IWD 2015

Like many things we blindly celebrate in Pakistan... we celebrate Women's Day too. And by celebrate, I mean we create advertising around it to make brands seem global and futuristic, we do talk shows with celebrities and give out gift hampers at lunches, and go about our lives as if all is great and we have done our part in celebrating The Women. When the sad reality is that women are rarely genuinely celebrated in Pakistan. I think we need more than just a day to celebrate Women in Pakistan. I think it should be 365 days a year that we salute the female for the contribution she makes to out nation and our country on an on-going daily basis since the independence of Pakistan.

On 8th March 2015 I started the day with my maid Naseem, coming over on the dot at 8am. She's a small woman, hardly 30, she has five kids all aged under 10. Her husband doesn't work. He doesn't beat her. But he is into gambling and I think he is an addict too. She speaks of him like he is an amazing husband, and I try not to talk her out of it. Naseem didn't know it's women's day. No one celebrated her life.

And really it isn't about celebrating anything... it is about paying tribute, it is about recognizing that the weaker sex needs to be loved, and respected and cared for... and protected. I wish we learn to love not only our own wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, but that we learn to love all women and understand that they make the world a nice place. From the time we are born, women nurture us - our mothers and grandmothers, and sisters, and phupos, and khalas and our friends mothers and the teachers in school... these are the people who shape our futures. Let's give them the love they deserve.

I want to live in a world that loves women unconditionally, every day.
Be that world every day, not just on 8th March.

- JB