Zubeida Mustafa

Last updated

Zubeida Mustafa
Born1941 (age 82–83)
British India
Nationality Pakistani
Occupationfreelance journalist
AwardsLifetime Achievement Award by the International Women's Media Foundation in 2012
* Women Leaders Award in 2020 by the President of Pakistan
* Global Media Award for Journalistic Excellence by the Population Institute in Washington D.C. for her research in population control (1986 and 2004)

Zubeida Mustafa (born 1941) [1] is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. She became one of the first woman to work in the country's mainstream media, when she joined the Dawn newspaper in 1975. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in British India, Zubeida Mustafa moved to Pakistan with her family after independence of Pakistan. She is married and has two daughters. [2]

Education

Zubeida Mustafa completed her BA and then her MA in International Relations from the University of Karachi. [1] She also studied at the London School of Economics under a Commonwealth Scholarship. [2]

Career

Zubeida Mustafa joined the Dawn newspaper's staff, Pakistan's leading English language daily in July 1975 as assistant editor. [1] [2] She was the only woman at Dawn at a senior level position who also was the first woman writer in the mainstream media in Pakistan. During that time, she used her gender to her advantage and covered women's issues stories concerning health and human rights. She used her perspective as a woman to write editorials promoting international peace and pleading for social justice. [2]

As a female journalist, Mustafa has stated that the injustices Pakistani women suffer "touches her deeply". According to a 2012 Newsline magazine profile, she mentions how important it is for women to seize the opportunities given to them. Though women's issues was her main beat, she also focused on education, human empowerment, health and population. She has stated that focusing on education was important since the root of problems in Pakistan was the country's failure to educate its citizens, especially to have awareness of health issues. [2]

According to Newsline (magazine), Zubeida Mustafa considers longtime editor of Dawn newspaper, Ahmed Ali Khan, her mentor who taught her how to "bottle a river in a tumbler (darya ko koozay mein band karna) and how to look at a problem from the people's point of view and to never be unfair in one's writing". [2]

In 1986, Zubeida Mustafa was awarded the Global Media Award for Excellence by The Population Institute in Washington D.C. for her research and writings on population control in Pakistan. [1] [2]

In 2012, Mustafa was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Women's Media Foundation for her news coverage on women's issues, politics, education, health and culture. [3] [2] In 2013, the Women Media Center awarded her for her contributions to journalism in Pakistan. [4]

Zubeida Mustafa is not very fond of the current or past Pakistani political leaders. According to her interview to Newsline magazine in 2012, she observed that we have "a bunch of power-hungry leaders who are not statesmen by any yardstick. They are selfish, corrupt and ignorant. They have no strategy to resolve the current crisis nor do they want to". [2]

Zubeida Mustafa retired from her job as a journalist after 33 years of service in 2009 due to some personal health issues. In 2012, she is still facing some health issues including her failing eyesight. As of 2020, she continues to write her newspaper columns as a freelance journalist. [5] [6] [3]

Dawn Media Group has set up an award for women journalists in her name, the Zubeida Mustafa Award for Journalistic Excellence. [7] [3]

Awards and recognition

Books

Related Research Articles

Muneeza Shamsie is a Pakistani writer, critic, literary journalist, bibliographer and editor. She is the author of a literary history Hybrid Tapestries: The Development of Pakistani English Literature and is the Bibliographic Representative of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature .

Zubeida Agha was among the first Pakistani Modern Artists. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, she was the first artist to hold an exhibition of her paintings. She helped bring the modern idiom to Pakistan.

<i>Bol</i> (film) 2011 film by Shoaib Mansoor

Bol is a 2011 Pakistani Urdu language social drama film written, directed and produced by Shoaib Mansoor. The film stars Humaima Malik, Atif Aslam, Mahira Khan, Iman Ali, Shafqat Cheema, Amr Kashmiri, Manzar Sehbai, and Zaib Rehman in the lead roles. The film marks the debut of singer Atif Aslam and Mahira Khan. It concerns a religious Muslim family facing financial difficulties caused by too many children and changing times, with a major plot involving the father's desire to have a son and his rejection of his existing intersex child. Bol was a critical and commercial success and became one of the highest-grossing Pakistani films of all time.

