Celebrating Women's Day at PEL

I tried my best to avoid the topic of women rights and empowerment for the longest time as I felt that my perspective on the matter didnt go in line with the existing norms. However, the more I avoided the path, the more I ended up walking it.

And what had never happened before, did! I was introduced to SHE, a campaign that looked at the concept of women empowerment differently; men and women not at war with each other, but a team, trying to build a better world, together! Just what I believed and so I became a part of SHE.

With women's day just around the corner, it was an honour to be invited by PEL to represent SHE and speak on their event on Women's Day celebrations. Having been in constant, friendly correspondence with Komal Saghir from PEL, I was hoping for a pleasant experience. What greeted me, however, was beyond my expectations:)

From the reception to the closing, the event was marked with thoughtful gestures, meaningful activities and tasteful decor. Fairy lights adorned the interior with pink and white balloons adding a mood of festivity and joy. The beautiful slideshow of female employees with their personal messages for women's day made me reflect even more on the different dimensions of this day and its dimensions.

The event was both inspirational and informative with guest speakers sharing their personal experiences, struggles and achievements as a female and employees being briefed about policies regarding harassment, their input and insight adding depth and value to the policy draft.

Zainab Saeed from Kashf foundation shared her insight about the impact they have made as an organisation, empowering many to make the journey from adversity to comfort. Her analysis was that women tend to spend more on the household than on their personal needs, using their income on education, nutrition or home products.

The atmosphere was so positive and friendly that I decided to skip the boring formalities and jumped straight to speaking from my heart. My first request that we give Komal a big round of applause for organizing such a beautiful event and to make it a habit to appreciate each other whenever we can. It is unfortunate that as a society, we tend to be more critical than encouraging and thus the behavior becomes a norm everywhere. Getting in the habit to appreciate each other can break this bitter cycle and spread positivity. We started with acknowledging the most important woman in our life, our mothers, who juggle between being a chef, doctor, teacher, home manager, event planner, wardrobe designer,etc, staying on-call 24/7 and yet are called, just a mom! We realized that the most beautiful and commendable quality of Pakistani women is that they understand, realize, cherish and fulfill their role as a mother and a homemaker knowing that they are raising the leaders of tomorrow. And on top of that, they pursue their dreams and aspirations too. But all this does not and cannot happen in isolation. Here we need to acknowledge the beautiful support system that the women of this nation receive in the form of their parents, husbands and other family members. Though this is obviously far from being the complete picture, but the day called for celebrating the journey forward that Pakistani women have made.

It was an absolute delight to see that PEL has women employees in almost all departments, from accounts to marketing, from technical to quality assurance. Even today, very few companies provide the facilities that PEL is providing to its employees, in the form of day care, common room, gym, etc.
The absence of a daycare is one of the major causes why many women have to give up their jobs and career when they become mothers. PEL's understanding that men and women have different needs when it comes to work, making it a gender-friendly company in the true sense of the word.

Speaking on the topic of harrassment, we also discussed how the need is to start gender sensitization from homes, where mothers need to inculcate values of respect, empathy and non-discrimination in their sons, raising them to be kind, respectful and dignified gentlemen. However, in reality, many times women themselves discriminate between sons and daughters or are the cause of despair in another woman's life. This attitude needs to change, we need a society where women support each other and become a source of strength for one another.

Discussing this years theme for International Women's Day, Be Bold for Change, we realized how we could interpret it in our own way, defining bold and change according to our own understanding of the terms. We interpreted it as a call for change in access and right to life and education for girls, change in access to opportunities, facilities, mobility, change in the way we raise our sons and daughters and not to forget, the need for men to change and become bold enough to speak up in support of women and facilitate them in whatever capacity that they can.

Kiran Khan, international swimmer and Pride of Pakistan shared her personal journey of struggle to make name in a field that had been unexplored before. It was inspiring to hear how she overcame mutiple challenges and hurdles and pushed her way through to make a mark on the sports arena.

The amount of thought and effort that had been put into the event amazed and impressed me. The small activity of lighting up diyas and arranging them in an order so as to form the logo of Women's Day was both symbolic and pretty. Another one involved small messages for women's day to be written and fixed in flower pots, put together to form the word, PEL. After the session, together we all set dozens of balloons free in the air, with the banner, Happy Women's Day.

But the celebrations continued and we were escorted to their beautifully adorned mess, where Women's Day celebration cake awaited us. It was a treat to attend an event of such class and taste and to interact with women so positive and confident.

May all women in Pakistan find ease in their journey and may we rise above gender and become a source of strength and encouragement for each other, irrespective of age, race, gender, faith or ethnicity!

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY EVERYONE!

t was an honour to represent SHE at PEL on their Women's Day celebration event on 8th March.