Big city, big dreams, bigger problems: From Swat to Karachi, in search for greener pastures
Nasreen Sahar shares her turbulent experience as a single Christian woman in Karachi.
During her five years in Karachi, Sahar had to move four times as people were not willing to keep a young woman.
KARACHI:
Like many before her, and probably many after her, 25-year-old Nasreen Sahar arrived in Karachi with only a few thousand rupees in her pocket and hopes of making it big in a cosmopolitan city. But with no family or friends to lean on, she realised her problems back home paled in comparison to those she had to face alone in Karachi.
Belonging to a poor Christian family of Mingora, Swat, the Pashtu-speaking woman came to Karachi five years back when the peace and tranquility of Swat was disturbed by the Taliban’s insurgency and the operation against them by the Pakistan Army.
“At that time, the Taliban had imposed a ban on women’s movement out of their homes,” Sahar said while sharing her story of why she moved to Karachi. “The Taliban weren’t aggressive towards the Christian community but I wanted to study in a college which was not possible while living in Amankot (her ancestral village in Mingora).”
She came to Karachi on a train and enrolled in a nursing course at the nursing school of the National Institute of Child Health. With no one to support her financially, she also got a part-time job as an aide nurse at a private hospital in Akhtar Colony.
“I used to walk from the school to the hospital as I had no money for bus fare. I drank only tea when other students would eat lunch and dinner. I became underweight because of lack of food and having to travel by foot in most cases,” she said. All these problems, however, were minor problems as compared to finding a place to live.
During her five years in Karachi, Sahar had to move four times as people were not willing to keep a young woman. “No one is as vulnerable as a young Christian woman all by herself in this city. People tried to convert me to Islam by force and even offered to marry me as an incentive for changing my religion.”
She is currently living in a room arranged by an NGO, where she works as a telephone operator, in a house on Shahrae Faisal. “It’s very difficult to make a permanent abode as people consider a single woman to be a liability and in my experience, those who offer their help, do so with ulterior motives,” she told The Express Tribune, adding that men have even offered to rent a house for her on the condition that she becomes their “girlfriend”. “I had to leave one hospital where I was working as an aide nurse just because a male doctor of my father’s age tried to sexually harass me.”
Looking ahead
Despite all the difficulties she’s faced in Karachi, Sahar has never thought of going back to her home. She visits her home for Christmas and other festivals but plans to build a career in the city of lights.
She goes to the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre’s gynecology department every evening to learn midwifery.
“I want to become a midwife so that I can help people. These days humanity is decreasing while the number of religions, castes and sects are increasing.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2013.
Like many before her, and probably many after her, 25-year-old Nasreen Sahar arrived in Karachi with only a few thousand rupees in her pocket and hopes of making it big in a cosmopolitan city. But with no family or friends to lean on, she realised her problems back home paled in comparison to those she had to face alone in Karachi.
Belonging to a poor Christian family of Mingora, Swat, the Pashtu-speaking woman came to Karachi five years back when the peace and tranquility of Swat was disturbed by the Taliban’s insurgency and the operation against them by the Pakistan Army.
“At that time, the Taliban had imposed a ban on women’s movement out of their homes,” Sahar said while sharing her story of why she moved to Karachi. “The Taliban weren’t aggressive towards the Christian community but I wanted to study in a college which was not possible while living in Amankot (her ancestral village in Mingora).”
She came to Karachi on a train and enrolled in a nursing course at the nursing school of the National Institute of Child Health. With no one to support her financially, she also got a part-time job as an aide nurse at a private hospital in Akhtar Colony.
“I used to walk from the school to the hospital as I had no money for bus fare. I drank only tea when other students would eat lunch and dinner. I became underweight because of lack of food and having to travel by foot in most cases,” she said. All these problems, however, were minor problems as compared to finding a place to live.
During her five years in Karachi, Sahar had to move four times as people were not willing to keep a young woman. “No one is as vulnerable as a young Christian woman all by herself in this city. People tried to convert me to Islam by force and even offered to marry me as an incentive for changing my religion.”
She is currently living in a room arranged by an NGO, where she works as a telephone operator, in a house on Shahrae Faisal. “It’s very difficult to make a permanent abode as people consider a single woman to be a liability and in my experience, those who offer their help, do so with ulterior motives,” she told The Express Tribune, adding that men have even offered to rent a house for her on the condition that she becomes their “girlfriend”. “I had to leave one hospital where I was working as an aide nurse just because a male doctor of my father’s age tried to sexually harass me.”
Looking ahead
Despite all the difficulties she’s faced in Karachi, Sahar has never thought of going back to her home. She visits her home for Christmas and other festivals but plans to build a career in the city of lights.
She goes to the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre’s gynecology department every evening to learn midwifery.
“I want to become a midwife so that I can help people. These days humanity is decreasing while the number of religions, castes and sects are increasing.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2013.