A Karachi woman is breaking stereotypes by selling sacrificial cows for this year’s Eidul Azha. If you visit the cattle market along the Super Highway, you can find Ayesha Ghani and her 24 cows at a stall. From checking their teeth to cleaning them, Ayesha does everything herself for her animals. She had brought 36 cows and has sold 12 so far. The animals were raised at a village and Ayesha then brought to the market. She is also a gym instructor and sometimes teaches people to ride bicycles too. “I’ve been an animal lover since childhood and this year, I thought I’ll change things around for the women and children who usually feel uncomfortable and scared while visiting the cattle market,” she said. The most expensive cow at her stall costs over Rs530,000 and has yet to be sold. She’s happy with the way customers and other sellers treat her but said the market managers are biased against her. “They ask me weird questions such as ‘you’re a woman and you come to the mandi [cattle market] on a bike’ and ‘why do you travel on a bike?’ They just make me feel bad from time to time,” she said. She laughingly added that the organisers who she approached initially to book a stall were baffled to see her speaking of selling cows.