The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Karachi whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs.

Ghazi Salahuddin, is a Pakistani journalist, writer, literary figure, and the scholar of political science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Women's Media Foundation</span> Organization for womens rights

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions to the obstacles they face in their careers and lives. The IWMF's work includes a wide range of programs including international reporting fellowships in Africa and Latin America and providing grant opportunities for women journalists, research into the status of women in the media, and the Courage in Journalism, Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The IWMF advocates for press freedom internationally and often forms petitions asking international governments to release journalists in captivity and offer protection to journalists in danger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in journalism</span>

Women in journalism are individuals who participate in journalism. As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analysts and journalists even before the 1890s in some countries as far back as the 18th-century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gao Yu (journalist)</span> Chinese journalist and dissident (born 1944)

Gao Yu is a Chinese journalist and dissident who has been repeatedly imprisoned.

<i>Newsline</i> (magazine) Pakistani magazine

Newsline was a Pakistani monthly English current affairs and political magazine owned by Hum Network. It was published from 1989 to 2019 in Karachi, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynsey Addario</span> American photojournalist (born 1973)

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist. Her work often focuses on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies. In 2022, she received a Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigar Nazar</span>

Nigar Nazar is a Pakistani female cartoonist. Her best-known character, Gogi, is an urban Pakistani woman struggling with her frailties in the context of sexist social norms. The character was created to educate people about social and educational advocacy problems. She is the chief executive officer of Gogi Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hum Network</span> Pakistani television network

Hum Network Limited or Hum TV Network Limited is a Pakistani media company based in Karachi, Pakistan. It was established in February 2004 by Sultana Siddiqui.

Samina Peerzada is a Pakistani film and television actress, producer and director.

Najma Sadeque from Pakistan was a leading woman journalist, author, human rights activist, particularly of women's rights, an artist, an environmentalist, and a painter. She also did research on socioeconomic issues and authored many books and wrote articles. She co-founded Shirkat Gah in 1975, a women's NGO to highlight human rights violations against women. She also co-founded the Women’s Action Forum (WAF), Pakistan.

Munizae Jahangir is a Pakistani television journalist and filmmaker who currently hosts the current affairs program Spotlight on Aaj TV.

Aishah Hasnie is an American-Pakistani television journalist and congressional correspondent for The Fox News Channel based in Washington, D.C..

Zohra Yusuf is an advertising professional, an activist and a journalist who is lauded for her work in women's rights, human rights and media. She is the former Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Afia Salam is a Pakistani journalist and a media development specialist by profession. She is known for being the first female cricket journalist in Pakistan. She has also remained a member of Pakistan's first batch of air traffic controllers and a member of The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ).

Zofreen T. Ebrahim is an independent freelance journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan. She was an editor of the magazine, Woman's Own and is the current editor for The Third Pole; a platform dedicated to promoting information about the Himalayan watershed and the rivers that originate there.

Ahmad Ali Khan was a veteran Pakistani journalist who was also the editor of Dawn newspaper for 28 years.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Profile of Zubeida Mustafa". International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) website. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rukhsana Mashhadi (June 2012). "Profile: Zubeida Mustafa". Newsline (magazine). Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Kelly Kavanaugh (26 March 2013). "Introducing the Zubeida Mustafa Award for Journalistic Excellence". International Women's Media Foundation website. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Journalists should follow ethics at all costs: Zubaida". The Nation (newspaper). 27 February 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Rem Rieder (23 June 2014). "Rieder: A global platform for bold journalists". USA TODAY (newspaper). Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  6. 1 2 Iqra Sarfaraz (25 March 2020). "CELEBRATING first Women Leaders Awards". The News International (newspaper). Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Muneeza Shamsie (14 March 2018). "Interview: Zubeida Mustafa". Newsline (magazine). Retrieved 7 June 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.