Meerzadi, driving her rickshaw

Meerzadi is a 24 year old woman from Pakistan. I call her on her phone while she is at her home in Moak Sharif, a small village in Sindh, Pakistan. She happily greets me on the phone. There’s enthusiasm and energy in her voice. Meerzadi comes from a poor family in Sindh. Her motivation to break the shackles of poverty forced her to follow a way of life that is not so common among women in her area.Meerzadi is the sole bread earner of her family. She supports her old parents, her sister with her three kids who is also living with her after she separated from her husband and her two brothers, one of whom is suffering from  Hepatitis C.

Meerzadi, making a stove

Meerzadi’s enterprising character was noticed by the Heritage foundation one day when she accompanied her brother to a workshop that had been organized by them. At the workshop she quickly learned how to make environment-friendly stoves and impressed the staff.

The organizers began giving her new orders for stoves for people from nearby villages. Meerzadi started making these stoves by charging only 100 Pakistani Rupees or one dollar for one stove. Meerzadi however found it difficult to deliver stoves to faraway villages. Impressed by her enthusiasm, the Heritage Foundation gave her a rickshaw as a gift.

Naeem Shah, the project manager of the Heritage Foundation who has closely worked with Meerzadi says, “Whatever task we had given her she completed it. She proved that she is capable. When we asked her whether she could drive a rickshaw, she was confident that she could.”

Meerzadi is now a rickshaw owner and drives it in one of the most conservative provinces in Pakistan. She is now able to reach several villages quickly to make stoves and she also trains other women. There are people of different faiths living here says Naeem Shah, “There are Muslims, Hindus, Kolis and people of other faiths but just like a doctor she doesn’t care as to who needs her services. She just goes and help them.”

Meerzadi selling sweets at a small grocery store in her home.

While travelling she also transports passengers and earns a little extra money, “My family members and some relatives were against me driving the rickshaw, but when I started earning money they stopped criticising me,” she says.  Making stoves and driving the rickshaw is not the only work she does, Meerzadi is the proud owner of a small grocery store at her house where she and her older sister sell sweets for children. To run her business and work effectively, she needs to be good at arithmetic. Meerzadi does not allow any weakness to come her way and that’s why she has enrolled for basic English and arithmetic classes at the Heritage Foundation.

When I asked Meerzadi how men treated her, she responded by saying that no one objects to what she is doing. “People around me are happy and proud of me. I feel comfortable going to people’s homes.” According to Naeem Shah, “People are more comfortable with a woman coming to their homes for making the stoves. She is also very quick at her job.” Meerzadi wants other women to follow her path,” When I see poor women, I tell them that they should learn some skills, at least learn to make stoves from me so that they can start earning some money”.

Her sudden fame in the area she lives and her confidence has attracted some male members of the community who want to marry her but ambitious Meerzadi is in no mood to marry. “I have seen my sister. Her husband left her, I don’t want to marry, I am happy with the life I am living”. She says.

Author: Beenish Javed

Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan

Beenish Javed is a reporter working for ARY News, Islamabad. She has been awarded a two-month long fellowship by the Friedrich Ebert foundation (FES) in Germany and is currently in DW, Bonn. You can follow Beenish on Twitter @Beenishjaved.