One Picture, Thousand Words: Head Held High
Asem Mustafa Awan: Veiled and uundercover her blue burqa tells are ethnicity and origins. The skills she acquired as cobbler is from her home, most probably her father and sitting mending the smelly shoes with torn gloves tell the story that neither her father nor her husband is alive.
She is alone and facing the world with survival skills that have kept her and her dear ones alive.
How many years she has spent in acquiring the skills and what made her come to do this is a story that represents courage, commitment and above all pride. She is not a beggar as with her skills she is making a modest living and feeding herself and family with head held high and chin.
This is one of the views that also depicts the societal trends in the past where women vendors were non existent but as time passed and with hard times knocking at the door women also came out and became a bread earner for the family.
There can be many aspects but the picture tells only one and that is her unfathomable resolve. The photographer Muhammad Iqbal deserves kudos as he has the eye to capture the photo which has a world within. The system as a whole is exposed as her sitting and working there shows there is nothing in place to help the poor.
The organization and offices formed on the name of downtrodden have budgets running in millions and the fat purse is wasted on the organization itself as administration costs while on ground very little is spent.
The embezzlement of funds in Zakat, the money that is for the poor and needy, shows how low the moral fabric has gone and that is not all the corruption has eaten away the entire national fabric.
An upright and honest department catering to needy would have made sure the availability of food and funds for these distressed women but that dream of a public friendly department will take a light year to form and many of us will not be here to witness that achievement.
The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.
Photo By Muhammad Iqbal
An excellent piece by Asem Mustafa Awan.
It is extremely painful to see millions toiling to stay alive whilst a few squandering the country’s human and and other resources. Poverty is a worldwide occurrence but most nations have some sort of vision and plan to try to come out of it. Sadly, what makes it more painful is that Pakistan has no plan at all. Therefore, the misery of millions is permanent and generational.
Thank you Ishtiaq it is painful to write on these topics but they are there and I must write for them as i owe it to them.