Project to empower Chitrali women concludes

CHITRAL: The Chitral Press Club has done the networking of social media bloggers, vloggers, media professionals and writers for gender equality through increasing the voice and representation of women in social and other media platforms.

The task was carried out under the project funded by the Canadian government. Community sessions were held in Garam Chashma, Drosh and Chitral town to appraise the women-specific issues followed by panel discussions of experts in which the issues were sorted out and highlighted in the media.

Special training was imparted to local media professionals in terms of writing and highlighting women’s issues including ‘content writing’ to social media bloggers and vloggers from different areas of the Lower Chitral district including Kalash Valley.

The Women Reporting Centre established on the press club premises was being used as a platform for discussion of women-related issues and a platform where distressed women registered their complaints for redress while free legal aid was provided under this facility.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the project, District Officer at the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department in Chitral, Nusrat Jabeen, termed the project as a milestone in empowering women. She said in this advanced age of media, increasing the representation of the women of Chitral in social and other media platforms was needed as the stage of solving problems comes only after awareness.

She said that the problems of highly educated and less educated or uneducated women in Chitral have different dimensions and nature which should be solved according to the environment and background keeping in view their sensitivities.

The official praised the performance of Aga Khan Rural Support Program in the economic, social and political empowerment of women during the last four decades and termed the project as a link to these achievements.

The former district naib nazim Maulana Abdul Shakoor described the project as very important and explained human rights and especially women’s rights in the light of Islamic teachings.President of the Chitral Press Club, Zaheeruddin highlighted the activities and programs conducted during the last six months related to the project and said many problems of women were solved in the Women Reporting Center. The young media professionals and writers were sensitized to highlight women-specific issues.

District Officer Education Shahid Hussain, ADO Education Ayesha Bibi, Professor Hussamuddin, social activist Farida Sultana Faree, Waqas Muhammad Advocate and Head Nurse Sakina Bibi also spoke on the occasion. They praised the programme and called for a follow-up to keep the benefits of the project intact.