Author: admin

There was a quick and easy answer which was my school, my school is the place which gives me peace of heart, mind and soul.

And this was the moment when I decided to resign, I still do not have any regular source of income, to bearmonthly expenses of my school but still I was not scared, my heart was saying this is the best decision you have taken and go with that.

But then when I saw no hope I had to go through a big phase of stress there was a lot to think about and to plan. There are a lot of responsibilities,

My 206 students whose future is based on my decisions, my old parents who are totally my responsibility, my niece who is mentally not fine and lot more.

My brain was working like a machine, it did not allow me to sleep for four nights and days, my body was so tired, I was unable to walk, I was requesting my mother to pray for me so that I could sleep, I would stay in bed for days and nights but my brain was just thinking and thinking, I knew there was only one way to give it rest and that was to sleep for a long time

So I took sleeping pills and then I could sleep for a few hours, when I woke up I went to kitchen and my sister who was cooking food there,told me that one girl from stitching center came andshe was complaining about teacher’s behavior.

It was a big issue so I sent the teacher to our beauty salon training center for facial treatment and interviewedall women of stitching center one by one so that I could know what was going on.

While I was interviewing one girl she started crying, she was saying ‘’ my father is a drug addicted, my mother has no skill and we have no source of income’’ I asked how do you survive then? She replied ‘’ Sometime we eat and sometimes not but I hope after learning this skill I will be able to support my family so we all can eat food daily’’

After finishing the interviews I came to my room I locked the door and I cried in silence I was not only feeling her hunger and helplessness but my heart was in peace, because of my efforts, she was having a hope of a good future.

One of my students, whose father died of Hepatitis C and brother because of brain tumor, she did not only did her B.B.A but she is the only person who supports her family, she has been shortlisted for Young Connectors of Future program in Sweden, She said ‘’Sister Zeph if I will qualify for this program I will feel like God has rewarded me for all the suffering and pain which I have faced in my life’’

One girl who is in final year of her CSS she came to ask me about subjects for BSC (Hons) she is first in the history of her family who could reach to college level and now she will be going to University, while I was searching subjects for her I was dancing inside me with joy’’ one sister of this girl was got married when she was just SIX months old, yes six months old, and other sistergot married just at the age of 13 but this girl has changed the history and new ways for the girls who will take birth in future.

I said I am very happy for you never give up I am with you, she said’’ You gave me hope , I became a hope for others because hope never ends at one person it keeps moving ahead and leaves light every where ‘’

Another girl whose father got married three times and every time he left the wife for not producing the son for him, she is also doing CSS and wants to go to university, I saw a light of hope into her eyes today

‘’And first time I realized that yes I am making an impact, I have given them a hope for the future’’

I realized that my mission is to bring hope to all those girls, who are not heard, those who were not allowed to get education, I kept going to convince their families for years. Those who were not allowed to go out of home I brought my school in their homes and I would teach them there but finally parents would get agree to send them to my school. Those who were scared of harassment I taught them self-defense techniques. Those who got married as children I convinced them to get education for their children to keep safe from child marriage. Those who were facing physical and mental torture I made them economically empowered so they could support men and could gain enough confidence to fight against injustice

I brought hope to every door, because hope is light, the light which is really bright, this light is actually life.

If there is no hope, life is aimless, life is colorless, life is finished, and life finds no scope.

I brought hope to every door, so every woman can be adored

We must do only those things in life which give us peace of heart and which bring hope for others in our surroundings

I know with help of the World Pulse and friends around the world I will find ways to get enough financial and moral support for my cause so that this light of hope can bright more lives.

The bride was so beautiful she was wearing a lot of jewelry, her eye were shining with joy’ in red dress she was looking like a fresh rose, she was silent putting her eyes down she was a center of attention; she was looking like a queen at that time.

Time kept going her face was in my mind all the time because I never saw such beautiful creature before; she become my ideal in beauty, then time passed and she gave birth to a beautiful daughter I was growing now and I felt she was not lively and beautiful as before, then I heard she was pregnant but I never saw a new baby, then it would happen again and again after many years of her wedding she was having only one daughter which was unusual in my society where it is common to have ten or even more children for one woman.

I grew up older and came to know a horrible thing about her that whenever she got pregnant her husband would go to doctor get her checked and by knowing that she was expecting a baby girl he would abort this

And then in a few months later there was again same light and music which I saw there a few years later and this was his second marriage

According to my culture it was his right to marry again as she was failed to give him a son. Everybody in the village was agree with him, he was receiving same wishes again, I heard people saying that if he will not have son who will take care of his property, how people will remember him, if he will not have a son his (Nasal) DNA will be vanished from this world with his death, so he was justified to marry another woman as It was his moral and social duty keep his DNA safe until end of this work which a daughter cannot do according to my culture.

