n Kigali, the participants of the Women Deliver Conference beamed as Malala Yousufzai, left the small area away from the sessions and plenaries where the sixth edition of the conference was in full swing. The youngest Nobel Laureate had just finished her chat with the CEO of Women Deliver, Dr Maliha Khan.

In April of 2022, Maliha Khan, who received early education at a convent in Rawalpindi, was nominated the president and CEO of the organisation that drew 6,300 participants from 170 countries in its sixth edition held in late July this year. The conference theme was Spaces, Solidarity and Solutions.

Never one to miss an opportunity to crack a joke, Maliha announced that her sartorial choices found their roots in Lahore’s Liberty Market.

“I had a normal childhood; my father was in the army; my mother stayed at home. Due to his work, I went to seven schools. I have four siblings. I am the middle child. I am well aware of the middle child syndrome,” she says, remembering her life in Pakistan.

Maliha Khan studied at Kinnaird College and then proceeded to pursue a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, before a PhD from the State University of New York in the same discipline.

“In my family, there was no understanding for the career I had in mind. We had people in the army and civil bureaucracy,” she says.

“I never had excellent grades. I was a terrible student. Rote learning was impossible because of my dyslexia. The national board exams provided evidence of my educational challenges. I did not do well and had no choice but to enroll for an anthropology degree,” she says.

Remembering her days as a student, Maliha Khan adds, “I walked into the office and asked if I could pick up the curriculum for anthropology. The clerk there turned to me and said ‘Bibi yeh larkion kay liyay achha nahin hai kyun keh aap ko gaon maen ja kar rehna parta hai. Aap kaisay rahain gi?,’ “but I was excited that I would not have to sit behind a desk,” she recalls.

Maliha Khan’s parents were perplexed about her career choice but they believed in her. For six months, she was in a small village at the border between Gilgit and Hunza. That was a turning point. It transformed her perception of the society. “Coming from a middle-class army background, it had never occurred to me that there is so much vulnerability, marginalisation and deep poverty,” she says. “The realisation set me on the course in this field.”

She was able to secure a job in the US after being recruited from Pakistan.

“It took me a while to get there. I learned that as long as you understand what your principles are and what you stand for, and as long as you stay true to them, you stop caring about what others have to say about you.”

Maliha says she owes a lot to the thousands of women who spoke to her during the four years of extensive fieldwork and shared insights with her. “I had thought I would be helping them, but I didn’t help them much, to my shame and chagrin. Looking back, I’m sure I made little difference because I was just travelling around the country trying to get bilateral organisations to incorporate a few more women into their projects.”

According to Maliha Khan her career has been measurement and data. “I was literally the national level enumerator who collected data. But the insights into their lives, their obstacles, how we need to be realistic and how long it takes to transform those lives, came from them.”

After finishing her PhD, Khan returned to Pakistan and was working for the International Water Management Institute before teaching at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Later, she accepted a teaching position at an American university. Since then, she has been in the US. She has worked with organisations like Care and Oxfam. She has also worked with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Asian Development Bank. She was the head of programmes at Malala Fund before joining Women Deliver.

“It took me a while to get there. I learnt that as long as you understand what your principles are and what you stand for, and as long as you stay true to them, you stop caring about what others have to say about you. You stop being concerned about your professional trajectory. You stop being bothered by how others see you, and you just focus on whether you are happy with what you are doing,” she adds.

“I think people need determination and focus to achieve what they want. Luck plays a part, too.”

Her organisation often comes under fire for promoting dialogue, but Maliha Khan does not pay much heed to criticism. This means, she says, that people are listening. There is room to have uncomfortable conversations.

“I don’t believe in ideological purity. I believe in being pragmatic and getting things done. At the end of the day, ideological purity is a luxury that the girls and women of the world don’t have,” she says.

For Maliha Khan, there is a difference between being focused on one’s principles and what one knows they would never deviate from. “Kya karlengay? Kya bigar jayega?”

Commenting on Aurat March, she says the very existence of resistance against it highlights its need. “This is not the case in Pakistan alone. We know that patriarchy is very strong in the rest of the world as well.”

Answering a question about trans-phobia in Pakistan, Khan says she takes pride in the fact that Pakistan passed a law for trans-persons. The reversal of the law shows that such movements are gaining strength, “There is room for optimism. Change can happen as we have seen. But change is not permanent, so we have to defend it and change tactics to reclaim the space,” she says.

The writer is a freelance multimedia journalist