Your WOW Woman Humaira: Psychologist, Social Activist, Motivational Speaker
Nominated and submitted by Zahid Rashid.
1. Name of the WOW Woman you are nominating.
Humaira Syed.
2. Location.
From Islamabad, Pakistan (Currently in Tokyo, Japan)
3. What has she dared to tackle, or done to innovate, achieve, soar, lift-up others, overcome challenges, defy expectations/norms, etc?
Humaira Syed is an outstanding example and a symbol of female empowerment and gender advocacy. Ms. Syed is chairperson of the Dukhter/Daughter Foundation. Dukhter (a Persian word for Daughter) is a Non Profit Organization committed to up-skilling and empowering young women. Additionally, Humaira is the only female Board member of the World O-sport Federation. She has an MSC in Psychology (PAK), an MBA in Leadership (Japan), a Diploma from the Pakistan Air-Force Finishing School (PAK), a Masters in Coaching from ICF (USA), a Transformational Coaching degree, PCTC from Paradigm-21 (Hong Kong). Her learning and development journey still continues.
Passionate about the sustainable career advancement of vulnerable women in Pakistan since 2007, Humaira has driven multiple initiatives for education of women, providing life/soft-skills and career development trainings. She also launched a remarkable BOLO-Helpline to address domestic, academic and work-place harassment in 2018 which got national level appreciation. Humaira believes each girl, in any circumstances, deserves valuable opportunities to grow. Therefore she continues training women in Pakistan, Iran, Africa, Nigeria and Japan. She believes she owe each single expertise she gained from her world exposure to the women who lack these opportunities; she is paying it forward, selflessly.
4. What are some of the outcomes/results of her accomplishments, actions, causes, etc.?
Her trainings and coaching have changed the mindsets and ultimately lives of many people, especially women. She conducted trainings for students, teachers, orphanages, community houses, doctors, lawyers, police officials, army personnel, corporations and civil societies. Considering time and space limitation, I`ll mention one particular.
I consider BOLO-Anti-Harassment Helpline (BOLO is Urdu word meaning Speak-Up) as one of biggest initiatives of Dukhter Foundation under Ms. Syed`s Supervision. During soft-skills training with university girls, they appeared less confident and communicative. Leveraging Ms. Syed’s psychology background, while offering girls counseling, she found these young girls are getting exploited for GPA, are facing extreme academic harassment from their professors.
Having seen famous “Me Too” campaign, girls were afraid to share their experiences because of the fear of defamation and forced discontinuing of education. Humaira proposed the idea of Anti-Harassment helpline to not only help address the issues but also keep girls` identities a secret. After continuous efforts, meeting with many organizational heads, Ms. Syed successfully convinced stakeholders to make a joint venture with 12 organizations to launch BOLO (translated as Speak-Up) Anti-Harassment Helpline in 2018. This hotline ensured that complains are received and solved keeping the complainant`s identity secret.
Winning the confidence of women was tough but Ms. Humaira was so determined and committed to make it work. In the first year (2018-2019) BOLO-Helpline received 21,000 complaints with 80% academic sexual harassment complaints against professors. These alarming figures not only took the attention of print, social and electronic media but also got acknowledgment of the government and private institutions. Prominent and high profiled people appreciated Dukhter Foundation`s efforts and urged government to take serious measures. We successfully convinced government to launch official anti-harassment and anti-violence platforms. BOLO Helpline is still working with the same philosophy: solve the issue and save the privacy of the complainants.
Here I would not forget to mention that Ms. Humaira, being a Chairperson, made sure to keep the privacy of the complainants. Even persons in senior management at times never knew the real identities of the of the women. That`s how we kept our promise.
Those who know us, introduce us to the individuals who need help. In turn those who are helped are ready to help others. That`s how we are making a chain, spreading positivity and impacting lives of many girls.
5. What can other women learn from her?
Humaira Syed is leading a social enterprise, which primarily aims at up-skilling women. The core philosophy of Dukhter Foundation is that, don't give handouts to the vulnerable; they will learn to ask for it again and again. Instead give them the skills to earn, and they will not only eat themselves but will also feed their families.
Soft skills trainings, behavior grooming, coaching and counseling are Ms. Syed’s areas of expertise where she offers individual and group mentorship. The best thing about Humaira is never telling or directing women to do something unique. She first shows them an example in her own actions, thereby inspiring other women to follow her. She is the bright example which inspires women to learn and practice self-motivation, resilience, adaptability and passion to achieve the goals in the face of adversities and challenges.
6. Why does she inspire you in particular?
Ms. Syed is a warrior who never settles for less. She is fighting with the adversities herself, paving the way for others to succeed in a patriarchal society. I believe she has a tough but rewarding job.
Being a professional, I have seen and worked with many females who no doubt are working hard and making a difference in their own lives and others. But Ms. Humaira inspires me in particular because her areas of influence are not limited to a specific gender, community or field. She is a genuine leader who believes that whoever has a passion for learning can approach her for maximum knowledge transfer.
Humaira’s philosophy of taking donation in a unique way also inspires me. We accept donations in the form of skill trainings. Do not give us money, food or material support; give us your time and expertise to train others. This really initially inspired and motivated me and several others to join Ms. Sayed.
I respect Humaira’s belief that her achievements and experience are owed to the women she has worked with, who may never have gotten a chance to travel or be exposed to the world. Ms. Syed always tells us that what she has achieved in life is the result of prayers of people, especially women, around her. She is humble and believes that she must give back through her training and coaching.
There is so much to say about Humaira Syed, that its becoming hard for me to cut it short. Here are some links of her Non Profit Organization and other social media platforms which will further tell her story.
instagram: @dukhterfoundationofficial
7. Your name.
Zahid Rashid, Founder & President, Talent Care Foundation.