So the new lady became a wife and this old queen became a servant because she was not able to produce a son, according to women of my village she was a dry tree which cannot be green and no one can sit under its shadow so better to cut it down and use to

It was right to make her feel that she and her daughter do not deserve anything and both of them should be thankful because they were allowed to live in the house.

It was Ok to give them mental torture, not to get them medicine, new cloths or proper food.

Because they were a burden on the man who was a so called husband and a father

Fortunately or unfortunately new bride gave birth to two sons and old queen knew that it was end of the world for her and now her life was going to be more hell, I saw her crying many times from the roof of my house, I saw her daughter looking at her with a question mark on her face, I saw that girl looking at school going girls with a pain on her face, I saw a hunger into her eyes when someone would pass by the street selling something to eat, I saw her weeping looking at her father who would ignore her like a useless thing on his way .

I never saw her mother smiling and speaking. I never saw both of them making their hair or to sit idle in sunshine eating oranges.

The father was really very happy to have two sons, he would drop the boys in their school himself on his motor bike and would pick them and then would drop them at home again, then would go to his job again, it was a tough job but he did not want to trust anyone, it was a biggest satisfaction for him to be with his sons, they were reason of his life and their better future was a goal of his life.

And then one day like every day boys were holding their bags and lunch boxes, Papa helped them both to sit on motorbike, they were wearing new uniforms and their step sister by hiding herself behind the door of a room was looking at them and was imagining that one day her father will treat her also with such love and care, she saw them going out from the door, new mother closed the door with a smile and came into kitchen asking for breakfast from the old queen.

But after five minutes there was shouting everywhere in the village, all men women and children were running to their house, everyone was crying, a lady went forward to break bangles of the new bride by saying everything is finished for you (in villages widows cannot wear fancy clothes, jewelry or make up as a woman has to look good only for her husband so a widow cannot do it)

She could not stand on her legs, it was difficult for her to breath, the mother-in-law got faint by the news, some people entered inside the house their cloths, their hands were wet with blood, and they were bringing three dead bodies with them because father and both sons were died in a road accident while going to school.

It was impossible to hear any particular voice everybody was crying, was shouting, everybody in the village was in a deep mourn and a shock

But my eyes were looking at her, I saw here and there she was standing with a pillar of the house her daughter was standing with her by holding her arm tightly, I saw silent tears were coming out of her eyes same tears which I had seen many time on the roof of her house from my roof.

Her eyes were looking at his dead body asking a question did you die today. I thought you were died many years before I had been mourning for years why I should weep now?

Thousands of girls are being killed in world every year before their birth, women suffer whole life, people taunt them, humiliate them, men give them divorce, women blame themselves, they bear all kind of hardships to keep their existence, because they do not know that it is not their fault if they did not give birth to a son.

But if all women will be educated no baby girl will be killed, no women will be suffered because she will know that it is not her fault, she will tell her sons and her husband that women are not responsible to determine the sex of the baby but the men.

All of you who are reading this story just see or touch a baby who is close to you then you will realize that by not putting our all efforts in educating girls, how we are taking part in killing of baby girls every day in the world and how big this crime is.

Zeph Education is an initiative to educate and empower women in rural Pakistan, where child marriage is a story of every day, honor killing is common, girls have no right to go to school, they have no right to take a decision, they are considered as property of men, whose job is to please their men and to produce children only.

In that area we are providing twelve years free education and skills like, stitching, party make up, bridle make up, self-defense techniques, English language , IT Courses, Basketball, Boxing since many years and now we have started giving our students training of Martial Arts too.

Every year more than 200 women learn above mentioned skills so that they can work from home and can support themselves and their families financially

106 girls are getting free education in the school.

So our students are college and university students, they have beauty salons, they are professional tailors, they are administrators and are working in offices, they nurses and teachers and healthy and educated mothers

My Digital Action Campaign

My Digital Action Campaign will project all the activities of Zeph Education on different media platforms including World Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Instagram, Blogger, newspapers, community radio and TV for duration three months.

