By Zubeida Mustafa

As you approach the stately Glasgow Women’s Library at Bridgeton (Glasgow) there is no way you can miss it. A large name plaque in black announces its presence.

The “extraordinariness” of the library is visible in the mural painted on a fence across the road in front of the building. It depicts the struggle of an Inuit girl, Sedna,  who resists the brutality of her father who wants her to marry a man she doesn’t want to. He pushes her into the sea and chops off her fingers when she clings to the boat to save herself. She is later declared by her people the Goddess of the Sea. The most distant planet of the solar system is also named after Sedna. Continue reading The Glasgow Women’s Library →

Indomitable to the very end

Over 60 years ago, a young woman in her twenties walked into a classroom at Karachi University to teach journalism to a bunch of young students, most of whom were men. There were not many female students then in this newly launched institution of higher education located in the heart of Karachi. To have a woman teach men of her own age was something unusual and it could have deterred the boldest of women.

For Naushaba Burney this was a challenge. She acquitted herself with grace and won many admirers. Her education abroad gave her the confidence to play a pioneering role in a predominantly male environment. Having studied at Columbia University, the University of California Berkeley and the University of Oregon, Eugene from 1953-1956, Naushaba was highly qualified for the job she had clinched. Continue reading Indomitable to the very end →