to the age group (19-25). The audience shared and agreed that events like this are necessary tools for raising awareness.

It is necessary to highlight the issues of women in our society. The audience and interaction must involve male members of society as the problem mainly lies with the men!

However, the audience’s objection was soon put to rest with the announcement of a second upcoming event named She Inspires Him. Just this one event has helped me understand that inspiration and entrepreneurship are genderless. What we need is a balanced ecosystem and to maintain that balance one must appreciate females like Zoya for executing such initiatives.