The goal of my champagne is to spread awareness about Zeph Education’s work and achievements on national and international level so that people can understand that it is not impossible to educate and empower women, And that if women will be empowered peace and equality will take place in the world which is our ultimate objective

I wish to achieve all these through my Digital Action Campaign-

• Bring awareness on women rights in the world
• Raise fundsfor ongoing projects of Zeph Education
• Get attention of different companies and individuals who can provide us material to educate and empower more women
• We do not have regular funding so every month I have to go through a stress and hard work to arrange money for our regular expenses so I would like to reach out to those people who can help me to achieve this task
• Some people do a propaganda against me that being Christian I preach Christianity among my students I want to make it clear that I have no attention to preach any religion except humanity
• I want people know through my story that I am a woman and my parents have no son they gave me education and freedom and I did not bring sham but respect for them in the society
• I want to bring awareness against honor killing so that people can understand that there is no honor in killing
• I want to aware women that through skills they can be strong and empowered
• I will bring awareness among masses that education is the only solution of our all problems
• I will bring awareness that education can help to end terrorism in the world
• I will bring awareness that through my education system we can unite the world and can end misunderstanding among nation

Men take birth from wombs of women and then those men think only they are human beings but not the women so women have to suffer for basic needs and basic rights whole life, but if women will be educated and empowered and if they will not have to depend on men for basic needs they will be able to claim a right of equality which is a fundamental right of women and this is the mission of my life

This time I am sitting having a breakfast with my cousin who is telling me about his younger sister who got married two years before and her husband has sent her back to her parents’ home because now he thinks she is fat and he cannot live with her anymore.

Yesterday a student of mine Nooricame to me crying and said Sister Zeph please do something, my parents are forcing me to get married with my 32 years old cousin I have always been thinking of him as my elder brother because I am just 14 years old and I am a student of 8th standard I want to get education I do not want to get married yet.

One of my 13 years old students, who is very good in studies her brother has stopped her coming to school because he thinks that she is a grown up girl and she must get married now so she is engaged with her cousin and will get married soon if I will not use my full power to stop her which I will use of course.

Yesterday in my office one of my colleagues called me on phone and said that I respect you a lot because although you are doing a lot of work and you are getting famous but still your dressings is very decent and according to our culture if you will not wear this much big shawl all the time, people will automatically think that you are not a good women, he was trying to tell me that my dressing determines my character.

One of my students cannot participate in our annual show this year because a boy in her neighborhood has proposed her so as a punishment she cannot go out of home so until she gets married to any other man she will have to live at her home like a prisoner.

One of my colleagues who was a topper in high school so a local newspaper published this news with her picture , when her father came to know this he said your picture in a newspaper is an insult for the family so you cannot go to school again, but then her teachers came and convinced him by making this promise that it will never happen again, so this brilliant student started getting less marks during her exams deliberately so that she cannot top again since then she always say no to all the opportunities so that no one can see her face again.

It feels like it will take forever to change this mind set.Zeph Education has saved hundreds of girls from child marriage, honor killing, abuse, and violence and has made them educated and empowered but even this is not enough I feel like we have to change mind sets on a vast level. How can we see even a single girl to suffer like this?

We have to save them all, we have to give a right to live to all of them, and we have to make them all happy. We have to give freedom of speech to all of them, we have to do this.

This suffering of women has spread in our society like a generational course.

We can bring equality by making more and more female leaders. We have a big advantage that job of women in developing countries is to do the household and to produce and take care of their children, this is where we can make a change, if women will be aware of their rights then they will teach their sons to respect women, they will be able to claim equality for their daughters and women will take a stand for each other whenever they will see such violence and injustice in their surroundings.

I have 206 students this time who are learning skills and getting education but we not only give them formal education and skills training but we give them awareness, to know their rights and to speak for their and other women’ rights, unmarried students will get married one day, they will go to different cities and villages where they will do the same job at any level what I am doing.

So our basic job should be to make new leaders and to spread them all over the world. There are thousands of NGO’s which are working for women but we have to do something more which is what the meaning of Empowering Women is? Empowerment is not only to make women educated and skilled but it means for me is that an empowered woman is a woman who has a potential to change not only her own life but the lives of women in her surroundings. I believe all women have this potential but we have to make them feel that they have it and they can use it for their fellow women.

As leaders it is our job to make more leaders who can make more leaders this is an only way to save our sisters around the world.

In Pakistan, the rights of minorities – be it religious communitiesor gender groups– seem to bein a perpetual state of suspension.

Judging by incidents thatwe, unfortunately, encounter all too regularly in our country, it would not be a case ofovershooting the mark if one assumes that people from majority groups have been allowed to think they can do asthey please with members ofthe under-represented segments of our society.

Only a few dare toquestion the offenders, and even fewer take a stand against them.

However, the power of social media has its perks.

When it can make a Chai Wala famous just for his looks, it can even ensure that the law actually gets to such people. The same happened this morning.

