Khushi Kabir

I was very honoured to receive an invitation from Maqsooda Solangi to write a few words on the occasion of Aurat Foundation’s fortieth anniversary. I am Khushi Kabir from Dhaka, Bangladesh, writing here as Advisor to Sangat, a South Asian feminist network, a legacy left behind by the feisty quintessential South Asian, Kamla Bhasin, a dear friend to Aurat Foundation.

It is through Kamla, our very dear friend & comrade, that I met both Nigar Ahmad and Shahla Zia, the founders of Aurat Foundation, at a training workshop in Bhit Shah. In 1992, prior to the Rio Earth Summit, UNIFEM through Chandni Joshi, invited me to attend a South Asian Peasant Women’s Summit in Lahore. Aurat Foundation was, as I remember, the main organiser. I was thrilled to see in the preview of the book that Aurat Foundation intends to publish, pictures from that event and even one with me in it.

Nigar & I were also members of Kamla’s Advisory Group of the FFHC/AD programme of FAO. It was during these meetings that I learnt more about Aurat Foundation and the amazing work that it was doing. Sangat was formed in 1998 and once the FAO programme ended, Kamla’s programmes and linkages continued through Sangat. Anis Haroon, the current Chairperson of Aurat Foundation, was earlier a Core Group member of Sangat.

Kamla handed over to me the mantle of leading Sangat in 2022, just before she left us and her body. Sangat as the most active feminist network in South Asia, is what it is because of the inputs that it received from organisations like Aurat Foundation and its leaders. Sangat continues to value the links and the learning it receives from such organisations. We wish Aurat Foundation all the best for the coming years and look forward to all nations within our region learning and sharing more from and with each other. South Asia needs this more than ever now.

Congratulations & my very best wishes to Aurat Foundation on their 40th Anniversary. Wishing them more success & strength for the future.