Fouzia Saeed facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Fouzia Saeed
Fouzia Saeed opening a Manganhaar Festival
Born	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
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 remarkable Pakistani social activist, expert, and author. She has dedicated her life to helping people and promoting Pakistani culture.

Fouzia Saeed is well-known for her work on important social issues in Pakistan. For many years, she has focused on helping women, especially those facing difficult situations. She even started Bedari, the first crisis center for women in Pakistan, back in 1991. She also worked to make workplaces safer and fairer for women.

In 2009, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani, chose Fouzia Saeed to be part of the National Commission on the Status of Women. Later, she led a committee to make sure new laws about workplace safety were followed.

In 2015, another Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, appointed her as the executive director of Lok Virsa. This is a special place that preserves Pakistan's folk and traditional heritage. She did a great job, making Lok Virsa lively again and helping more people enjoy Pakistani culture.

In 2020, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed her as the Director General of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). This role involves promoting arts and culture across the country.

In February 2020, she was honored as one of Pakistan's top ten women leaders. This was for her amazing work in promoting culture, supporting women, and standing up for what is right.

In July 2021, Fouzia Saeed was in a road accident while on a trip for PNCA. She was looking for young artists in Balochistan. She recovered and by July 2022, she was back to her important work. A group of women even made a video to celebrate her many contributions to helping Pakistani women.

Fouzia Saeed believes that people should be judged by their skills, efforts, and achievements. She feels that things like gender or background should not define a person.

About Fouzia Saeed

Fouzia Saeed grew up and went to college in Peshawar, Pakistan. She graduated from the University of Peshawar in 1979 with top honors. Because of her excellent grades, 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 the University of Minnesota many times. They honored her with awards in 1998 and 2008 for her contributions to education and women's rights in Pakistan.

In 2010, the government of Japan selected her as one of seven Asian Leadership Fellows. She traveled to Tokyo, gave lectures at universities, and shared her experiences.

In 2012, she received the Battle of Crete Award. This award recognized her brave efforts to make workplace safety a legal requirement in Pakistan.

She also served as the director of Mehergarh: A Center for Learning. There, she led programs for young people, focusing on fairness and human rights.

Between 2012 and 2015, Fouzia Saeed was a visiting scholar at several famous universities and centers in the United States. She lived in Islamabad, Pakistan, with her husband. They met in 1995 while working for the United Nations. They have also lived in Manila, Kabul, and Cairo. She enjoys SCUBA diving and has explored underwater worlds in many countries.

Books by Fouzia Saeed

Fouzia Saeed has written several important books. Her first book, TABOO!, explored the traditional culture of a certain area in Pakistan. It looked at how this culture was changing. The book became very popular with young Pakistanis who speak English. It has been translated into Hindi, Marathi, and Japanese.

Her second book, Working with Sharks, shared her personal experiences about making workplaces fair and safe. It talked about the challenges she and other women faced and how they worked together to create positive changes. This book was well-received in Pakistan and internationally.

In 2012, she published Forgotten Faces: Daring Women of Pakistan’s Folk Theatre. This book is full of pictures and tells the stories of brave women who performed in traveling folk theaters in Punjab. It shows how these women lived and worked.

While leading Lok Virsa, she also helped create a large book called Folk Heritage of Pakistan: Glimpses into a Cultural Diversity. It has text and 500 photographs, showing the rich culture of Pakistan.

Her 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 and tells the stories of Pakistani women working to gain their rights.

Her most recent book, Tapestry: Strands of Women's Struggles in the History of Pakistan, was published in 2021. This book provides a deeper look into the history of women's political development in Pakistan.

Important Work Areas

Making Workplaces Safe

In 2000, Fouzia Saeed helped create a group called AASHA (An Alliance Against Workplace Harassment) in Pakistan. This group worked to make workplaces safer for everyone. They developed a Code of Conduct for how people should behave at work. Many companies in Pakistan started using this code voluntarily.

AASHA then worked with the government to make this Code of Conduct a law. In 2010, new laws were passed that made workplace harassment a serious offense across Pakistan. These laws also required all organizations to follow the Code of Conduct. Fouzia Saeed was chosen to lead a committee to make sure these new laws were put into action.

In December 2010, Dr. Saeed organized the 10th Annual Working Women's Assembly. The Prime Minister and other important leaders attended this event. The Prime Minister declared December 22 as National Working Women's Day. He also appointed the first Ombudsperson for Women's Rights, a person who helps women with their rights.

Fouzia Saeed's focus on this issue grew from her own experiences. She and ten other women faced challenges at their workplace. They bravely reported the issues together, even though it was difficult. After a lot of effort, they succeeded in bringing about changes. This case led to new policies across the entire UN system to make workplaces fairer.

To help people understand workplace harassment better, Fouzia Saeed and AASHA created a series of cartoon characters. Each character showed a different type of inappropriate behavior. These cartoons were put into calendars and became very popular. They helped change how people thought about the causes of harassment, shifting the focus from what women wear to how men behave. These calendars were widely praised in the media.

Helping Women in Difficult Situations

Fouzia Saeed has worked for over 25 years on issues related to helping women and their children in difficult situations. She has given many talks on topics like domestic challenges and supporting survivors.

While studying in the United States, she volunteered at crisis centers. She learned how to support people who had experienced difficult situations. She worked on helplines, giving advice and connecting people with legal help, medical care, and safe places to stay. She also conducted research to see how satisfied survivors were with the help they received from police and courts.

After returning to Pakistan in 1987, she joined the Women’s Action Forum. She formed a special committee to understand why challenges for women continued and what could be done to help.

Bedari Organization

Fouzia Saeed was a founder and executive director of Bedari. This community organization focused on women's issues, especially those related to difficult situations. Bedari was started in 1992 by Saeed and Ambreen Ahmad. It became the first Crisis Center in Pakistan to help women facing such challenges.

Promoting Folk Culture

Fouzia Saeed has always worked on women's issues within the fields of folklore 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 research programs and archives.

She researched many aspects of folklore. Her first research in 1991 was on women in folk theater. Lok Virsa later asked her to update this work, and they published it in 2011 as 'Forgotten Faces: Daring Women of the Pakistani Folk Theatre'. In this book, she tells the story of Bali Jatti, the first woman to own a traveling stage theater in Punjab. The book shows the lives of female performers who entertained audiences of men. She has also researched other traditional entertainment forms, focusing on women's experiences in them.

Her book, Taboo, explores traditional systems in Pakistan and their connection to classical music and dance. It also looks at how these systems are changing. The book uses this culture to help Pakistanis think about their own family relationships.

Fouzia Saeed has also actively helped bring back Pakistani folk performance arts. With the Folklore Society of Pakistan, she helped revive the Manganhar folk singing style, which was almost lost 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 while she was still a college student.

After returning to Pakistan in 1987, she continued working with PTV and other TV channels. She hosted four different talk show series about social and cultural issues. She also hosted many live shows and special programs.

She continues to appear on PTV and other channels as a commentator, sharing her thoughts on political and social topics.

In 2009, she hosted a television program called Ye Kon Log Hen? (Who Are These People?). This program discussed how certain groups establish themselves in communities. She also worked to encourage citizens to support local government, as part of her efforts to build stronger communities.