#pakistaniheroes

“Sughar Empowerment Society” isn’t an ordinary another organization ,It is Special ,In fact it is more than just “Special”. It was established in 2009 by younger girl of 18 age. Her age is not only what makes it special but the fact that She is a girl from rural area of Baluchistan where girls of her age usually become mother of five children. That girl is khalida Baloch/ Brohi.

Khalida is entrepreneur and Women Rights Activist. Her father was forced to marry nine year old girl after his elder brother had refused. He thought his man-hood was threatened and he left village and joined boarding school and then university .In university he was amazed to see girls who could read,who could talk about politics and who could do everything what men were doing. He then taught Khalida’s mother to read and write . After learning to read and write, Khalida’s mother got much broader view and decided to leave for city so their children could get better education. This was the beginning of Khalida’s life.Khalida was born in city and lived there. After five years, Father took them back home but helped Khalida split her time  between the  village and karachi. While living in village,she discovered some darker side of her village other than its beauty of cultures and traditions which include Honor killing , Vanni, Exchange marriages and child marriages. At the age of 16 when she visited village,she found out that her friend had been killed because she had wanted to marry someone she loved. She started campaign against Honor Killing on Facebook and got both national and international support . It was success at the beginning but later faced opposition within her area as people started accusing her for spreading un-islamic values. She left for Karachi but soon realize two major mistakes; They had not involved  women  ,for whom they were fighting and secondly They realized that they had been taking actions against the values and customs of Baluchistan which were engraved within their veins and it was harder to change them instantly. She and her team went back and followed " apology project ".She had to apologize to villagers and to convince them that they are going to promote their culture;music ,language and embroidery. They were successful to document music through CDs and local stories in books.Next step was to promote embroidery. For that they built a center inside village where women used to come.  There,Khalida with an assembly of women taught them not only embroidery but life skills and their rights in Islam and Society.They started reading and writing. In few months women who couldn’t even laugh in their house had started to laugh. It brought sudden reaction,Men stopped their wives from coming to center. Khalida then introduced a market element; if women participated in work for 6 months would get a loan to start their own business. Poor husbands could not refuse to this offer.Khalida later contacted Pakistan Fashion Industry and launched Tribal Women Fashion Brand.

This project has spread to 23 villages and helping 800 Women in Pakistan but Khalida’s dream is to involve million women in next 10 years.