Istafa Ali
BBC has named two Pakistani women as two of the 100 most amazing and powerful women of 2023.
The BBC announced on Tuesday its list of 100 beautiful and powerful women from around the world for 2023.
Michelle Obama, a lawyer and former First Lady of the United States, Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer, Aitana Bonmatí, a football player who won the Ballon d’Or, Timnit Gebru, an AI expert, Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon, America Ferrera, a Hollywood star, and Huda Kattan, a beauty mogul.
This year, the news has been full of extreme heat, wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters. The list also includes women who have been working to help their communities fight climate change and adapt to its effects.
One of the last Wakhi shepherdesses living in Gilgit-Baltistan’s remote Shimal Valley, Afroze-Numa, was honoured for her service to the community.
For almost 30 years, she took care of goats, yaks, and sheep.
“Her mother and grandmother taught her the trade,” the BBC said. “She is part of a hundreds-year-old tradition that is now dying out in Pakistan’s Shimshal valley.”
Once a year, these shepherdesses take their flocks to pastures that are 4,800m (16,000ft) above sea level. While their animals graze, they make dairy goods to trade.
Their income has helped the town get ahead and given them the means to send their kids to school. In Afroze-Numa’s mind, she will always be the first woman in the valley to own shoes.
Neha Mankani is another Pakistani on the list. She went to areas that were hit by last year’s terrible storms to help the people who were hurt.
BBC says that Mankani and her team helped more than 15,000 flood-affected families by giving them life-saving birthing kits and medical care through their charity, Mama Baby Fund.
Her usual work is in places with few resources, during emergencies, and in communities that have been touched by climate change.
Mama Baby Fund has now raised enough money to start a boat ambulance that will take pregnant women who live near the coast to nearby clinics and hospitals for emergency care.
“Midwives play an important role in communities that are dealing with disasters caused by climate change.” We are both first responders and climate campaigners, and we work to make sure that women can keep getting the prenatal, postnatal, and reproductive care they need, even when things are getting worse around them.
