Urooj Tarar

Pakistan, CAHR, Autumn 2019

I am Urooj Tarar, I’m 26 years old and hail from Pakistan. I am a journalist by profession and I cover issues related to human rights and social justice in Pakistan.

In rural society in Pakistan only two or three professions are deemed appropriate for girls; you can either be a nurse or a teacher; or if you’re feeling a little too adventurous you can be a doctor or an engineer. I grew up with that mind-set, spent a year as a student of architecture before the activist in me rebelled and I transferred to Social Sciences.

My transition into Social Sciences and then practice of journalism hasn’t been an easy one. There are cultural limitations to it; there is a stigma attached to it; and you as a female can’t do much about it but hope that things will change one day. The privilege I enjoyed, the prejudice I endured, and extreme inequality in my surroundings made me sensitive about marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society.

During my work as a journalist, I realised there isn’t much focus on issues of children rights. Therefore I started to focus more on that and did extensive reports on Juvenile Justice System in Pakistan and how juvenile delinquents are victims of the system; how issues of sexual abuse are swept under the carpet and the victims never get justice; how those who are supposed to protect the innocence are often the one snatching it away; and how there is this immense need to prioritise children’s rights and work on loopholes that exist in our legal system.

issues of sexual abuse are swept under the carpet and the victims never get justice

One of the most satisfactory moments I’ve had during my work was when I was able to make it safer for some young female students who were harassed by their teachers while the school administration kept mum about it. My most disappointing moment was when a 21-year-old was declared innocent by a court after he had already spent 11 precious years of his life in the jail. He was arrested by the police when he was only 10-years-old and came out as an adult with severe health issues.

My plans, here at York, include looking at human rights practices and how they can be used to protect child victims of abuse in Pakistan. I plan to continue my work to make this world a safer place for the coming generation, protecting one right at a time.