Empowering Young Rural Girls Through Social Reforms Literacy

Nabila Abbas is a globally recognized social activist who has been working towards achieving gender equality, quality education, and women’s empowerment since 2016. Despite facing numerous challenges such as gender stereotypes, cultural and financial constraints, and societal biases against women’s participation in social reforms, Nabila has remained dedicated to promoting gender equality and working towards empowering young girls.

As a first-generation higher education achiever in aviation management from a renowned university in Pakistan, Nabila marked her first international public appearance in 2019 at the International Congress of Youth Voices. She was the first representative from Pakistan among 130 delegates from around the world, where she spoke about the role of rural women in social, economic, and political reforms. Nabila’s personal experience of belonging to one of the remotest areas in Pakistan has given her a clear vision of the true statistics of women’s empowerment. She believes that among the 51% of women, 31% live in remote rural areas, where they have limited opportunities and access to platforms as compared to urban women. Therefore, she has been tirelessly fighting for their rights and letting them evolve into such platforms.

Apart from fighting for the basic primary education of children in rural areas where there is either no access to schools or a lack of infrastructure, Nabila has also been an active member of the Prime Minister’s National Youth Council in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. During her tenure, she worked towards mainstreaming marginalized youth across the country. Additionally, Nabila represented Pakistan at the Commonwealth Forum in 2020 and won the Diana Award 2020, which recognizes the social and humanitarian work of young social activists worldwide.

Currently, Nabila is working towards empowering young girls in rural areas through her conversational English language program, aimed at breaking language barriers and letting them empower themselves. In collaboration with the International Congress of Youth Voices under the mentorship of Ms Amanda Uhle and the Young Writing Centers, Nabila emphasizes the importance of rural girl engagement in social reforms and other activities. Through this program, rural girls can lead from the front and connect with the rest of the world by establishing language skills and engaging themselves in character and capacity-building workshops. So far, the program has passed out three batches comprising 100 plus rural girls. Nabila’s struggle to uplift rural young girls has been extraordinary.

Nabila envisions an equal world where all rural girls and women should have equal opportunities and access to social reforms and other platforms to achieve real women’s empowerment. Her program serves as a true community leadership example, showing that together, we can achieve anything, even the seemingly impossible.

Nabila Abbas is an active member and community champion of the United People Global and follows the mentioned affiliation with these organizations; International Congress of Youth Voices, Prime Minister’s National Youth Council, Kectil Youth Leadership Program, Pakistan-US Alumni Network, 30 for 2030 UN Women Asia Network, Young Change Makers, Women Economic Forum.