Click on below given link for more details

http://www.parhlo.com/they-made-us-drink-their-urine-spat-in-our-faces-raped-us-transgender-brutally-beaten-in-sialkot/

There were a lot of dreams in my eyes, our global sister Hillary Clinton was in my thoughts all the time, it was feeling like each person on this earth is thinking about American election today.

I was walking on the road with a strange energy; everything in front of me was shining. In my office everybody was looking on their computer screen behind the office work they were having updates on election, we were watching counting of each vote, and around 11: AM our time the topics were changed; on all social media walls where ever I would see there were gestures like, why? How? On my God, how is it possible? How they can do it? Is it true? Is it a dream?

But it was a reality. We are all in a shock still and one question which our generations will keep asking that is that why and who took this decision on 9th –Nov-2016 and we will keep looking for its answer I do not know for how many years.

This is a one side of today’s election but we have another side also which leads us to hope and unity and shining. That is this reality that this election has united women from each corner of the world, we have come to know that no matter how right a woman is but even most educated and advanced nation does not accept her as their leader even in 21st century , we have realized that how much work still is needed to be done to reach the level of equality, we have come to know today that if in America for a woman it is still impossible to be a president then what about those women who are still living a life in fear, who still suffer all life and imagine that after death they will go to heaven so its Ok if they have to bear so much pain in the life.

Who cannot decide with own choice what to eat, what to wear, when to sleep and when to wake up

This election has given an opportunity to the women to be united, to stand up for each other, to empower each other so that together we can proof that if a woman can manage a home it means she can manage a country too.

One more thing which we have seen today is that this election is not only discussed by the politicians and TV anchors but it was discussed in each corner of the world, on every cup of tea, in every break, on all roads, in all rickshaws , in all buses, in all homes, in kitchens and grocery shops because of internet.

Internet has a power to shack the world in minutes and we are all united because of internet which is a biggest miracle on this earth and thanks to the World Pulse which has provided a plate form to the women of the world to be united, to share their problems, their sorrows, their happiness, their successes this is a place from where we know each other, we know what is happening to our sisters around the world, how to solve their problems, how to learn from their experiences and how to become a strength of each other. I believe that all of us know such men who think that women are just sexual tools or machines to make babies so they have a right to misuse us and it will never change until women have a power to make rules to make such rules where we have equal rights to reach every plate form, to choose whatever career we want, to have an authority at our own life.

We have to be more active than ever, if we will keep silent our daughters will have to face the same life. They will be right but no one will accept them as leaders they will be rejected just because of being women.

Today’s defeat is not a defeat of women because women have every quality to achieve every goal and to play every role and to be a president of a great nation.

But it is a defeat of acceptance. We still live in a world where women are considered as of less value and less IQ level, less strength, less power and less leadership qualities but to proof ourselves we have to be united as women.

At the age of 34 her child will get married and soon she becomes a grandmother and at the age of 60 she becomes a great grandmother.

Woman start feeling themselves old at a very early age , they feel now their life is over and they have nothing to achieve, so if a woman does not get married until 25 she will be considered an old woman who has very few chances to have a good proposal .

And this is what happened to my friend khalids. She had to take care of her parents when she was young, because as a woman she did not have a right to keep her parents with her after marriage so she decided to not to get married (in my culture if parents live in daughter’s house after her marriage, they say, they are equal to dogs) and concept of old homes is very rare in Pakistan it is limited to big cities only.

Khalida kept taking care of them but then both of them died one by one, now she was all alone, other sisters were married who did not want her to live with them. In a big house she would sleep alone in night and would wait for day light all night because in dark she would feel more alone and scared.

There was no one to take care of her, to love her, to make her feel that she was not alone.

She would keep praying and would think that I must die now because nobody needs me, people in surrounding did not like her being an alone woman, she was not protected from men of her village, she was not able to go for shopping, or to buy grocery, She was afraid to wear nice cloths to put make up or people would make stories about her character.

And then one day when she thought all was over and it was time to say good bye to the world and meet her parents in heaven, then suddenly a light cam in her life, an only hope for future, a feeling to be loved, to be appreciated, and to pamper. There was a man in her village that sent her a letter one day and said that he was crazy for her since years and he loved her so much and he wants to give her all what she wanted and whatever will make her happy and that he wants to marry her.

She consulted to her friends and accepted the proposal. This was a simple marriage ceremony in which only four witnesses came and she signed the marriage paper.

Life became like a heaven on earth, he would come to her every night for about six months and she felt like she cannot expect more than this from life. Although this relationship was only inside the house, they had to keep it secret because he was already a father of ten children and had one wife and needed time to convince his first wife to accept Khalida, although this is common in our culture to have four wives at a time but still could not tell anyone in his family.

