Thanks to a generous donation from Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal and family, LUMS is proud to announce the formation of the Saida Waheed Gender Initiative. The initiative seeks to leverage teaching, research, and praxis related to gender by bringing together faculty and students from across LUMS.
At the launch event on September 22, 2015, university leadership and faculty celebrated the announcement with Justice (R) Iqbal, Nuria Iqbal, and Osman Waheed, Saida Waheed’s grandson. Noting his grandmother’s efforts to better the status of women in Pakistan, particularly through establishing family planning interventions, Mr. Waheed expressed his “confidence that this initiative will carry her legacy forward.” Justice (R) Iqbal expressed her hope that the new Gender Initiative yields “actions that are practical, contextual, and applied.”
Dr. Kamal Munir, Dean of the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities & Social Sciences, highlighted that this is an opportunity to build on existing engagements around gender at LUMS. Indeed, the event showcased faculty’s projects and research, which range from Dr. Misbah Tanveer’s Certificate Programme for Women Entrepreneurs, to Dr. Maryam Wasif Khan’s examination of the gendered politics of the Urdu drama, to Dr. Ayaz Qureshi’s anthropological inquiry into sexual and reproductive health in Pakistan, to Ms. Neha Gauhar’s new course on Gender, Justice, and Law, to the Social Innovation Lab’s work with female carpet weavers in Gilgit.
To further promote engagements with gender across LUMS, the Initiative is currently assembling a dynamic program of events and opportunities for Fall 2015. Look out for the launch of the Saida Waheed Gender Initiative website in the coming weeks.
