Vice President of int’l BPW in town to promote women’s participation in diverse fields
Zubair Qureshi
Pakistani women are gifted with immense talent, vision, commitment and energy to bring positive change in their lives as well as society and the Federation of Business and Professional Women Organization supports such women entrepreneurs, businesswomen and small and medium scale investors in their endeavours to live a financially independent life. These views were expressed by 1st Vice President of International Federation of Business and Professional Women (For UN matters) Chularat Israngkool Na Ayutthaya (Toyting) in an exclusive interview with Pakistan Observer.
She was in Islamabad after visiting Karachi where she attended an annual event, 19th Hazrat Khadeeja-tul-Kubra Conference, organized by the Pakistan Federation of Business and Professional Women Organization and was briefed about various projects and initiatives of women empowerment launched by the federation.
As per the UN guidelines, we are targeting from the BPW platform, rural women to digitally transform their lives and encourage them to learn the Internet and make full use of Google, Youtube and other social media applications, said she.
In Karachi, Chularat Israngkool visited BPW Quality Secondary School Azam Town, Dr Salima Raisuddin Ahmed BPW Home Economics & Technical Institute where children, especially girls are not only educated they are also trained in various professions such as course in beautician, cooking classes, cutting & sewing, fashion designing and computer education. I am very glad to be in Pakistan and am pleasantly surprised to see women from backward areas getting training and earning on the basis of their skills, said she, adding the world around us is changing fast and in order to keep pace with it, we have to change ourselves.
Since 51 per cent of the population of Pakistan consists of women, they must be empowered to make Pakistan economically strong, Chularat further said. In Karachi she was received and briefed by President of Pakistan BPW Nasreen Mehdi while in the federal capital, President of the Islamabad chapter of BPW Malka Farooqi played host to her delegation.Member of the Nation al Assembly (MNA) and former President of BPW, Mrs Farrukh Khan was also there during her visit to the Hill House Boarding School Rawal Town where she saw girls busy in stitching, sewing, learning and using the Internet. She was all praise for her Pakistani colleagues and members of the Federation of BPW Organization for their untiring efforts to carry forward the goal of women empowerment.
In Pakistan, we have had representation for the last 69 years and a number of women-friendly initiatives including opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups, she said.
Chularat, herself is a realtor, a certified International property specialist and member of the National Association of Realtors worldwide.
Moreover, she is a Coordinator for the Ambassadors of the Republic of Liberia and Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in Thailand.
Recently, while addressing the UN CSW67 in New York, in an oral statement, she noted that more targeted gender-responsive recovery measures were needed to address the considerable gender gaps and inequalities.
