The Pakistan's High Commissioner to United Kingdom, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, has said women's valuable role as homemakers should not be belittled, and urged them to work with determination and sincerity to succeed in all fields of life.
"Women who are homemakers are usually put to the side. They make such a valuable contribution to the stability of society, to the nurturing of the next generation, and all of this should be respected", she said in an interview with a Muslim Life Style Magazine, which is published from the US, London and Europe. Maleeha said she managed to play her role as a homemaker and a career woman, but she frankly conceded "it has been tough."
Talking of her classmates, she said: "Some went on to become the most successful homemakers."
I being the first woman editor of a leading national daily, a good diplomat, and a good teacher," she said, adding both the male and female need the same traits to succeed in life.
The envoy said if women are determined to be professional, and are capable and not distracted by things which are said because they were women, they would succeed in life.
"The education would ensure this. That is the key. It is one thing to have the opportunity to obtain an education, but what you do with it is something else", said Maleeha.
The goal being pursued in the country is to impart education to women and some women had excelled in various walks of life, she said, adding: "Some of the best barristers in Pakistan are women, some of the best architects, teachers, doctors, surgeons, designers, and parliamentarians are women. What connects all these women is that that they went beyond themselves to contribute to society."
Maleeha said: "If you are a good mother, a good homemaker, you are also a good citizen, and being a good member of society extends from this. But if you are self-centred and if you are not giving to your family, the likelihood is you are not giving to wider society."
"If you want to change anything at any level then it has to be through a policy of engagement intense engagement. You cannot fight battle in your own separate shops as it were. You must venture into the mainstream, whether it is at the national level or local level. Only then can you transform people's attitude," said Dr Lodhi.
Commenting on her being among the hundred people chosen by the Time magazine who would play a formative role in the 21st century she said: "In a way choosing me was choosing a Muslim woman from the second largest Muslims country in the world, and a country which is the pivot around which many important developments in the world are happening. In a way I was chosen not because of who I was, but what I was in terms of where I came from and what I represent."
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