Monday, November 17, 2014

Pakistani Village Girl Launches VC-Funded Tech Startup in America

Vida, a  San Francisco technology startup co-founded by Umaimah Mendhro from Akri village in Sindh, Pakistan, has received $1.3 million funding from Google Ventures, Universal Music Group and others, according to Tech Crunch.

The startup bills itself as "socially responsible" with the objective of using technology to provide a way for designers, artists and other creatives  anywhere in the world to make a viable living through their work.

Vida CEO Umaima Mendhro joins a growing list of successful Pakistani-American women that includes Shama Zehra in finance, Shaan Kandawalla in technology, Shazia Sikandar in the Arts and Fatima Ali in fine cuisine.

“I am from a very small town in Pakistan and was home-schooled much of my life because we didn’t have proper schools around. I taught myself how to cut, sketch, sew, stitch, block print, screen print, oil paint, and more,” she told Tech Crunch. “Yet I couldn’t get myself to pursue art as a profession because I feared I wouldn’t be able to make a living with it,” Mendhro said. “With a love for fashion and design, I was also acutely aware of the hundreds of millions of people employed in textile and garment production, who could never get out of a cycle of poverty.”

Vida brings together painters, photographers, graphic designers, sculptors, 3D artists, architects, and textile and print designers from around the world who participate in the platform at no cost, then receive a 10% revenue share on products sold. Additionally, VIDA often works with its textile mills, printers, and cut and sew factories, removing the middleman costs from the equation. Vida uses "Direct to Fabric Digital Printing Technology" for its offerings.

Currently, VIDA designers include: Elle Magazine's 'Up and Coming Fashion Designer from Sweden, Emma Lundgren,' Vogue.com's top 10 fashion graduates to watch, Cigdem Keskin from Turkey, and Tokyo based 'Top Hat Designer of the Year,' Honoyo Imai. Manufacturing partners include: Karachi based fashion label and manufacturing houses, Sania Maskatiya and FNKAsia.

Umaimah has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Here's what she says about herself in her intro on HBS website: "I want to live a life that compels people who do not seem to share a common thread to see if, at a raw human level, we really are that different. A life that gives people reason to reason for themselves... to pause and question the comfortable assumptions. To form and inform beliefs. And never give up common sense for common opinion."

Here's a CNN story on Smartphone apps success in Pakistan:

http://dai.ly/x14vmjt


Pakistan Smartphone App Success by dm_51ea373e71f84


Haq's Musings

Karachi Slum Girl Goes to Harvard

Success Stories of Pakistani-American Women

Pakistani Woman Engineer Wins Grace Hopper Award

Working Women Bring About Silent Revolution in Pakistan

Status of Women in Pakistan

Microfinancing in Pakistan

Gender Gap Worst in South Asia

Status of Women in India

Female Literacy Lags in South Asia

Land For Landless Women

Are Women Better Off in Pakistan Today?

Growing Insurgency in Swat

Religious Leaders Respond to Domestic Violence

Fighting Agents of Intolerance

A Woman Speaker: Another Token or Real Change

A Tale of Tribal Terror

Mukhtaran Mai-The Movie

World Economic Forum Survey of Gender Gap

19 comments:

Mayraj said...

Was her father a migrant laborer in KSA?
"My home-village, Akri, the place my father was born... is where I slept under mosquito net-covered handwoven beds and rode on ox-carts to nearby barren fields. Most in my village in Sindh, Pakistan are not literate. None know a place called Harvard.

"My life in exile in the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia... is where I first felt alone. And thus appreciated the need to form, rather than absorb, beliefs. It's where I first dreamt of leaving a mark on this world. And living a life that tens of millions know of... that feels relevant, anchored and found."

http://www.hbs.edu/PortraitProject/2009/MendhroUmaimah.html

Riaz Haq said...

Mayraj: "Was her father a migrant laborer in KSA?"


I don't think low wage migrant laborers are allowed by the Saudi govt to bring their families. It's more likely that her father was a professional or a bureaucrat serving in Makkah.

Mayraj said...

Or a feudal?

Riaz Haq said...

Mayraj:"Or a feudal?"

