Webdesk: On Nida Yasir’s Ramazan transmission, veteran broadcaster and radio jockey Ishrat Fatima said she believes every successful woman, especially in her area, had a man behind her supporting and making her.
Nida Yasir invited veteran newsreaders Ghazala Yasmeen and Fatima to a special Ramazan broadcast this week. Saba Faisal and Sadaf Abdul Jabbar also participated.
Fatima observed that all the guests had a father, brother, or husband who supported them to follow their interest.
“All four of us agree that a man—father, sibling, or grandfather—is responsible for our accomplishment. My grandfather taught me pronunciation by sitting with a newspaper. He made me rehearse, and then my father granted me permission to follow this subject. It was a major matter during those times,” she said. My mother, a schoolteacher, even asked me not to tell people that a male makeup artist does my hair and makeup. She asked me to lie and say women do it because our society is like that.”
She also said that her sister travelling alone as an unmarried woman was a problem, but her husband’s voice shut the relatives up. “One of my sisters works with Voice of America, but she went to the US single. Everyone said she couldn’t go. ‘Shaadi nahi huwi kaise jayegi voh? (How can she go without marrying someone here)’ So I implored my husband to understand that marriage shouldn’t confine her, especially when there’s an opportunity on the door, and that he shouldn’t say what everyone is saying. “Saqib asked my parents to let my sister go,” Fatima said.
She said, “What I’m trying to say is that behind all of us, behind all of your triumphs, there’s a man,” and everyone agreed that they wouldn’t be where they are without male support.