Dr. Mira Phailbus is The Spark of Our Nation. Those evangelists who stood up for education or any other noble cause must get appreciation from all of us. An epistemic community is the pillar of a country on which the whole generations piled up. Therefore, we should hold on to them. To praise such an individual, let’s get into the story of Dr. Mira Phailbus!
a women rights activist
Dr. Mira, although a non-muslim raise Muslim women voices who were being harassed. She did so after becoming the first Punjab women ombudsperson at the workplace. She was appointed to this position by the government in February 2013 under the 2010 act. She took notice of several cases regarding women’s harassment and summoned many serving officers including a DMG officer of grade 20.
Since March 2013, this office is fully functional and has emerged as a source of security as well as encouragement for working ladies. To guard our women against all sorts of discrimination or maltreatment, initially, we have written letters to all public and private sector organizations to get special committees established to deal with women-related issues.
Due to her keen efforts, 14 employees of an agriculture department were being punished by their supervisors (eventually) for harassing their female co-workers. To serve this purpose more efficiently she had personally visited almost the entire province to meet with the civil society activists, officials of NGOs to make the services of the ombudsperson more and more people-oriented. This incident became the landmark verdict by Dr. Mira. Gradually, she crystallized her persona and become an inspiration for all women.
Moreover, she launched a new project namely Harassment Awareness Volunteer Program (HAVP) in this regard. She stated that it’s a joint effort of the Women Development Department and the Ombudsperson Punjab to disseminate information and awareness among working women. She deliberates this fact that working women’s ignorance of their legal rights as well as social taboos along with their lack of confidence in the system, prevent them from reporting any act of harassment at the workplace.
Served as an educationalist and receive the award
She used to be the long-serving principal of famous Kinnaird College, Lahore from 1962 until 2004, which was approximately 30 years. She, herself as an educationalist, bring back the original status of the college under his term. Also, she served as the minister of education and minority affairs in Punjab and deliver her immense services on different boards of prominent educational institutions under the caretaker government in 2007. She was renowned as a fighter. And why not? As she took a firm stance against the violation of merit on varied stances.
In an interview, she elaborates on some of our faulty lines in the education system. For instance, she indorsed the fact that there is a sheer lack of an effective teacher-training mechanism in our country. She believed in this reality of teaching the teachers i.e., teach the teachers how to teach.
She discarded our traditional yet failed idea that if someone fails his attempts to get a good job, he or she joins the teaching profession let alone the aptitude for teaching or the required caliber and will to go for this noble profession. Due to her extraordinary services, Sitara-e-Imtiaz has been given to her.
Zunaira Ali is the Freelance writer. She is working at STUDENTINN SOLUTIONS as Intern Content Writer. She is also part of MainHOONPakistan and contributing to HumSayPakistan.