Here's your answer from Umaimah's published 2009 interview:

My parents are both doctors and my father is originally from a village near Badin. He is the only one in his family who self-pursued an education. He always wanted to build a hospital near his village, so when my parents got married (they were class-mates at Medical School), they built a private hospital and a home on top of the hospital. When they had their first child (my older brother, we're two siblings including me), they knew they would have to move to Karachi in order to give their children proper education. So they got my brother admitted at Karachi Grammar School, but when the patients learnt about this, patients who used to travel for a full day just to get to my parents' hospital, they pleaded my mother not to leave. My mother didn't tell me this till a year ago when I was at Harvard Business School… but one after the other patient told my mother they would pray that her children get to the world's, not just Karachi's, best institutions one day, but that she stays because they have no one else to go to. I can imagine how difficult this decision may have been for my parents. They couldn't get themselves to leave… and so they stayed.

http://pakistan-home-education.blogspot.com/2009/07/umaimah-mendhro-on-her-homeschooling.html

Adnan said...

how did a small village girl end up in harvard business school.. tat journey will be more intersting than the actual article

Riaz Haq said...

Adnan: "how did a small village girl end up in harvard business school.. tat journey will be more intersting than the actual article"

Let's see if the following words from Umaimah's interview published on "Pakistan Home Education blog" shed some light on it:


"..grade 3-5 in Saudi Arabia and grade 6-8 in Pakistan are the years I attended a school. They had very different impact than home-schooling on my learning for sure. The school years are largely a blur in my mind – I don't get all revved up as I do when I think about the home-schooling years especially grade 8 on. I don't remember feeling truly challenged at school. I felt like being part of a bigger system that I must abide by. I used to come first in class, so a lot of my personal attention went towards grades (my parents never put any pressure whatsoever on grades, rather, used to tell me to chill :)) I think I built a desire for achievement through the school years and of developing a frame of reference for competition. The school years also helped build friendships and a sense for developing an identity for yourself in reference to others – that has helped me with empathy, understanding, and appreciating diverse points of views. I remember moments where I was moved by a classmates' problems at home or turned off by the group dynamics or cliques in a school – those were good learnings and experiences to have had. Having said that, what I am today is a significantly larger function of my home-school experience than it is of my few years in school. If I had never gone to a school, I feel I would've missed out certain learnings and experiences that are valuable to have had in life, however, if I hadn't been homeschooled I feel I wouldn't be me…

I wrote about my homeschooling experience in both my Cornell University and Harvard Business School admissions essays. It's hard to tell if that had any impact or not in my getting admitted to those schools, however, I do think the schools appreciated my unique background and perspectives around that, particularly HBS. I think the passion for reasoning, exploration, and learning built through homeschooling years really helped in the university years as I, more than perhaps many of my peers in both schools, led a much more self-directed focus of study and truly enjoyed the experience of learning for the sake of learning, which made doing well very easy (I graduated top 5% in both schools). I don't see it as having much direct impact on my professional life other than being an interesting conversation point :) And other than the fact that I feel more of an independent- thinker, who doesn't worry about "fitting in," and very comfortable in my skin – characters I do attribute to having lived my critical adolescent years the way I did through homeschooling"

http://pakistan-home-education.blogspot.com/2009/07/umaimah-mendhro-on-her-homeschooling.html

Haidar said...

The fact that she accomplished what other grads could not is a measure of how fair the system is in rewarding hard work regardless of where one comes from. At least give the US system credit.

Riaz Haq said...

Haider: "The fact that she accomplished what other grads could not is a measure of how fair the system is in rewarding hard work regardless of where one comes from. At least give the US system credit."


Highly motivated an determined individuals can and do succeed regardless of location. There are many such examples in Pakistan highlighted by Geo TV in its "Zara Sochieye" spots. Only those who make excuses rather than make the effort guarantee their failure.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2012/08/upwardly-mobile-pakistan-on-66th.html

Riaz Haq said...

Her name is Humaira Bachal. At age 12, she began teaching friends after school in the slums of Karachi. At age 13, she made a formal classroom outside her home by installing a chalkboard to teach other children who could not attend school at the end of her own school day. By age 16, she founded a school with four younger female colleagues (her sister and three friends) in a run-down building with “dirt, water and mud all around [where] all we had was… two rooms with bare walls.” By age 21, in the same slums she now had a school with 1,200 students where her 18 year-old sister Tahira was school principal. Two documentary filmmakers and some reporters found her and documented her story. Then the second documentarist became an Academy and Emmy Award winner. The Academy Award winning filmaker later introduced Ms. Bachal to Madonna. At 25, Ms. Bachal was on stage with Madonna at a concert for women’s rights during which Madonna promoted raising money for Ms. Bachal’s Dream Foundation Trust to build her a better school. In late September this year, at age 27, Humaira Bachal opened the new building of her Dream Model Street School.