Six months past like six days and then one day he went and then never came back.

he stopped talking to her, to take her call, he never asked how she was, how was her life, she had nothing to eat, her life became miserable and merciful and then she came to me I started giving her some money so that she can buy food and all what is necessary for her to be alive, she cannot do any work because she is very sick and weak.

I convinced her to tell her brothers and sisters about her marriage so she did it, her husband was called and he simply denied from this marriage———. And said she was just blaming him for this he does not know her .

Because it was a fake marriage, it was not registered anywhere and all the witness were his friends.

Now it has been two years since he met her last time, she still waits for him because she believes that she is his wife and she has to be faithful with him all her life and she will be given its reward in heaven.

Such marriages are also increasing and its loss is only for woman because they cannot tell anyone about it and when they tell they come to know about the fraud.

But why they get trapped in it.

Again male dominated society is responsible for this because they think women should just stay inside the house, they cannot go out to learn, they cannot watch TV, they cannot get education, they cannot meet people, they just have to live in isolation to proof that they have a good character.

As a result women do not understand about laws, they do not know where to approach in this situation, how to protect their rights, and that what a legal marriage is.

Secret marriage is a poison which kills women because there is no protection in it and men enjoy to misuse the weak women. Women cannot have children, they have to go through a mental torture, and even if they have to go to the Doctor they cannot tell that about their problem clearly they have pretended as they are virgins.

Our elders want to stick with their culture and do not think that they are ruining lives of their own children, they keep then hide from the world and then men misuse their daughters.

They want them to be simple and innocent and do not know anything so that they cannot take a stand against any injustice.

If Khalida already knew about marriage laws in Pakistan her life would have been saved.

And these are the men who beat, insult, humiliate and give names to their women in front of any one, who feel proud if they have many women in their own life, they feel proud to give remarks about women of other families.

When a woman gets pregnant first time she prays to have a son so that her seat as a wife can be confirmed otherwise her husband has a right to get married to another woman and her in-laws will favor her husband in this decision.

In villages still they hang green leaves on door of the house when a baby boy takes a birth in that house, it mean that a blessing, power and prosperity has taken a birth, they distribute sweets which mean celebration and happiness.

But when this is a baby girl there will be a mourn in the house, mother will feel ashamed and father will feel weak and angry.

Think about that girl who takes birth in such scenario and after birth she will be given a training that how she will become a good wife and this is an only purpose of her life.

When woman come to my school they say very proudly that our daughters never go out of home at any cost which means they are very respected and those who go out are not good girls.

Women are in prison, they have no access to knowledge, to healthy diet and what is happening in the world, they just have to live in the house to do house hold and to offer their prayers.

But our society does not understand one thing that their future, their children are in the hands of these mothers, who do not know anything about the world, who do not know that we have a right to dream, to set a goal in life, to find ways to make it a reality, they do not know that their children can do many things in life.

They think that to do art, to play games , to watch sports is just a wasting of time, who think that only God will do everything for them and they just have to pray because this is what they are being taught, they feel pride in suffering, they take it as an honor that they do not go out without permission of their men, they sleep, wake up, take a shower, eat, speak, smile , talk to someone, wear clothes, get education, decide subjects only of their men’ choice.

Men cannot give birth to a child and men cannot give them a proper brought up as a mother can do, but if you give such atmosphere to the mothers what you think they will deliver to the coming generations?

As a result our most people are angry because they do not have right to express themselves. They are followers because they are being taught to just follow and say yes on anything, they believe that women are a property of men because this is what they have seen since childhood, they get afraid of a change, they practice painful rituals because they do not have courage to speak against them and to raise a question.

When those children grow up, girls get married and men have to work to support their family and to do this they have to look for shortcuts for which they do all types of crimes, they take bribe, they speak lies, they do corruption, these crimes put them into a fear, this fear makes them frustrated, this frustration makes then angry, this anger gives birth to the beating, humiliation, discrimination and these things destroys the peace and destroys the whole society.

I know and I believe it that when women will be educated and they will have an access to all kind of knowledge. They will have a power to take decisions; they will have freedom to choose what they want in their lives.

Then they will pass on their skills to their children and this is how our society will become a society where there will be a respect for women, everyone will be confident and hardworking, they will not get angry because they will not only have freedom but will know the ways to make their dreams come true.

I live in this society but my parents gave me education and freedom to take a decision so I was able to educate and empower hundreds of women in my society if I alone can make this impact with education and freedom, imagine if all women will have this right the entire world will be changed in just one generation.

Let us invest on women because life and a good life on this earth are not possible without women.