Climbing up the business ladder

Uks chronicles untold stories of businesswomen.

ISLAMABAD: Bearing the tales of various enterprising women who set up their own business practices against all odds, an annual diary by Uks research centre was launched on Thursday.

The diary, titled ‘Women of Pakistan: Climbing Up the Entrepreneurship Ladder’, presents a small window into the professional lives of women, highlighting their untold success stories and struggles.

Safia Khursheed from Gujranwala is one such woman who runs her own rent-a-car business in the capital. Putting up with criticism and even life threats, Khursheed said it was a challenge to defy the norms of a male-dominated society and set up her own practice.

“But I did not lose determination and have been in the business for seven years now,” she told The Express Tribune.

A renowned social activist and artist, Nageen Hayat, said, “ To become a successful woman, all one needs is determination, courage
and passion.”

Belonging to a conservative family and marrying at the tender age of 17, Hayat said she did not possess any goals initially, but grabbed opportunities with the passage of time.

“I am now at a position which I had never even dreamt of,” she said.

Earlier in the launching ceremony, radio programmes produced by Uks research team were played in which interviews of women vendors in Sunday bazaars highlighted the problems they faced.

Tasneem Ahmar, executive director, Uks said currently no statistics are available on women entrepreneurship in Pakistan, which is a hurdle in addressing problems faced by them.

“The women resource centres in the Chamber of Commerce are supposed to gather data on women entrepreneurship, but they are not doing it, “said Ahmar while  talking to The Express Tribune after the launching ceremony of the diary.

Uks is a research, resource and publication centre working for gender equality and women’s development.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2011.