From Boulder to Nashville~

There were traces of energetic, unreasonableyoung people who would have thrown stuff, nibbled on their pens while thinking, click clacked some thing in their hands while talking to each other, played board games, would have danced around and might have accidentally knocked down glasses of water, and would have moved around
the seats with impatient energy and excitement of a youth-at-heart  soul... I could see them all without their being visible.... scanning through the empty dinning hall and trying to swallow serial with sleepy eyes, I for the  first time regretted leaving the unreasonable mansion today......

It was yet dawn of the day while all the wonderful fellows of the UnreasonableInstitute were deep in their slumber... but their existence in this silence was very precise and the fact that each part of the house I  moved to, I would see Daniel smiling, Trina talking to someone, Jehan  dancing in his own thoughts, Rafael deep in thoughts, Jasmine, Shabnam, Maria and all others right there.... It almost reminded me of the time we would all be leaving back to our homes and only our sounds in the silence would stay here for those who remember us... I couldn't help feeling sad even though its just for 3 days.

It all began a few days ago, when I heard from The Climate Project (TCP), that  they want me in their "Our Choice" training in Nashville, Tennessee with Hon Al Gore, as one of his presenters from Pakistan. Nashville?  Tennessee?! some names I thought... and kept pronouncing them wrong  until someone told me the right pronunciation. The word spread through  the Institute like fire and almost every single one of them asked me the reason of contrast with the issues that I work on, Fighting "honor"  killings of women, Violence against Women, Gender Discrimination and then again Climate Change?

My thoughts would then wander back to women in Balochistan, Sindh or any where living under  social restrictions and vulnerable to domestic violence and tribal laws  and yet again vulnerable to the severely changing weather patterns.The  already stated role of women as nobody's and "property" of men, have  snatched away the role of decision making from them which in the end in  any circumstance leaves them entirely exposed to conditions most  effecting their mental, physical health as well as their lives.


Women who make almost more then the majority are considered a minority when it comes to providing essential services, especially women in rural areas in developing countries like Pakistan are more likely to be effected by Climate Change since they rely mainly on the traditional forms of livelihood and natural resources. The growing effects of Climate Change have left women in rural areas of Pakistan malnourished and highly anemic as they are married of in  younger age, effected by skin and lung cancer with the growing  pollution, exposed to severe conditions of heat and cold while working tirelessly in fields and around house, with lack of nutrition due to feeding male and children first, and most importantly vulnerable to poverty with no ownership rights.


I don't see Climate Change as something only related to damaging our environment, it is a damage to  our most powerful asset, which is women and girls and having this in mind we know the urgency of tackling the problem of Climate Change...


And thus, I had to leave Unreasonable Institute for three days, saying goodbye to Boulder, Colorado I am here today representing Balochistan, Pakistan, in Nashville, Tennessee for The Climate Project's (TCP's) "Our Choice" training with Al Gore which unbelievably have  brought together almost 700 people from around the world to train as presenters back in their countries............looks like we are holding it right against Climate Crises :-)