E-Paper
Amid talk of war, Pak girls want to give peace a chance
A day after returning from their Shimla tour as part of the Global Youth Peace Festival-2016, young female members of the Pakistani delegation on Saturday emphasised on how important it was to give peace a chance amid the talk of war between the two neighbours.
A day after returning from their Shimla tour as part of the Global Youth Peace Festival-2016, young female members of the Pakistani delegation on Saturday emphasised on how important it was to give peace a chance amid the talk of war between the two neighbours.
A group of 19 young girls from Pakistan, led by Aliya Harir who runs a cross-border peace initiative Aghaz-e-Dosti, met at the People’s Convention Centre, Sector 36, as part of the fest being organised by city-based NGO Yuvsatta.
“Apne ghar ki diwaaron ko uncha karna sabka haq hai. Jo diwarein dil mein hain, vo saari aaj gira dena. Hum door se haath hila denge, tum door se hi muskara dena” (Everyone is well within their right to raise the boundary walls of their homes. Dismantle the walls in your hearts, if any. We will wave our hands from a distance, you do respond with a smile from afar),” said Qandeel Fatima, one of the Pakistani delegates.
They also met the students of Dev Samaj College, to deliberate on the positive role women can play in such initiatives. The delegates addressed gender issues afflicting women across the border. Harir said working on the friendship initiative was not easy. “People tell us ‘do your household chores more and travel less. You are doing a futile and baseless work’ and things like that,” she said. Resham Sitara, another Pakistani delegate, said that women in India and Pakistan are looked down upon as the weaker sex.
“We the women of the world should join hands and break the barriers and unite for a more just world,” said Sarah, their fellow delegate. Sana, a young Pakistani activist, talked about her arrest bringing to the fore fixation of the Pakistani media to single out the arrest of a woman rather than the issue at hand.
“I got phone calls from my so-called friends who would say ‘who will marry you after seeing your radical image’?” she said. Another young delegate talked of her working mother’s experience of raising children.
They also talked about gender stereotypes on both sides of the border and the challenges women face in everyday life.
Towards the end, Gurdev Kaur, a senior member from India, read out Sahir Ludhianvi’s two poems.
