2013

My name is Gul Lalai and I belong to the Peshawar-Khybar Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan which borders tribal areas and Afghanistan; one of the most fragile and conservative areas in the region. I am 30.

I was the eldest child to my parents and from the very beginning (as a young girl) I developed a strong sense of the unfairness of gender equality. Although from a middle class family and allowed access to education; I still felt discriminated, living in the society where gender hierarchy is adhered to an extreme extent. I could not reconcile myself with the suffocating environment for women in our part of the world and grew up as a tomboy, but soon I had to display "normal" attributes because it was unacceptable. But deep inside my heart I was determined that I would do something which would contribute to changing the gender norms in my society.

I succeeded to pursue my aspirations, though with great difficulty, because I was the first one in my family to live in hostels and then take up a job in another city. However all this has opened avenues for my younger female family members. 

After getting my university degree I decided to work in an NGO, and joined Khwendo Kor (KK) in 2010. KK works for women’s empowerment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). KK gave me a platform, to learn and work for women rights wholeheartedly. It strives for women’s civil rights, rights to education and health and their access to economic opportunities in far flung areas of KP and FATA. KK aspires to include women in decision-making forums at village, district and provincial level. I also co-chair the KP chapter of End Violence Against Women/ Girls Alliance (EVAW/G). From this platform we take a stand on VAW and related issues and take initiatives to create an enabling environment for working towards gender justice.

The government, instead of helping us, advise us to stop our work because it is dangerous.

Working as a woman human rights defender (WHRD) is very difficult in our part of the world. We always receive threatening letters and telephone calls, several times we have been monitored by militants but fortunately escaped, our staff have been kidnapped, and vehicles have been snatched, injuring staff members. The government, instead of helping us, advise us to stop our work because it is dangerous. Besides threats on our lives, we also face social stigma and disrespect in our personal life.

In my personal life I always practice whatever I believe, and the personality of my brother is one of the living examples and evidence of this fact. He is 9 years younger to me, and I played a significant role in his upbringing. He has not become a typical man, surfing from superiority complex of being a "man", disrespectful to other genders, cast, religion and creeds.  He is now 21 and has grown to a man who has shunned the typical role assigned to him, and has positioned himself to challenge the society.

2015

Gullalai joined the Protective Fellowship Scheme in 2013. An advocate for women's rights in Pakistan, Gullalai works for Khwendo Kor (KK), a leading NGO that focuses on facilitating women empowerment in the region. After completing the Protective Fellowship Scheme Gullalai was eager to return to KK to share her experience, and hopefully boost the organisation's profile and capabilities in advancing the rights of women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Gullalai was eager to begin her studies in an environment that valued learning and which encouraged both her and the other defenders to share their experiences in human rights advocacy. The diverse environment coupled with an opportunity to engage in public speaking fostered greater professional and personal growth in Gullalai as she credits the classes for making her a more confident public speaker. "The most useful things were the classes that I attended and the classes that I participated in as a student and a speaker. That is the reason that I want to move on to the level of being a resource person, teacher, trainer." As such, upon returning to her work, Gullalai was able to deliver diverse and successful training sessions to 80-100 people based on the knowledge she gained during the fellowship. "I give training on international human rights law and advocacy and security policy, proposal writing, research methodology, leadership skills and such like. Mostly to my own staff, sometimes to our partner organisations, sometimes to activists". Gullalai notes that one of her most memorable experiences as a fellow was being able to deliver a public talk on her work with KK. 

The work that she presently conducts at KK primarily focuses on project management, programme development, capacity building and team building. The Protective Fellowship Scheme equipped her with the relevant tools to develop and implement a necessary security policy for the KK given that the organisation operates within a hostile security environment which is adverse to human rights advocacy. Like some of her colleagues on the programme, Gullalai was also able to earn a Postgraduate Certificate in Defending Human Rights, an online course delivered by the Centre for Applied Human Rights. The knowledge gained from this course has enabled her to deliver relevant and important training sessions, thus boosting the capacity of the organisation.

I feel connected: you are not alone, there are people who do the same kind of thing in much worse circumstances.

The connections she made with UK based charitable organisations during her fellowship provided a much needed aid to KK and allowed it to expand its support network. Gullalai explains, "I went to Oxford with FROKK [Friends of Khwendo Kor UK, a UK-based charity supporting KK's work in Pakistan], got contact with fair-trade business people and connected KK's work with fair-trade – as a result our communities' work is connected with fair-trade now. We also established connections with a church in Oxford – they are supporting a small IDPs school in Pakistan now… After meeting and presentations with JA Clark Trust (KK funder since 10 years) in London, the trustees became trusting in the work and agreed to continue funding for another 3 years." Gullalai believes that these opportunities would not have been readily available if she was not given the opportunity to join the Protective Fellowship Scheme.

Gullalai values her time spent on the programme and acknowledges that it has completely changed the way she views her own capabilities, it has reinvigorated her commitment to her work and provided her with the confidence to take on a stronger capacity building role in KK. "Personally I think that I am quite more articulate than I was. Not just in writing but also in talking. It has cleared my thought process. I have met so many people, had exposure, time away gave time to reflect on my work, it has refined my work." She also states that by working in the diverse environment that the Fellowship facilitates she was able to open her horizons to new ways of thought, cultures and practices. Exposure to a wide and diverse array of human rights advocates who shared similar experiences with Gullalai made her "feel connected: you are not alone, there are people who do the same kind of thing in much worse circumstances, … others are also struggling, they give you the courage to struggle. Diversity is a duty in the fellowship." As a result she represents yet another one of the Protective Fellowship Scheme's success stories and acts as an inspiration to others hoping to follow in her footsteps.

Gullalai was interviewed by CAHR staff in August 2015.