“Draft:Maliha Husain”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Maliha Husain is the Executive Director of Mehergarh: A Center for Learning , a non-profit organization working on human rights, with a special focus on the rights of women and youth . Mehergarh served as the secretariat of AASHA (Alliance Against Sexual Harassment) , the movement that pushed successfully for passage of the anti-sexual harassment laws that were passed in 2010^[1].

Ms. Husain has been working full time for the past eight years to ensure an institutionalized and systematic implementation of these laws by helping to establish critical implementing bodies and train their members.^[2]

She continues to work closely with parliamentarians to protect the integrity of the 2010 legislation [https://tribune.com.pk/story/1476256/harassment-committee-untrained-many-members-mess-things-say-activists/?amp=1]. Her remarkable work and persistence has been acknowledged [https://www.dawn.com/news/1374128] and her ‘behind the scenes’ efforts were fully recognized when she received the Women Excellence Award at the 10th annual International Conference on Women’s Leadership [https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/159384-Head-of-Mehergarh-wins-Women-Excellence-Award].

She is frequently invited on television as an expert on women’s issues, politics and social affairs [https://www.pakdiscussion.com/mukalma-14-november-2017/], [https://www.geo.tv/latest/133694-From-the-law-book-Standing-up-against-harassment], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlizHqpeWyc&t=739s], [https://dailytimes.com.pk/183650/mardans-four-year-old-girl-raped-murder-ig/], [https://www.pakdiscussion.com/mukalma-14-november-2017/].

Maliha Husain was born in Lahore and was raised in different parts of Pakistan following her father’s career in Pakistan International Airlines. She completed her education in Peshawar at Presentation Convent and her first degree in Home Economics from University of Peshawar. She was an exceptional student and in the Students Union. Later, she attended the USA at the University of Minnesota, USA.

She began her substantive work as a consultant for the World Bank and others in the late 1980s. Later, when she was again living in USA she supported a women’s collective, Women Venture[https://www.womenventure.org/] to help those who wanted to start productive businesses. She returned to Pakistan in 2010 to formally take charge of the Mehergarh Institute and the secretariat of AASHA to spearhead the implementation of the newly passed laws to protect women from sexual harassment.

She assisted the government in the establishment of the Sexual Harassment Ombudsman offices in Islamabad, Sindh and Punjab, by drafting the description of their functions and lobbying with the Federal and Provincial governments to ensure their establishment[https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/298010-kashmala-calls-for-public-awareness-on-anti-harassment-law].

She has been instrumental in establishing the Provincial Implementation Watch Committees that provide oversight on the anti-sexual harassment laws in all provinces and the federation . She oriented the Committee members and facilitated the Provincial Governments to continue with the process of implementation[https://epaper.tribune.com.pk/DisplayDetails.aspx?ENI_ID=11201601300531&EN_ID=11201601300206&EMID=11201601300074], [https://tribune.com.pk/story/1036674/curbing-harassment-reactivate-harassment-monitoring-committee/]. She worked very closely with all the Ombudsman offices and the Women Development Departments to ensure close coordination, help in training new staff and support implementation within the Government Departments[https://tribune.com.pk/story/1467423/cadd-urged-set-implementation-committees].

In her current work, Ms. Husain provides direct assistance to women who have filed complaints of sexual harassment, but her most crucial work has been to build the capacity of the Inquiry Committees assigned to deal with these cases in public and private organizations across the country [https://dailytimes.com.pk/129007/sexual-harassment-workplaces/].

She works closely with the managements of government departments and agencies, banks, journalist associations[https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/240550-Lack-of-awareness-lets-harassers-go-scot-free] , media, educational institutions and provincial governments. Worth mentioning is her collaboration with the business sector including the Pakistan Business Council, the State Bank of Pakistan, and Pakistan Banking Association, Pakistan Federal Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Coca Cola Company, Fauji Foundation, Habib Bank Limited, Habib Metro Bank, Alfalah Bank, and Meezan Bank. Among the many government organizations that are implementing the laws, she has helped organize inquiry committees and train their members in NADRA, Pakistan Post Office, Pakistan Federal Election Commission and Federal Bureau of Revenue. She has especially focused on supporting educational institutes[https://tribune.com.pk/story/1068410/workplaces-harassment-awareness-seminar-held-at-nust/] , including the Higher Education Commission and several universities, where she build awareness and capacity in the managements to improve their they dynamics between teachers and students as well as among the staff[https://tribune.com.pk/story/1572095/1-women-first-learn-respect-speakers/].

Her basic approach is to conduct 3-day residential training sessions to sensitize resource persons on the issue of sexual harassment to make them ready to help organizations comply with the law [https://dailytimes.com.pk/205027/clean-society-want-zainabs-saved-dr-fouzia-saeed/]. She has trained over 12,000 persons on proper implementation of the legislation within private and government organizations. Over the last eight years, she has conducted over 700 trainings for the members of these inquiry committees and also provided help in handling difficult cases. She has been involved in the handling of over 3700 cases herself where she assisted either the Inquiry Committees or the complainant.

Ms. Husain also works on other crucial issues of crimes against women[https://tribune.com.pk/story/1558750/4-women-groups-outraged-following-ban-verna/] like rape [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qUkCJBVbcc] and sexual assault by focusing on changing the mindset of Pakistani society[https://tribune.com.pk/story/1575138/1-painfully-slow-road-justice/] regarding dignity of women.

References

1. ^{{cite news |title=Zardari signs bill: Harassment of women is now a crime |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/846465}}
2. ^{{cite web |title=Sindh: New Laws Aim to Enhance Protection of Women |url=https://unpo.org/article/19715?id=19715 |accessdate=9 December 2016}}