Emerging Leaders: Shaziya Shaikh

Safecity is celebrating the journey of people who have emerged as leaders as our campaigns progressed in their communities through our blog series “Safecity Emerging Leaders“. Read the inspiring stories of these individuals who are passionate about making their neighbourhoods safer with Safecity and have taken action in their own special ways.

Shaziya Shaikh is a media student aspiring to be a journalist. She believes gaining knowledge and being a better human is a continuous life process. Music, coffee, reading, and writing, sums up her life. Juggling between fiction and reality, she knows she has to fight for herself and speak for the ones who can’t.

Safecity Emerging Leader : Shaziya Shaikh

I am Shaziya Shaikh, I’m a 20-year-old media student aspiring to be a journalist. I read books and I read news, trying to balance fiction and reality. I am finding out about myself and the society, the troubles and the solutions and I’ve found feminism to be the safest and progressive style of surviving.

I went to a seminar on sexual harassment in college by Safecity a year ago. I had no lectures that day, but had to drop by for some urgent work. Luckily, I was informed about the seminar right before I walked out of the college gate. The seminar ended up as one of the best decisions I’ve taken. The seminar was full of life and rather informative on the legal aspects related to sex crimes.

Throughout the seminar I felt empowered, I was made cognizant of the ways I could help myself to make out of uncomfortable positions, how to handle them and when to get my parents and the police involved if called for.

Elsa’s story inspired me to contribute to the crusade initiated by her and the Safecity’s team. I desired to educate myself about the battles of every woman trying to be self-governing. All the times that I had experienced eve-teasing and stalking, I wanted to let other women know and thus be more alert and ready to fight for themselves. The blogging internship offer was an invite to all the knowledge and a platform for my voice.

While interning with Safecity, I have had the opportunity to write blogs about abortion rights, marital rape, Sustainable Development Goals, safety of teenagers and children using public transport and a few more. Along with blogging, I’ve curated Safecity’s twitter handle too.

Writing blogs for Safecity involved a lot of research work, so my research skills have improved. Blogging with Safecity has improved a lot of my technical writing skills, but the most important of all is that it opened up a world of liberal and progressive thinking for me, it introduced me to strong women fighting for their rights. I have learned to raise my voice when needed and also offer a helping hand if need be.

Safecity has helped me to grow, to be confident and speak my mind without the fear of being judged. It has helped me to break the stereotypes around being a girl and a Muslim girl. Throughout my time with Safecity, I have been provided with opportunities to have my opinion heard and shared my knowledge, I have been gently pushed forward to take up responsibilities and always supported.

I am proud to be a feminist today and I have Safecity to thank for it.

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