To put in context the challenge Ms. Bachal overcame simply to become educated in Pakistan’s slums (never mind becoming a leading education advocate), about 40% of girls and 20% of boys grow up illiterate in Pakistan today according to UNICEF. Consider further that according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Rankings Pakistan ranks 141st out of 142 countries ranked, only finishing ahead of Yemen while behind Nigeria (118th), Saudia Arabia (130th) and Iran (137th).

In multiple documentaries, Ms. Bachal’s mother Zainab has discussed how Ms. Bachal’s father physically beat her because she allowed young Humaira to continue going to school in 9th grade and hid the fact from him (the beating came when he found out). On film in her earlier days, one of Ms. Bachal’s own brothers has said that after seeing what was going on at Ms. Bachal’s school, he would not allow any of his own daughters to attend his sister’s or any non-religious school; he would only allow his daughters religious education, “I will never get my daughters into school except for some basic Islamic teaching. For my son’s education, I am willing to even beg in the streets.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonspringer/2014/11/25/pakistans-educator-madonna-wants-you-to-know/

Agni V said...

Meanwhile in India, an Indian dude is turning smart kids straight out of schools into great programmers and in process creates cheapest cloud based solutions and a company envied and feared by giants like Salesforce.com... As a bonus point, the company didnt ever took any loan or venture capital funding. How is that against all your American Pakistanis?

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/22/mitra-zoho-india-tech-inter-cx_sm_0222mitra.html

Riaz Haq said...

JAKARTA: The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) announced on Sunday that Team Pakistan won 2 Gold Awards and 3 Silver Awards at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2014 ceremony held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The teams won Gold Awards in the Media & Entertainment Technologies and Tertiary Student Categories and Silver Awards in the Startup, Tourism & Hospitality and Tertiary Student Categories.

Leading the way with the Gold were the teams from Eyedeus Labs for their new product “Ingrain” and Syed Osama Maruf of NUST for his product “Smart Steth”.

The Silver Awards were taken by RemoteInterview.io in the Startup Category, EatOye in the Tourism & Hospitality Category and Fawad Ejaz Bhatti of NUST for TRex Tremor Reader in the Tertiary Student Category.

The Awards ceremony was attended by Indonesia's Communications and Information Technology Minister, Rudiantara.

This year’s P@SHA delegation comprised of 30 members with19 technology products competing for the prestigious Awards.

National teams from each economy are selected after a rigorous ICT Awards competition in 17 economies.

The best of the best then compete against each other at a three-day regional event judged by industry professionals, technology veterans and thought leaders from the Asia-Pacific region.

The Pakistani delegation was finalised after the announcement of winners at the P@SHA ICT Awards earlier in November.

International APICTA Judges from 17 economies who evaluated the categories, in which Pakistan participated, spoke about the consistently high standard of technology products presented by Pakistan year after year.

This year Team Pakistan benchmarked its products against 183 products from the region.


http://www.dawn.com/news/1147925/pakistan-picks-up-2-golds-and-3-silvers-in-technology-awards

Riaz Haq said...

On December 10, eleven faculty members from the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design (PIFD) who participated in a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) capacity development training program in 2014 met at the Serena Hotel to discuss follow-up actions from their visits to the United States, United kingdom and France.

USAID Mission Director, Gregory Gottlieb and Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Commerce, Government of Pakistan attended the debriefing event. Mr. Gottlieb, while speaking to the trainees said, "I am confident that these trained teachers will go back to their classrooms and continue being even better teachers. Fashion design training is important, because it adds value to the textile and gems and jewelry sector in Pakistan. This is what essentially makes local products export worthy and will go a long way in making Pakistani fashion and auxiliary industries thrive."

The trained faculty members discussed how they would apply the knowledge of many cutting-edge trends and techniques in footwear, jewelry design and clothing and textiles. The trained teachers also shared with the audience their plans to transfer their new knowledge and skills to their students at PIFD. The students through this knowledge of international standards and best practices will augment their chances of finding competitive positions in the industry and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills.

The training supported by USAID, is part of a comprehensive capacity building initiative aimed at enhancing Pakistan's productivity and export competitiveness in economic sectors with high export potential. This classroom training will also help young graduates from PIFD access better incomes and new techniques at par with international standards. Fifty percent of the trained faculty is women.

