LCWU STARTS GENDER STUDIES COURSE TO LAUCH FM STATION

May 24, 2004 - (Daily News) Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) hopes to strike a blow for gender equality with its new course in gender and development studies and by starting Pakistan’s first FM radio station run by women.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has also approved an FM radio channel for Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Rawalpindi, but the LCWU aims to start its channel first, sometime next year, said Dr Bushra Mateen, LCWU vice chancellor.

“Hopefully this will be the first radio station in Pakistan run exclusively by women. We have not yet been given a frequency. It’s a Higher Education Commission project for which the PC-I has been submitted. It should cost about Rs 3.5 million.”

Dr Mateen said the channel would focus on documentaries and talks shows about social and economic issues. “LCWU activities will also be highlighted and programmes in connection with the GDS course will be especially focused on.”

“We have started the first batch of GDS Bachelor of Honours (four years) and Masters (two years) courses with a limited number of students,” Dr Mateen said. “It is a multi-disciplinary course that does not focus solely on women, as women’s problems do not exist in isolation. That is why we have focused on gender development.”

She said the course is being taught by qualified teachers and a Canadian professor is expected to join the university soon.

The course is meant to make girls aware of their rights. “We feel that women should be economically independent and this gender sensitisation through education will be the first step towards it.”

Dr Mateen said they had been helped in organising the course by the experience of holding a workshop on gender issues in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Punjab Textbook Board.

“The aim of the workshop was to discuss the Dakar Goals for gender development and Millennium Development Goals to address gender issues in education. The workshop aimed to sensitise curriculum developers, textbook writers, teachers, teacher trainers and subject experts in gender issues. It helped the university identify gender disparity at issues,” she said.

The issue of gender sensitisation is very important in this growing and changing world where we need a new outlook as the first step towards providing enhanced and equitable opportunities for female professionals at all levels. Women represent half of the world’s population. The female population of the subcontinent is 55 percent, but the state of affairs is not happy.”

She said women in Pakistan were “a marginalised group deprived of even the consciousness of their own rights in a male-dominated society. Women are denied opportunities of equal growth and development.”
Dr Mateen said Pakistani society traditionally conferred more status and freedom to man. “Sensitisation to this reality and ways of alleviating it are of primary consideration. This calls for raising awareness of both men and women. Women need to be treated as human beings first. Women’s rights are human rights. Men need to be re-educated so they can unlearn gender stereotypes.”

She said the LCWU also taught market-oriented subjects like computer sciences, environmental sciences, electronics, mathematics, statistics, business studies, pharmacy and graphic design. “In this we are trying to train women to be able to become economically independent.”

In Pakistan, she said, gender disparity was reflected in the limited roles and responsibilities available to women. The younger generation needed to be “made aware of why something is, what it is, and how to change it”. She said Article 34 of the Constitution calls for women’s full participation in all spheres of life.
About the development projects of the LCWU, Dr Mateen said a postgraduate block was recently built and construction of a new academic block had begun.

During the discussion with Daily Times, Dr Mateen was accompanied by Nadra S Naeem, director of the Gender Development Centre, and Anjum Zia, chairperson of the Mass Communication Department.

From: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-5-2005_pg7_12