8 minute read
MEN’S CORNER
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT –WHY THE RIGHT HAS TO BE GIVEN… IT’S THEIR RIGHT TO OWN.
Atique Muhammad Ajmal
Advertisement
CEO / Lead Excellence Advisor
Zainab Salbi
(founder of Women for Women International)
When I read these lines, I paused my thoughts and went back in time, clearly seeing the 3 images in my mind. These women I had the pleasure and honor of interacting and spending time with, learning their wisdom and prudence. One led a family of 40+ in her in-laws, while the other was the mother of 4 from her husbands’ previous wife and the 3rd was the one I called “Walida”.
Baji means elder sister in Urdu/Hindi, this is how she was mostly addressed by many in the family. Baji was the wife of 4th son of the house with one younger brother in law & Six sisters in law. Her responsibilities were never defined or even assigned by anyone, they were understood by default. The character was so strong that everyone looked up to her, approached her, and brought all the unresolved matters to her round the clock. Baji was the only one in the family that could create an atmosphere of understanding and compromise between the north & south of the family. I have witnessed in my olden days, her playing an anchor role in very bitter family disputes and putting her repute in the firing range.
Khala is the aunt (mother’s sister), that’s how was she addressed by the children of the previous wife of her husband. It is customary in the parts of India & Pakistan that the second wife is obligated to care for any children of her husband. In some cases, it could be one or two, but in Khala’s case they were 4 and the youngest was only a couple of years old. The real test begins when you have your children and need to maintain balance & love among all the children alike. Khala managed her duties and role to the best of her ability and made some rules of her own.
Walida respectably is the mother, and we were six of her own. Her only purpose in life was to ensure that we were provisioned with good education and instilled in the best of manners. She dedicated her life to the pursuit of this goal her entire life. Her main hurdle was the stereotypical mindset of our societies that good education gets you good jobs and good earning, which was not her concern. She always made us understand that education is for you to understand between right & wrong and your values will live beyond you with people and in memories of who you interact with.
It is very easy for us to get inspired by the celebrities and superstars and the fame of wealth and so on…. But I believe that we all have examples around us that reflect the successes in society and they are authentic
and powerful enough for us to connect with. My respect for women across the globe is with my life. experiences and learnings from these three best women in my life. I learned how to be cooperative and manage an environment with forty plus people diplomatically and honestly. I learned how a woman can sacrifice her wish to bear children so that she can be just and fair with someone else’s children and nurtured them till they all were settled & married. And finally how it is so important for a woman to instill values & ethics in her children for a better future and a decent society.
If these are not examples of women empowerment, I am not sure which part of the world you would find women with wisdom, sincerity, and futuristic approach. We have hundreds and millions of such women around us that inspire us in their way, may it be domestic, workplaces, institutions, or corporate… the list is endless. We do not have any right to claim that Empowerment should be given to them… It’s their right by default and has been designed for such powerful roles in societies.
The social set up around us has become so naive to recognize the great women the history produced like Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale,
Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, Martina
Bergman-Österberg, and many more. If we have policies & initiatives like UAE to have an equal pay law shall set some standards in the times to come to combat & conquer the fear. Unless & until we have changed our inner self and not a superficial surface coating of Fairness and equality slogan.
I will conclude by simply mentioning the following, Women are empowered within and do not require permission or guidance from anyone.
vides .” – Millycent Mashele Email: ceo@advantixprocess.com Mobile: +971 50 653 8256 Email: ceo@advantixprocess.com Mobile: +971 50 653 8256
Advantix Process Quality Consultants 1301, Burlington Tower, Business Bay, P. O. Box 32040, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 249 8601 Email: info@advantixprocess.com www.advantixprocess.com
AUDREY ABAKAH
Head, SME, Agency Banking and Partnership - Absa Bank, Ghana
Audrey Abakah has rich experience in the financial services industry with over 16 years working relationship with Barclays bank now Absa and currently the Head of SME, Agency banking and Partnership at Vice president level. Her leadership has transformed a previously non-performing business into thriving business segment winning the best SME bank in Ghana in 2019, 2020, 2021 by the Sustainability and Social investment Award.
She was recently awarded two citations to her honour as the Best SME personality of the year 2021 and the Best Financial Inclusion personality of the year 2021 at the 8th Edition of the African Women in Banking and Finance Awards. During the Covid year, she conceptualized and led the process to develop and launch Absa group’s first women banking proposition called EMERGE to meet the unique financial needs of women and to drive financial inclusivity among women entrepreneurs. She also led the process to strategically partner with Mastercard Foundation to financially support 5,000 SMEs especially women within 5 years while providing capacity building opportunities for them to sustainably grow their businesses. She is currently the president of Absa women network forum championing gender inclusivity and women career advancement.
Prior to this role, she served as the Head of Service Excellence and was a member of the bank’s Country Management Team for 4 years. She extensively championed customer service transformation to significantly improve the service experience across the banks’ touch points. Her extensive work brought about process changes, adherence to service standards and improved complaint management process. She has led at senior level for over 14 years leading LINBIZ GLOBAL | PAGE - 23
eight different teams. Audrey started her career as a contract staff in 2004 and through diligence progressed to become an Assistant Vice President in three years serving in the capacity as a Senior sales manager and overseeing over 300 sales managers and executives. She also led 13 sales centres looking after the sales operational activities of over 350 sales force.
In 2009, she worked as premier relationship manager for 4 months and moved on to manage one of the largest branches where she became the vision ambassador for Barclays Africa.
Her outstanding performance and contribution to the community caught the attention of Barclays global leadership who invited her to share her achievement story with over 100 global leaders in Barcelona in 2010. In 2013, Audrey was one of the proud winners of the first CEOs award winners held in Johannesburg under the sponsorship of Maria Ramos.
Having successfully led 3 branches, she moved on to head prestige banking in 2014 and in that same year, was appointed the Head of Service excellence (VP) where she served at management level for 4 years.
She was part of Absa’s chosen 500 leaders who participated in the strategic process to transition from Barclays to Absa. She was Absa’s strategic communication champion and facilitated Absa’s biggest change engagement sessions in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.
AUDREY’S PERSONAL PROFILE
» She is a motivational and conference speaker and has been featured as speaker on several women conferences, workshops and trainings. » She has served as a mentor for over 10 years to many women within her organisation and several schools » She is a leadership training facilitator and has extensively trained and developed several leaders in the bank and several institutions. » She founded Dreamers Leadership club foundation and out of her personal resources, trained and developed over 200 University students » She is the president of the women ministry in her local church. She supports her husband to pastor over 600 church congregation. » She is a co-founder of Institute of business transformation a cutting-edge digital business consultancy firm and serves as the Commercial and Business development director. » She is the board chair of Rehoboth foundation which for the past 10 years has provided community health services to 1000s of elderly people, skills training to emerging young leaders, and built social amenities like boreholes for several communities. » She has been a jury member of the Strive Masiyiwa Gogettez award 2019 and Gender mainstreaming awards
Africa 2021. » She is a Chartered marketer from CIM UK, holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Ghana, A fellow of UCLA/
Santander W50 2017 Cohort USA. » She is married to a Reverend Minister and blessed with 4 beautiful children.