The USAID training for Pakistan Project is a USD 33.9 million project that provides capacity development and training to Pakistanis in various sectors, including the economic growth and agriculture sector in order to enhance the capacity of future Pakistani leaders and professionals and develop the capacity of local partners. The project also invests in training in other areas, such as education, health, energy and resilience and governance. The project aims to train over 6,000 Pakistanis in these areas by May 2017.

https://www.usaid.gov/pakistan/news-information/press-releases/united-states-trains-faculty-pakistan-institute-fashion-and

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan's fashion industry is trying to shed its image as entertainment for a gilded elite and instead get recognition for its business success.
The country's latest fashion show, held this week in Islamabad, was more about buyers and deals than hemlines and necklines.
Meanwhile, models say they are enjoying more freedom than ever to express themselves as the glamour scene grows.
The booming media industry has also given fashion a much larger audience in conservative Pakistan, where risque outfits and even moderate displays of bare flesh are often frowned upon.
While the world has focused on Pakistan's problems in recent years, many other areas of the country's life have gone unremarked.
Fashion shows have become commonplace in cities like Karachi and have even been held in conservative Peshawar, near areas where the Taliban hold sway.
But Pakistan's sedate and decidedly untrendy capital was holding its second Islamabad Fashion Week.
As techno music blasted through the speakers, slinky models paraded down the ramp in a hall packed full of people.
The designs ranged from Western pret-a-porter styles to elaborate bridal outfits to heavily embroidered formal wear suitable both for soirees in Islamabad and London.
Designers who participated in the show included recognised figures such as Umar Sayeed and Bina Sultan.

The designers, though, had their eyes fixed on foreign buyers, not the usual socialite crowd.
"I wanted to run this fashion show like a trade event," explained stylist and celebrity Tariq Amin. "I want the business aspect to grow."
Another designer Fahad Hussayn agreed.
"For the sake of the economy and the business, fashion shows need to attract more buyers and stop being a joke," he told the BBC.
"This time we had buyers from Australia and Europe, but we need more of that. We are providing employment and we need to make money. Otherwise, we'll get sick of it. We'll get sick of fashion."
Spotting potential
Rizwan Beyg, a Pakistani fashion icon, believes the country's designers should stop fixating on the West and turn their attention towards the Middle East and Southeast Asia where there is more business to offer.
"Just being in the West doesn't make sense. If it doesn't translate into sales, it doesn't make sense economically."
It seems that, against existing odds, fashion and glamour enthusiasts are increasing in Pakistan.
"It's easy to find girls who want to model," said Tariq Amin, gesturing to the throngs of girls backstage.
"They usually need a lot of training, but compared to a few years ago it's not hard to find girl models now."
Fashion design is being taught in almost every large university, and Tariq Amin says the scale is apparent from the fact that every city has its own fashion institute.
"We're headed in the right direction," says Fahad Hussayn.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17715116

Riaz Haq said...

Meet Kulsoom Abdullah,

Pakistani-American, Kulsoom Abdullah, has been Weightlifting – at both the national and international level since 2010 – in addition to Crossfitting.
Born and bred in the US, Abdullah’s parents (born in Pakistan; her father from Tangi and her mother from Charsadda) immigrated to America years ago, before Abdullah’s birth. In 2005, Abdullah’s father passed away in Pakistan, leaving behind his wife and five children – of which Abdullah is the eldest. A Computer Engineer by profession, with a PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology, I first discovered Abdullah through a picture of hers that an acquaintance had shared over Facebook. In the picture Abdullah is featured Weightlifting – in hijab. Intrigued, I googled Abdullah and contacted her via her website in the hopes that she would agree to being interviewed over email. She agreed.
At the national level, Abdullah attended the ‘US National Competition’ in 2011, and in the same year she represented Pakistan (at the international level) at the ‘2011 World Weightlifting Championships’. For the latter, Abdullah was not only the first female to compete, but she was also the first female to compete in hijab. And this year, Abdullah represented Pakistan in South Korea, at the ‘2012 Asian Weightlifting Championships.’
However, in 2010 after qualifying to compete at the American Open, the USA Weightlifting Committee barred Abdullah from contending in the competition due to her clothing – clothing modifications were simply not allowed. Participants had to adhere to wearing a ‘singlet’ – particular clothing for athletes which sort of looks like a swimsuit with shorts.

Riaz Haq said...

