Women, Education and Pakistan: A Conversation with Qaisra Shahraz followed by A Conversation with Khwendo Kor staff

Qaisra Shahraz MBE is a British-Pakistani critically acclaimed novelist, scriptwriter and an award-winning peace and gender activist.  She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, founder and executive director of MACFESTUK (the renowned Muslim Arts and Culture Festival) and of Muslim Women’s Arts Foundation. She has won several awards including in 2016 the prestigious National Diversity Lifetime Achiever Award for “Services to Literature, Education, Gender and Interfaith Activism”, University of Salford Alumni Award and a Queen’s Honour, MBE for “Services to Gender Equality and Cultural Learning”.

Her novels, The Holy Woman, Typhoon and Revolt are translated into several languages including in Mandarin. Her The Concubine and the Slave-Catcher: And Other Stories from Around the World was published in September 2017 with Hope Road Publishing. She has appeared in many international writers’ festivals and book fairs and her work is being studied in schools and universities.

Qaisra Shahraz has enjoyed another successful career in education as a former Ofsted inspector, a quality manager, consultant and teacher trainer. She has devoted her energies to interfaith work and community cohesion via various charities, i.e. Faith Network for Manchester and We Stand Together.  And continues to promote messages of peace and tolerance, now through MACFEST’s slogan ‘Spread Honey Not Hate’.

At this event, Qaisra will be in conversation (with Prof Claire Chambers, University of York and FROK Trustee) on three subjects close to her heart: women, education and Pakistan. They will also talk about her body of writing, which Claire has long admired and written about. The “in conversation” discussion will followed by an audience Q&A.

In the event’s second half, staff members from Khwendo Kor will talk about their work on the ground with women and their communities in northwest Pakistan and answer any questions.  Khwendo Kor’s work has at its core their vision of ‘A compassionate society where women and girls live with dignity and self-reliance’ (www.khwendokor.org).