Tanzila Khan

Quotes

• “I don’t like sob stories or tragedies,” said Khan, who is a disability and women’s rights campaigner in Pakistan. “I’m not saying they don’t exist – we can all face adversity – but I think we need a more positive approach to solving problems. I wanted to present people with disabilities in a more positive way.”
• ““When I looked at the world, I didn’t see a space for myself. Not in TV series, not when I read a book … there was nobody who represented people with disabilities. I decided, ‘I’m going to create that space.’””
• “I feel we need to bring Pakistani or South Asian perspective to these platforms because western ideas get more space. This doesn’t mean that women in other countries are not suffering rather many a time they may not be aware of the different platforms where they can raise their voice. Through representation, we can remove confusions about our part of the world as well as call out any organisations which exploit Pakistan for their own gain by constantly painting it as a site of pity.””
• “As soon as you start moving around the world, you face challenges. It’s difficult to find a school or a university that is wheelchair-friendly and has an elevator, so I had to pick the institution first, then my degree. Being yourself, out in the world, is the greatest accomplishment,””
• “When we talk about Pakistan, it’s one country but there is a lot of diversity,” Khan said. “There are a lot of women who are empowered and have agency – but in the same country, you can find women who have never left the house or gone to school, so there are challenges across those diversities. For many women who work and go to the office, companies don’t have access to menstrual care, so what does she have to do? She has to quit the meeting,” she said. “It creates a barrier.””
• “I run Girlythings, a service that delivers menstrual health products to women across Pakistan. I am the writer, producer and actor behind Pakistan’s first short comedy on disability called Fruit Chaat. I’m also a public speaker and do many other ventures on disability and empowerment.””

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