INTERNATIONALS IN EINDHOVEN: TUFAIL FROM PAKISTAN
Posted by Sabine te Braake | Dec 8, 2018 |

https://innovationorigins.com/tufail-from-pakistan/

Name: Tufail Shahzad
Country of origin: Pakistan
Work: Naval architect and innovation manager at MasterShip Netherlands

We meet Tufail at restaurant De Restauratie at the Eindhoven train station. He lives in Helmond and takes the train to Eindhoven daily and on the day of the interview, he has to attend a lecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven. “Next to my job, I’m also studying Artificial Intelligence & Innovation Management at the university because I need more information about it for my current project at MasterShip.” Tufail’s curiosity in all kinds of subjects prevails in the stories he tells about his journey of the last couple of years. “I like to be challenged and always want to try new things.”

-------------

Tufail was raised in a small Pakistani village called Dajal: a small union council of one of the most underdeveloped districts in Pakistan. His older brothers studied elsewhere in Pakistan and his parents hoped Tufail would stay home with them. “But that didn’t happen. When I was 17 years old I wanted to move to China to enroll in a program in Aerospace Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. My parents and grandfather were against it. They were afraid I wouldn’t return home any more. Once you know how to fly, you don’t go back in the cage again. In the end, they let me leave to after they understood I really wanted to study there. I had never spent a night without my parents and was kind of lazy because as the youngest I didn’t have to do a lot at home. So that was an excellent base to live on my own in a different country,” Tufail says with a grin.

--------------

Those first months I had a hard time connecting to my new surroundings. The turning point was a family homestay in JiuJiang JiangXi. I was welcomed in a Chinese family where I learned more about the culture and learned to speak Chinese. I stayed with them for 40 days. I also got lots of love from the family and they treated me as their own son. Today, I’m still in contact with them.”


-----------
“I graduated this year in February and I tried to find a job. I got a lot of rejections due to having no work experience in the industry. I went back to Pakistan because when you get rejected all the time, it’s better to be with your family. I kept applying for jobs. I found a wonderful job opening at MasterShip, but they were looking for someone with 5 to 10 years of work experience. I wasn’t on that level yet but I got in contact with them. They liked my resume and we had a Skype conversation. Later they told me there wasn’t a position for me yet, but they would like to stay in touch for some future openings. Later I went to Dubai for a job interview, which went well, and when I was waiting on the airport to go home, I got an email from the CEO of MasterShip: he wanted me to lead an artificial intelligence project, a very big challenge for me and the company. Everything about it was new to me and again a new challenge even in the shipbuilding industry. When I came home, my family asked how Dubai was. ‘Good, but I’m going to Europe again’ was my answer. And that’s how I ended up in Eindhoven.”

After the all the arrangements were made, Tufail moved to Eindhoven in October 2018. “I recently moved to Helmond, but eventually I would like to live in Eindhoven again. I’m still settling in at my apartment. I also want to get to know Eindhoven better and also have more of a social life. I have to manage my time well so I can go to events of the Hub for expats or something. I also want to learn Dutch so I can make contact more easily and I also think it shows respect for the country where you live when you speak the language. Eindhoven is the place I once dreamed about but didn’t know yet. I’m really happy here.”

Riaz Haq said...

Meet Dr Yarjan Abdul Samad - Pakistan's first space scientist at Cambridge University

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/484373-pakistan-space-scientist-dr-yarjan-abdul-samad-makes-country-proud

Balochi youth Dr Yarjan Abdul Samad has made Pakistan proud to have become the first space scientist at the world’s best and the Britain’s leading university of Cambridge.

Dr Yarjan works at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge. His department involves research work in connection with the devices used in the space-bound satellites. The institution is run in collaboration with the European Space Agency and other research institutions.

“At the department, we make devices that are used in the space,” Dr Yarjan told Geo News. He belongs to a far-flung village, Buleda, located off Turbat, Balochistan. “I am proud that as a Baloch and a Pakistani, I’m the first Pakistani to work as a space scientist at the Cambridge University.”


We are making efforts to work out the devices that function without any energy and electricity, he pointed out. These devices will provide cooling to the spacecrafts while in space, he said.

The young scientist performed his scientific experiments several times at zero gravity in space during three years.

The young Pakistani scientist said he was willing to share his technology and experiments with the Pakistani Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO).

