A talk by Humaira Awais Shahid, journalist, activist, and former legislator, Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, Pakistan; 2009-2010 Fellow, Radcliffe Institute
Humaira Awais Shahid is the first parliamentarian in the history of Pakistan to make successful legislations as an individual member. She prohibited private usury in her law which exploited the down trodden and was a source of an exploited tool to force women into brothels and forced marriages, her law was adopted and replicated by N.W.F.P Parliament (the most conservative, tribal Parliament). As a legislator, she successfully grounded resolutions against Acid Attacks and Forced Marriages (customary practice VANI), which became the basis of The Criminal Law(Amendment) Act, 2005. During her 5 year strenuous struggle she succeeded despite extreme opposition from criminal mafia, cabinet and administrative departments.
Ms. Shahid as a journalist exposed the oppression and discrimination facing women and children. She highlighted countless stories of stove burnings, child prostitution, rapes, acid attacks etc. She was editor of The Post, an English Daily, from 2007-2009, and from 2000-2007 was editor of the women’s section of Daily Khabrain. Currently a scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Ms. Shahid is researching violence against women in the context of political Islam and tribal culture
Sponsored by the Technology and Culture Forum at MIT. This program is co-sponsored with the MIT Program in Human Rights and Justice and MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies
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