Young, bold and beautiful, Aysha walked into our office looking professional in her business skirt reflecting the professional training she had received at various organizations she has been involved in. Doing her masters in political science at York University, she mentions that her prime focus is feminist movements coming out of Middle East. By participating in Model United Nations at York, she finally ended up with an internship at United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which was based out of Geneva to do policy work with grass root development, predominantly with women and children in Africa as well as Northern Afghanistan. Aysha is grateful to Model United Nations that provided her the opportunity to meet people like Kofi Annan and other diplomats from China as well as Middle East and Congress members.

The passion for her work compelled her to design her own t-shirt line with poli-sci messages to convey her enlightening messages. This young passionate women is also altruistic in nature and also takes her time out to volunteer with “Feed the Children’ an NGO that is working in conjunction with Oprah’s Angel Network to work towards UN’s millennium development goals.

Being a Pakistani-Canadian, she mentions that she observed the atrocities and injustices and got involved with political science and various organizations. Taking about her experiences as a South Asian young female she says, “Predominantly speaking my experience in Toronto has been very liberating. No city is perfect. However, opportunities provided to South Asian youth in Toronto are very important and they need to be resorted to. I think in the last 10 years, the youth has mobilized in great ways. They are politically more aware, they are active participants in terms of citizenship. I think South Asians can do a lot more.”

Aysha also reflects on the difficulties that South Asian youth faces, “One of the biggest dilemmas that they deal with is the jiggle between the culture and religion. I think some of the vital issues are to recognize where you stand within that system and embrace it to perpetuate a positive feeling about that, because considering some of the issues around islamophobia, and post 9/11 and corruptions, you know, our nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Middle East, they have been labeled in such a way; they have been labeled as lack of progression, lack of modernity and lack of development and I think that the South Asians that are located off shore, can do a lot to change that.”

Her teaching assistant skills are reflected in her tone as well, she addresses the youth and asks them to utilize the resources that they have been provided with in this country. In order to make that possible they have to first ‘clear the fog as to what the South Asian identity is.’ She encourages them to participate and get more involved, “Take your view points on things and be politically aware. You don’t have to be a poli-sci major to be politically aware.”

From her teaching experience, Aysha shares her observation that we don’t question things as much as she would like the South Asians to. Students should get more academically involved in debates and conferences and should show interest on the political front.

Explaining the reasons behind such an observation she says, ‘I think one of the barriers is that when you are unaware of something or when you have to step out of your comfort zone, the human psyche does not do that easily and that is why we do not get involved. Which is why you do not see a lot of females reaching out and doing things.”

Hearing her response was amusing, as questioning is discouraged in the Pakistani culture especially for females. I asked her the response of her family on her views, “ One of the tensions that I was presented with was this tension between religious things and some of the things that I was being exposed to. When I joined MUN(Model United Nations), traveling was an issue. They would ask me, ‘you are going to be away from home for a week, how are we going to deal with that, how are we going to do this, how are we going to do that.’ But I think I am blessed because they have gone through the educational system themselves they understand the vitality of being able to acquire this experience and this education.’

Aysha is aware that still it is going to be challenging for her and mentions that she gets different sorts of inquiries from different people regarding her involvement with the Model United Nations and traveling all the time. She says that it is challenging to deal with that and to answer such inquiries but she mentions proudly that people also ask me, “How can we get where you are?”

Aysha is aware that she is also representing her community at a larger scale and seeing her success and passion people do make positive generalizations about the South Asian community. Finally, she appeals to the rest of the youth to get involved and make a difference.

Author: Saniya Zahid