KARACHI:Minister for Women Development Sindh, Syeda Shehla Raza, said on Wednesday that the societies that respect women’s rights and empower them are less prone to extremism, and for sustainable peacebuilding and social cohesion, women’s empowerment is important.

This was stated by Shehla while speaking at a festival at Scouts Auditorium of Sindh Boys Scout Association in Karachi. Legal Rights Forum (LRF) is implementing a project on “Empowering Women as Agents of Peace” in Karachi in collaboration with Women Development Department. The project involves capacity building through a series of training workshops for women community of Karachi.

LRF organized the concluding session of the two-day festival in which community women showcased their learnings, crafts and skills to the government officials, MPAs and other stakeholders at the event.

Shehla appreciated LRF for its continued struggle for women’s social, economic and legal empowerment in collaboration with Women Development Department (WDD) Sindh. She agreed that empowered women could play leadership role in society and could counter many forms of violent extremism in the society.

She visited stalls set up by the women trained in various skills and displaying their products. She was much impressed by the women doing work at different stalls and displaying their crafts/skills. She encouraged them to keep up good work, bring more innovation and build a progressive model of business.

Shehla asked them that the WDD would provide them more opportunities to market their products at provincial, national and international level if they innovate and progress their business. Tahir Iqbal, CEO LRF, welcomed participants and appreciated the attendance of diverse stakeholders to show solidarity with empowerment of women and to encourage community women beneficiaries of the project.

Tahir Hasnain Shah, Senior Program manager of LRF, introduced the project and presented its details through a power-point presentation. Secretary, WDD, Ms Anjum Iqbal, also addressed the participants.