Fulbright: a ray of hope

“I remember the evening when I asked permission from my dad to get admission to my post-graduate studies. Unsurprisingly, like many other girls in the family, I too was not allowed. The virtual university came to my rescue where I completed my degree studying remotely and secretly, taking care of the cows and goats in the morning and studying at night. Now I want to go to study in the USA for my PhD to return afterwards and be able to mentor girls like me in Pakistan whose potentials are never nurtured because of gender discrimination,” wrote an applicant from K-P.

This is from an application I came across this year while officially reviewing the Fulbright applications. The young female aspirant is like many other applicants who applied for higher studies this year through the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Her story not only gives a reflection of how we are hampering the untapped potential of our girls but also how a little help, consideration, online education and her mother’s staunch support has changed her life.

The excerpt presented below is modified from another personal statement of a young mom. She is a graduate student aspiring for higher education, an engineer, and a mom, who has shattered the glass ceiling of discrimination, gender gap and social injustice by her sheer hard work and dedication. Not only is she ambitious but is also willing to share her success: “Flashback to the late nineties, a time of burgeoning internet and computer technologies, when the world was ready to step into the twenty-first century, people were excited about flying cars and voice-controlled about, and in the parallel world, it was me, along with my seven siblings running back to home from school on a peninsula next to Karachi. It was a normal day, children as young as ten were getting off from boats after spending several days in the sea. The area where I grew up, mostly comprised of fishermen, port workers and naval sailors. There I came across big machines, noisy tools, dusty work area and people with tired yet smiling faces during a visit to the port workshop, I made up my mind that day that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Fast forward to high school, I got enrolled in a public sector university and joined forces understanding that my father’s meagre income is not enough to support my education further. Although I had to change my career path, friends and ways of life one thing that did not change was my ambition to become an engineer.”

These personal accounts tell us a lot about what we need to do for our society and the challenges that individuals face due to lack of information, basic rights and societal pressures. Furthermore, it also underscores the fact that it would be an oversimplification to simply state that Pakistan’s youth is only inclined to go to foreign countries without paying back to their homeland.

“Electricity theft detection in the distribution sector of Pakistan using multiple datasets via neural network regime is an impending problem. Electricity theft not only causes huge financial loss but also results in the deterioration of power quality. Furthermore, it is a blatant violation of the social rights of those paying the bill.” This young aspirant wants to design an artificial intelligence-based way to find a solution for electricity theft. These candidates have spent their entire lives in load shedding and paying for the theft of other people. Yet, instead of mourning their deprivations, they are inclined to find solutions to the problems that have hampered their lives.

Ironically, I was reading all of these personal statements while watching the news of the sunken fishing boat off the Greek coast carrying more than 700 migrants — a majority of whom were Pakistanis. Only 104 passengers are believed to have survived. The fact that hundreds of Pakistanis found the inhospitable seas more welcoming than their home country is a damning indictment of Pakistan’s failure to provide for its own. Yet there are people who despite facing all the hardships are inclined to own their country and pay back to it. The hope is still there!

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2023.

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