Wednesday, August 11, 2010
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
The World Affairs Council Auditorium
312 Sutter Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Cost: Members or Asia Foundation guests free; Non-Members $15, Students $5

Women’s voices in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan are rarely heard. Samar Minallah, one of Pakistan’s few documentary film makers, is changing that–one film at a time. An anthropologist, writer and human rights advocate, Minallah travels throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, using her camera to give a voice to women isolated from the outside world. The founder of Ethnomedia, a Pakistan-based NGO that raises awareness about human rights violations and people displaced by war, one of Minallah’s documentaries was used as evidence at a hearing in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Now in San Francisco on an Asia Foundation Chang Lin Tien Visiting Fellowship at the Global Fund for Women, she says she works to “change the false image of women portrayed by extremist groups through mass media.” Minallah says she does this work to guarantee things change for future generations. To those that disagree with her provocative work, she says, “they are just a background noise now to me.”

Samar Minallah will share excerpts from her documentaries and discuss using video as an advocacy tool for women’s rights in Pakistan.

Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Northern California
Check-in: 5:30 PM, Program: 6:00 PM

Register for this event at The World Affairs Council.

Many young Pakistani women from low-income families can only dream of going to college or university. Now, however, some disadvantaged young women will have the chance for their dream to come true. With a generous donation from the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation, established by Pandju Merali in honor of his late wife Shirin Merali, The Asia Foundation is set to launch a scholarship program that will enable young Pakistani women—”Merali Scholars”—to pursue undergraduate studies at eight highly respected colleges and universities in Pakistan. The Asia Foundation will enroll 66 women in hard-science degree programs, 67 women in medical degree programs, and 67 women in engineering degree programs.

The Pakistani literacy rate for women is one of the lowest in the world. If poor families cannot afford to send all of their children to school, they usually give preference to boys over girls. Many girls enrolled in primary school are forced to drop out before secondary school to contribute to family income. Poor girls who do manage to finish secondary school have few options to continue their education as their families cannot afford to pay for college and university tuition and books.

The Asia Foundation will partner with a local Pakistani non-profit, the CARE Foundation, to assist with scholarship recipient selection and manage the logistics of the program. The Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, uniforms, and educational supplies and books. Without this scholarship, the young women who will be selected would not be able to continue their education beyond secondary school.

Since 1954, The Asia Foundation has worked to improve access to and the quality of education across Asia—especially for girls and women. During the 1990s in Pakistan, The Asia Foundation worked with local non-governmental organizations in remote rural areas where there were no girls’ schools to enable girls to get at least a primary education. The Asia Foundation has also worked to strengthen the education system throughout Pakistan by bringing together educators, donors, policy-makers, and government officials to examine the state of education in Pakistan and make recommendations.

The Asia Foundation will implement this five-year, $560,359 project with support from the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation. The first Merali Scholars in Pakistan will enroll in the 2010-11 academic year and be supported until they attain an undergraduate degree.

For more information, please visit our Press Room.

Today, The Asia Foundation hosted a forum for members of the justice sector from across Pakistan, primarily from the district level. Participants included police, lawyers, judges from the High and District Courts, academics, civil society representatives, and civil servants. The event was also attended by representatives of international donor agencies.

Against a backdrop of recent reform efforts initiated by the higher judiciary and the growing public demand for the rule of law, today’s forum provided a rare opportunity for a focused discussion among a diverse group of experts and practitioners. The discussants helped to identify priority areas for action and ways to increase the impact of justice sector reform efforts. The three panel discussions focused on: Access to Justice and District Courts; Police and Prosecution Reforms; and Justice Sector, Local Governance, and Civil Society. Dr. Faqir Hussain, Registrar, Supreme Court of Pakistan, gave introductory remarks on the National Judicial Policy.

At the event, The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative, Mr. Gareth Aicken, remarked, “The ordinary Pakistani man and woman value justice highly. In order to make the system work better at delivering justice, the fundamental causes of problems, not just the symptoms, need to be addressed.”

Read more about our programs in Pakistan.

The Asia Foundation recently welcomed Gareth Aicken as its new Country Representative in Pakistan. Mr. Aicken brings a deep knowledge of development issues in Pakistan and the region, with extensive on-the-ground experience in both Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Mr. Aicken comes to the Foundation from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) where he most recently led the London-based Growth Research Team in designing and managing research programs. He has over seven years of experience working on development issues in Pakistan, beginning in 1990 when he joined DFID as the London-based head of DFID’s Pakistan program. He remained in this position for three years and traveled frequently to Pakistan in this capacity. From 2001 to 2005, he headed DFID’s country office in Pakistan during which time he oversaw significant staff growth and managed a budget that quadrupled in size.

From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Aicken worked in Malawi, first in the DFID regional office and then with the European Commission (EC) delegation where, as Civil Society Advisor to the EC and the Malawi Ministry of Justice, he worked on projects in governance, human rights, and women’s issues and managed the design of the EC’s first Rule of Law program. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Aicken worked in DFID’s Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs Department, and briefly in its Caribbean regional office.

From 1979 to 1990, Mr. Aicken worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation where he developed and managed training programs and placements for trainees from Africa and the Caribbean. Mr. Aicken has an MA in English from Cambridge University (Churchill College) as well as a postgraduate Certificate in Education from Cambridge. He also has an MA in Manpower Studies from the University of Westminster.

The Asia Foundation’s programs in Pakistan support electoral and governance reform, promote community security and alternative dispute resolution, and encourage women’s empowerment and human rights. The Foundation makes investments in the research and the dissemination of knowledge by hosting small seminars for development practitioners. Through its Books for Asia program, the Foundation donates more than 75,000 new books annually to more than 400 Pakistani universities, religious and secular schools, nongovernmental organizations, public libraries, government agencies, and medical institutes across all of the provinces. More than 40% of all books are directed to institutions in the remote Northwest Frontier Provinces and Balochistan. Read more about the Foundation’s programs in Pakistan.

For more information, please visit our Press Room.