Dance
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2010
- Messages
- 4,850
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Entrepreneurs
Nasreen Kasuri
Started a kindergarten group at her in-laws’ home in the ’70s. Today, her sprawling education empire has an impressive 211,323 full-time students, the Beaconhouse National University, and schools in eight other countries.
Sajida Zulfiqar Khan
Founded Pearl Furniture in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2003 after her husband’s death. Her company now exports to the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
Zeenat Saeed Ahmed
Set up Taneez, in 2000, which is now one of Pakistan’s premier makers of home accessories. Ahmed’s thriving business has also helped preserve traditional silverware-making techniques. She has five stores in Pakistan and two in Canada.
Roshaneh Zafar
The granddaughter of singer Malika Pukhraj and daughter of Sen. S. M. Zafar quit Wall Street to start the Kashf Foundation in 1995. Zafar, 42, has been hailed by Forbes and President Obama for her Grameen-inspired microfinance initiatives.
Ambarine Bukharey
She is Pakistan’s first woman gemologist and was the country’s first ambassador to the International Color Gemstone Association. She’s worked with USAID to brand Pakistani gemstones and professionalize the mining industry. Her Menika Mines is currently operating in Skardu.
Social Workers
Mukhtar Mai
A Pakistani icon who turned her personal tragedy—her gang-rape in 2002—into an untiring campaign for justice and education. She has set up the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Organization and schools in her village, Meerwala. Now married and a mother, Mai’s appeal against the release of her alleged rapists remains pending with the Supreme Court.
Nilofer Saeed
Director of The Citizens Foundation, a nongovernmental organization running some 730 purpose-built schools nationwide with an enrollment of 102,000 students.
Masarrat Misbah
Set up the Depilex Smile Again Foundation in 2003 to help female survivors of acid and kerosene attacks in Pakistan. Misbah’s organization supports survivors with reconstructive surgery and vocational training.
Laila Nusrat
Chairperson of the Bali Memorial Trust, a nonprofit she founded in 1998 for the development and welfare of the underprivileged through health, education and microfinance programs.
Sarah Belal
Lawyer and director at the Justice Project Pakistan, an NGO aligned with Reprieve. For the last three years, Belal has been providing legal and humanitarian assistance to Pakistani prisoners on death row. She is also a vocal critic of U.S. drone strikes and the illegal detention of Pakistanis at American facilities in Afghanistan.
Entertainers
Juggan Kazim
Actress and producer who will soon anchor the morning show on News 5.
Aamina Sheikh
Model and actress whose TV drama Mera Saeen airs in April.
Kiran Chaudhry
Lawyer turned singer whose band, Club Caramel, drops its debut album by year’s end.
Meesha Shafi
Singer and model who stars in Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Zoe Viccaji
Karachi-based chanteuse who has two new singles coming out in May.
Media Mavens
Rameeza Nizami
Managing editor and publisher at Nawa-i-Waqt Group.
Rabia Garib
Editor-in-chief of CIO Pakistan.
Munizae Jahangir
Documentary filmmaker and TV journalist.
Samina Khan
Publisher and editor-in-chief of Paper Magazine. Meher Tareen is the quarterly's executive editor and co-publisher.
Zahraa Assad Saifullah
CEO and publisher of Hello! Pakistan.
Trailblazers
• Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Arguably Pakistan’s most celebrated woman after Saving Face, her documentary with Daniel Junge, won Pakistan its first Oscar in February.
Malala Yousafzai
The 14-year-old from Swat has faced threats from the Taliban for demanding education for girls.
Namira Salim
The first Pakistani in space, and the first one to go to both the North Pole and South Pole.
Shahzadi Gulfam
Winner of the U.N.’s 2011 International Female Police Peacekeeper Award, Gulfam has been deployed with the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste since 2010. She has previously served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Zehra Ali
Founder of insulation company Ghonsla, the MIT alum also teaches salsa in Lahore.
Rising Stars
• Maryam Nawaz Sharif
The new life of the party.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari
The ambassador for polio eradication will lead the PPP one day, not her brother.
Khalida Brohi
The 23-year-old launched Sughar, an NGO striving to end honor killings, child marriages and other medieval customs in her native Balochistan.
Mira Sethi
Assistant books editor at The Wall Street Journal is one of Pakistan’s best new journalists. It runs in the family, she’s the daughter of The Friday Times’ power couple Jugnu Mohsin and Najam Sethi.
Umema Adil, 14
At 11, she became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world until Arfa Karim.
Art World Sensations
• Mehreen Rizvi-Khursheed
Heads the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art department at Bonhams.
Ayesha Jatoi
Artist and founder of Sohbet, a biannual journal of contemporary art and culture.
Seher Shah
Her mix of art and architecture has wowed around the world.
Sadia Shirazi
Architect and curator.
Aisha Khalid
Contemporary miniature painter.