Dr Yarjan said he was also willing to train the Pakistani space scientists. “We launch flights, including the parabolic ones or sounding rockets, for our experiments. We can replicate them in Pakistan too,” he remarked. The space scientist said the technology may be launched in Pakistan as well, he pointed out.

I’m used to struggle very hard like soldiers, he responded to query regarding the troubles and constraints he faces during his space travels. “Our job is like that of soldiers,” he said. “There is no space for any fear when you are committed to your work.”

The space technology is going to make progress by leaps and bounds in the days to come to serve different purposes, including improving the environments, he believes.

Riaz Haq said...

'Never imagined beyond my neighborhood': Taunton senior's journey from Haripur, #Pakistan to #Cornell. Spoke Urdu & Hindko but she was able to pick up English pretty quickly, becoming comfortable with it within her first year in #NewJersey https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/education/2021/05/11/taunton-high-school-senior-study-computer-science-cornell-mahnoor-abbas/4967683001/ via @tauntontogo


Taunton High School senior MahNoor Abbas and her family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan to have access to better opportunities.

In September, 17-year-old Abbas will achieve that goal, attending Cornell University to study computer science.

"I never imagined beyond my neighborhood," she said. "But now I'm excited to be going. My family made sacrifices so I could do this, and it's paying off."

Abbas, grew up in a small town in Pakistan outside Haripur. In 2006, when she was still a small child, her father and two of her siblings moved to the U.S.

Abbas's family expected her mother, herself and two other siblings to be able to join them a year or so after her father immigrated, but because of the U.S. immigration system, they ended up waiting 10 years before being allowed to immigrate.

"[My mother] was the one there taking care of us and making sure we took advantage of better opportunities," she said.

One of those opportunities was moving from a public to private school, which Abbas was able to do in the fourth grade.

Finally, during Abbas's eighth grade year, she, her mother and her siblings joined her father in Taunton.

While Abbas was grateful to have her family united, moving to America was no cake walk. She said she quickly realized that the social norms were very different.

"People were much less concerned with doing things for others and their community," she said. "It was much more individualistic, like people were focused on getting ahead in terms of their own success."

At first, Abbas encountered a language barrier, but already speaking two other languages — Urdu and Hindko — she was able to pick up English pretty quickly, becoming comfortable with it within her first year in Taunton.

Abbas also encountered discrimination due to being Muslim, such as other high schoolers questioning whether it is a privilege or a right for her to wear a hijab in school.

Another issue has been people associating her religion with terrorism.

"People think it's ok to call it 'Islamic terrorism' — that's something I've had to correct people on," she said. "I don't think [terrorism] is something that should be associated with my religion. Those men think they are following the religion, but they aren't."

Riaz Haq said...

At 18, this small town Pakistani girl who lives in Vernon, #Connecticut is already a college graduate and an author. Urwa Hameed grew up in a small town near #Multan in #Pakistan where electricity and running water were scarce. #women #Pakistani-#American https://news.yahoo.com/18-pakistani-native-lives-vernon-110000196.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

“The desert was 20 minutes away. The groundwater was sour. There were filtration systems, but without electricity, you can’t use them,” she says.

In this atmosphere, Hameed grew up, admiring her father. He owned farmland, where wheat, mangos and cotton were grown. He also was an immigration attorney who traveled frequently in his work to the United States and Great Britain. As part of his work, he ran a pro bono legal clinic for the poor.

“He was a government advocate for ushr and zakat, which is a way of redistributing alms to the poor. Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam,” she says. “He helped people file paperwork, get green cards.”

The importance of education was instilled in Hameed from a young age.

“It was very hard. The closest school was 2½ hours away” by bus, she says. “I had to go to Quran school, too. I got up early and wouldn’t get home until 10, 10:30 at night.”

As she got older, she moved to Islamabad, the country’s capital.

“My sister and I ... had to live there to get access to education,” she says. In Islamabad, she missed her family.

“The void was always there.”

Later, her father decided to bring his family to the United States. Then tragedy struck. Always sickly and often overworked, her father died while processing his family’s final immigration paperwork. The rest of Urwa’s family — her sister, her two brothers and their mother — went ahead with the plans to go to America. They settled in Vernon, where several of Hameed’s aunts lived.

Hameed’s education here got off to a rocky start.

“I was initially placed in Vernon Center Middle School. I was quite upset. I told my mother, this is really easy,” she says. “The math and English classes were teaching me things I had learned four years ago. I was intellectually unchallenged and frustrated.”

