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Photo: CLAUDIO CAMBON

Overcoming Challenges

Sumaiya Ahsan Bushra

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage”.
-Anais Nin

In the 21st century women have come a long way. They have transformed their roles from homemakers to change-makers. With that notion in mind and the motto of making Asia a better place through proper security, governance, reduction of poverty, and environmental enhancement, the Asian University for Women (AUW) organised a three day symposium aptly titled 'Imagine Another Future for Asia: Ideas and pathways for change'.

Participants mingling before the commencement of the seminars. Photo : Emdadul Islam Bitu

The young throw questions at the panelists.
Photo : Claudio Cambon

Divided into a number of sections and interspersed by several breaks, the opening ceremony of the symposium was held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on January 20, 2011. The introduction and welcome speech was given by Kamal Ahmad, Founder, AUW while remarks were given by Jack Meyer, Chair of the Board of Directors, Asian University for Women Support Foundation, Cherie Blair, Patron of AUW; attorney and human rights activist and Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Chief Patron, AUW. In addition, the keynote addresses were made by Akie Abe, Former First Lady of Japan and Y.A Bhg Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor, First Lady of Malaysia.

According to a Daily Star report, Cherie Blair (Patron of AUW; attorney and human rights activist) talked about the large number of people in the Asian region living under poverty. She also talked about how significant developments in science, technology and economic sectors have been made in this region over the last century. Moreover, she explained the importance of people's rights to education something which is absent in the region. She elaborated and cautioned how this problem may become a huge dilemma for our society if the women's abilities are not properly recognised and taken care of.

In the award giving function'2011 AUW Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Women's Rights', the former First Lady of Britain, Cherie Blair, was awarded the highly prestigious 'Chancellor Award' and human rights activist of Kuwait, Lulwa Al Mulla, received the 'Asian University Award'. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Founder, AUW, Kamal Ahmed and Chairman of Board of Directors Jack Meyer, spoke on the occasion.

Cherie Blair, activist, barrister and former First Lady of the United Kingdom at the inaugural ceremony with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo : Claudio Cambon

Followed by the lunch break (which was chaired by Sheikha Abdulla Al-Misnad, President of Qatar University) was the session titled, 'Moving Beyond Conflict', presented by the AUW Sri Lankan students. Sara Nuzhat Amin, Assitant Professor, AUW, introduced a group of young women who have made a change in their country.

The founder of AUW, Kamal Ahmad (left) with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni. Photo : Emdadul Islam Bitu

With the aim of changing their country's state and understanding their roots better, bold steps had to be taken and these steps were taken by the young daring Sri Lankan women of AUW. Three Sri Lankan students of AUW, each having a different background - Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim - spoke about the Sri Lankan Civil War and its effects on the people. The students related their personal experiences at the AUW campus and talked about the tensions that were often built up when the two groups of students-Tamil and Sinhalese would confront each other. The students talked about how they were the only nation that spoke two different languages. This was something with which we can all relate to as similar situations have happened to many of us, especially those who come from the Indian sub continental region. Although we have come a long way as individual nations, cultural and linguistic prejudices and tensions still exist between Bangladeshis and Pakistanis or Indians and Pakistanis.

These three students also displayed their summer project, which was an initiative taken by the AUW Sri Lankan students to bring the two groups - Tamil and Sinhalese - together. They performed an onstage drama representing the main theme of war, where Tamils played the roles of Sinhalese and the Sinhalese played the roles of Tamils. They spoke about the workshop they attended, where they learned about women's effort in bringing peace and the psycho and sociological effects of peace making. This enhanced their understanding of their ethnicity and facilitated them to look at the situation from a neutral point of view. The next part of their project was fieldwork, where they organised a cricket match and discovered that the Sinhalese were cheering for the Tamils and likewise. In addition, they also showed a short video representing bits and pieces of their summer project. It was truly an awe-inspiring experience to watch women from different backgrounds bridge their differences and work together in harmony in achieving one common goal.

The importance of education is immense. As women of today, the students of AUW have utilised the gift of knowledge to become better human beings. With the transformed understanding and education they have helped thousands to create a better tomorrow.

Speakers, patrons and students look forward to a promising future in Asia.
Photo : Claudio Cambon

Dreams Unfolding
Elita Karim

Dr. Amit Chakma, COURTESY : UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

For Dr. Amit Chakma, the establishment of the Asian University of Women (AUW) is a part of his dreams coming true. President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, Chakma narrates the stories of his growing up years with the students of AUW, which were in Rangamati, Chittagong and in Dhaka, until he left for higher studies in Algeria at the age of 18. “While addressing the audience at AUW, I said that as a son of Bangladesh I must speak a line or two in Bangla, which I did very slowly!” he says, referring to the main launching ceremony that had taken place at the university grounds last week, in Chittagong. “I could make my connections very easily and found the students communicating with me easily.

