Fouzia Saeed facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fouzia Saeed
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Fouzia Saeed opening a Manganhaar Festival
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| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Occupation | Director General, Pakistan National Council of the Arts Former Executive Director, Lok Virsa, Pakistan National Institute for Folk and Traditional Heritage |
| Known for | Author of TABOO: The Hidden Culture of a ... |
Fouzia Saeed is a well-known Pakistani social activist and author. She works to help women and promote culture. She has also been a television commentator and a manager for development projects.
Fouzia Saeed has worked for over 20 years to stop violence against women. In 1991, she started Bedari, which was the first crisis center for women in Pakistan.
Important leaders have recognized her work. In 2009, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani, chose her to be one of 15 members of the National Commission on the Status of Women. This group works to improve the lives of women.
Later, in 2015, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed her as the executive director of Lok Virsa. This is the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage. She did a great job there, making Lok Virsa more active and helping traditional performances grow in Pakistan. Her term ended in 2018.
In 2020, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed her as the Director General of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).
In 2021, Fouzia Saeed had a serious road accident while working for PNCA in Balochistan. By 2022, she started to get back to her work. A women's group even made a video about her many contributions to Pakistani women.
Fouzia Saeed says about herself: "I want to be judged by my abilities, my struggles and my achievements and not labeled or stereotyped by my gender, my economic background, my nationality or my beliefs."
Contents
Fouzia Saeed's Life and Education
Fouzia Saeed went to school and college in Peshawar, Pakistan. She graduated from the University of Peshawar in 1979. She was the top student in Home Economics.
Because she did so well, she received a special award to study abroad. She spent eight years at the University of Minnesota in the United States. There, she earned two advanced degrees: a master's in design and a doctorate in education. She also received more funding for her research.
After finishing her studies, Fouzia Saeed returned to Pakistan. However, she has visited Minneapolis many times. The University of Minnesota gave her two awards for her work in education and for helping women in Pakistan.
In 2010, the government of Japan chose Fouzia Saeed as one of seven Asian Leadership Fellows. She spent time in Tokyo, giving lectures at many Japanese universities.
Work with Learning Centers
From 2004 to 2012, she was the director of Mehergarh: A Center for Learning. She led programs there about youth, gender, and human rights. She still gives advice to the center.
Between 2012 and 2015, Fouzia Saeed was a Fellow at several important institutions in the US. These included Stanford University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Current Life and Hobbies
Fouzia Saeed now lives in Islamabad, Pakistan, with her husband. They met in 1995 while working for the United Nations in Pakistan. They have also lived in Manila, Kabul, and Cairo.
She is one of the few Pakistani women of her age who knows how to SCUBA dive. She has dived in many places, including Pakistan, the Bahamas, Fiji, and the Philippines.
Books Written by Fouzia Saeed
Fouzia Saeed has written several important books.
In 2012, she published Forgotten Faces: Daring Women of Pakistan’s Folk Theatre. This book has many pictures. It is based on her research about the traveling theaters of Punjab from the 1980s. This art form is slowly disappearing.
When she was the Executive Director of Lok Virsa, she helped create a large book called Folk Heritage of Pakistan: Glimpses into a Cultural Diversity. This book has text and 500 photographs.
Her next book, On Their Own Terms: Early 21st Century Women's Movements in Pakistan, came out in 2020. It is based on her research in Pakistan. The book looks at four examples of how Pakistani women have worked to get their rights back.
Her most recent book, Tapestry: Strands of Women's Struggles in the History of Pakistan, was published in 2021. This book provides a deep look into the history of women's political development in Pakistan.
Fouzia Saeed's Areas of Work
Women in Folk Culture
Fouzia Saeed has always worked on women's issues, especially in folk culture and social change. She started her career at the Pakistan National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage ( Lok Virsa Museum ). There, she helped improve their archives and library.
She researched different parts of folklore. Her first research in 1991 was about women in folk theater. Lok Virsa later asked her to update this research, and it was published as 'Forgotten Faces: Daring Women of the Pakistani Folk Theatre'.
In this book, she wrote about Bali Jatti. Bali Jatti was the first woman to own a traveling stage theater in Punjab. Fouzia Saeed used Bali Jatti's story to show the tradition of Punjabi folk theater. She focused on the lives of female performers. These women performed for male audiences, while many wives stayed hidden at home.
A review of the book praised her for showing these stage stars as real women. They faced many challenges in their lives. Fouzia Saeed has also researched other entertainment forms. These include folk circus, folk dances, and folk natak (drama). She often focuses on women’s experiences in these areas.
Her book became very popular among young English-speaking Pakistanis. It was published in English and Urdu by Oxford University Press. It has also been translated into Hindi and Marathi in India, and Japanese in 2010.
Fouzia Saeed is also a folk dancer herself. She has actively helped bring back Pakistani folk performance arts. With the Folklore Society of Pakistan, she helped revive the Manganhar folk singing style. This type of singing had almost disappeared in Pakistan.
Media Work
Fouzia Saeed has been involved with television since 1977. She was one of the first female news announcers on Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) from Peshawar. She was still a college student at that time.
After finishing her studies in the US, she returned to Pakistan in 1987. She started working with PTV again. She hosted programs for PTV and other TV channels.
She hosted four different talk show series about social and cultural issues. These included Hum Qadam and Rishtay. She also hosted many live shows and special programs.
Today, she still appears on PTV and other channels. She shares her thoughts on political and social issues.
In 2009, she started a TV program called Ye Kon Log Hen? (Who Are These People?). This program was about fighting against Talibanization. It ran for three months. This show was part of her bigger plan to stop terrorists from gaining power in communities.
She also organized a large meeting in 2009 to plan how to fight against Talibanization in Pakistan. In 2010, she helped get support for a change in the constitution. This change would make local government a stronger part of the state. She continues to work on these ideas through her job at Lok Virsa.