Later, she was pushed up two grades and finished at Rockville High before moving on to Boston College.

Hameed is fluent in Punjabi and Urdu. She can fluently read and write Arabic, which she learned in Quran school. She learned English in Pakistan, but didn’t become verbally fluent until emigrating.

“I never spoke to anyone in English there,” she says. She also speaks Saraiki, a Pakistani language, “at about 90%.”

“The tribe who worked on our farmland, they spoke it. My family interacted with them,” she says. Since coming to America, she has learned a bit of Spanish.

At Boston College, Hameed got a job in the office of residential life and she did research for professors who were writing books. As a freshman, she traveled to the Balkans to study the philosophy of war and peace. She unsuccessfully ran for student body president and she advocated for Halal food and a mosque on campus.

She also traveled back to Pakistan three times to research her self-published book titled “Steering Toward Change: Women Politicians Challenging Patriarchy, Class and Power in Pakistan,” for which she interviewed and profiled 45 Pakistani women politicians.

“Every one of these women had to overcome a patriarchal culture to succeed. Politics is seen as the realm of men, where women are not welcome. They have to work every day to keep their space,” she says. “Women’s interests are not represented in politics. They have that urge to represent women.”

She was happy at Boston College, a Catholic school, although she is Muslim. The student body, about 9,000 people, has about 250 Muslims, she says.

“I am a practicing and believing Muslim. I was more comfortable being my religious self in a religious school than I would have been in a secular school,” she says.

Riaz Haq said...

(Pakistani-American) Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett Named Co-Anchors of PBS NewsHour
Nawaz and Bennett to Succeed Judy Woodruff on Monday, January 2, 2023

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/press-releases/amna-nawaz-and-geoff-bennett-named-co-anchors-of-pbs-newshour

"Today is a day I never could’ve imagined when I began my journalism career years ago, or while growing up as a first-generation, Muslim, Pakistani-American. I’m grateful, humbled, and excited for what’s ahead.”


Sharon Rockefeller, President and CEO of WETA and President of NewsHour Productions, today named PBS NewsHour chief correspondent Amna Nawaz and chief Washington correspondent and PBS News Weekend anchor Geoff Bennett co-anchors of the nightly newscast. The PBS NewsHour, co-anchored by Nawaz and Bennett, will launch on Monday, January 2, 2023. Nawaz and Bennett succeed Judy Woodruff, who has solo-anchored PBS’s nightly news broadcast since 2016, prior to which she co-anchored it alongside the late Gwen Ifill.

Bennett has reported from the White House under three presidents and has covered five presidential elections. He joined NewsHour in 2022 from NBC News, where he was a White House correspondent and substitute anchor for MSNBC. In his prior experience, he worked for NPR — beginning as an editor for Weekend Edition and later as a reporter covering Congress and the White House. An Edward R. Murrow Award recipient, Bennett began his journalism career at ABC News’ World News Tonight.

On being named co-anchor of PBS NewsHour, Geoff Bennett said, “I’m proud to work with such a stellar group of journalists in pursuit of a shared mission — providing reliable reporting, solid storytelling and sharp analysis of the most important issues of the day. It’s why PBS NewsHour is one of television’s most trusted and respected news programs and why I’m honored and excited to partner with Amna in building on its rich legacy.”

Nawaz, who has received Peabody Awards for her reporting at NewsHour on January 6, 2021 and global plastic pollution, has served as NewsHour’s primary substitute anchor since she joined the NewsHour in 2018. She previously was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s livestream coverage of the 2016 presidential election. Before that, she served as foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform, and began her journalism career at ABC News Nightline just weeks before the attacks of September 11, 2001.

On being named co-anchor, Amna Nawaz added, “It’s never been more important for people to have access to news and information they trust, and the entire NewsHour team strives relentlessly towards that goal every day. I am honored to be part of this mission, to work with colleagues I admire and adore, and to take on this new role alongside Geoff as we help write the next chapter in NewsHour’s story. Today is a day I never could’ve imagined when I began my journalism career years ago, or while growing up as a first-generation, Muslim, Pakistani-American. I’m grateful, humbled, and excited for what’s ahead.”

In making the announcement, Rockefeller noted, “PBS NewsHour continues to be dedicated to excellence in journalism. Amna and Geoff bring to their new positions three essential qualities for the role – accomplished careers in substantive reporting, dedication to the purpose of journalism to illuminate and inform, and a deep respect for our audiences and the mission of public media.”