Chakma says that the establishment of the university is s sure step towards the development of women, not only in Bangladesh but all over Asia. “There are some students who are studying on scholarship at AUW,” he says. “I met one particular Bangladeshi student who is studying on scholarship at the university. She told me that if she had not had the opportunity to study here, her father would probably have married her off!” In spite of the fact that such stories are not particularly shocking, at least in this part of the world, Chakma says that in a country where there have been two female prime ministers, one of them bring the prime minister of Bangladesh currently, such issues are to be dealt with and should be stopped. According to Chakma, there are many intelligent and talented young women in this country who should be given the opportunity to prove their potential. “I had also met a young student from Afghanistan, at AUW, and was both touched and impressed at her desire to bring about changes in her society back home. This is possible only through education.”

Chakma also believes that the Asian University of Women is a platform to build bright and intelligent young women who will ultimately become global personalities. He plans to connect Western Ontario and AUW, and organise cultural exchange programmes and educational activities between teachers and students of both the universities.

Duties towards the Society
Sameeha Suraiya

Living in a melting pot of a world filled with clashing ideas and mercurial practices and strategies, capitalism seems to be the force that drives us forth. We are in fact, caught forever in a frenzied debate about whether capitalistic attitude is indeed the way of survival, while the soul want to settle with a definite 'no'. The session 'How can business lead for social change?' served to lay to rest the doubts of an individual caught in the fever of modern age industrialisation.

While companies with entirely and purely profit-making objectives go on to be a threat to survival by exploiting a community or destroying environment, there are organisations, powerful and successful, that strive to pursue its interests while taking a community into consideration. These corporations are socially responsible, and welcome the new economic approach of 'social capitalism', one that defies the idea that socialism and capitalism are inherently antagonistic. The session chaired by Charles Raymond, Former President of Citi-group Foundation, and Partner, Hudson Heights Partner, raised a few of such burning issues of the 21st century. Stressing the fact that countries should invest to bring social changes, he handed it over to the panel of eminent entrepreneurs and industrialists, examples of how a few countries have confronted the issue through the involvement of the corporate world.

Shyamal Gupta, Former Chairman of TATA International, looked back to the life of the visionary founder, Jamsetji Tata who was one of the pioneers of laying the groundwork for workers' rights. The group was the first to implement the 8 hour work shift. Volunteering helps to address the issues of poverty on a larger scale, and as Gupta declares, it is volunteerism that has enabled the group to reach such remarkable heights in its pledges to achieve certain social reforms. From operating school and hospitals in the most remote corners of the country to giving scholarships to deserving students to study abroad, TATA group has expanded to be considered as the largest private corporation through the goodwill it has earned over the years. Achieving the fine balance, Gupta states, “Businesses must do business. Everything is equitable in the larger interest of the country”.

“Our services are social services,” comments Oddvar Hesjedal, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd, one of the speakers at the panel. Opening employment to 1.5 million people across the country, Grameenphone came into being with the drive that it would not be for urbanites, but will reach down to the rural people. The telecommunication service provider introduced an alternative means of getting a Bangladesh Railway ticket, receiving medical assistance from doctors, relaying information from government agencies as well as sending cyclone warnings for communities along the coastlines. It aims to bring transparency to the government and spread information to Bangladeshis from all cross sections of society as they believe people have been left out of information.

AUW students from Afghanistan dress in their national
costumes at the conference. Photo:Shafiqul Alam Kiron

For a business to bring social change it has to, first and foremost, understand the needs and values of a community. It is only then that reforms can take place, as business and social developments can go hand in hand.

Speaking from the other side of the mirror, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Former Chairman of Shell Group, says that business do not really have to lead social change as much as it has to support what a society already wants. “The financial status of a company is fundamentally important for its survival. To enhance the skills of the company, use the skills that are present in the community. The society needs to be comfortable with the services that a particular industry views to offer.”

The responsibility that all businesses share is to conduct business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom. There is no good for ethics and standards if the way a business is carried out is destructive. As Sir Mark Moddy-Stuart states, “Corruption has Hydra heads. Ethics are maintained through talking to people, guiding them through examples so that businesses survive and social change can happen.”

In Search of the Soul
Elita Karim

Rahul Bose , Photo:Claudio Cambon

At one of the sessions that took place at the conference, 'Ensuring a Future for Rights,' Rahul Bose, one of the panellists, asks the audience for three character traits that one would want his or her best friend to mention at his or her funeral. The audience, filled with mostly young students between the ages of 17-22, replies back honesty, integrity, generosity and caring. “These are the elements that are probably the most important in the planet, to the young people who replied to my questions,” says the actor, director and scriptwriter from India. Popular for his unconventional ideas in terms of scripts for cinema, Bose is also a regular rugby player and founder of his anti-discrimination NGO, The Foundation.

Bose talks about how the young people today can actually ensure the future for rights. “Before you talk about human rights, women rights or gay rights, one has to first look for the soul of the nation and work to make it stronger,” he says. He talks about how there are a 100 million children who go hungry every day, which can be solved by our leaders, only if they take certain political decisions and make certain choices. “These choices, however, are easy for me to take,” he stresses.

The only way to ensure such a utopian future where there everyone is aware of their rights is “if you work for your country,” emphasises Rahul Bose.

The three-day event was attended by several dignitaries. Photo : Emdadul Islam Bitu