Maira Asif
E-mail:
[email protected] –
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maira-asif-7685b3135/
Maira Asif is an alumnus of Department of Political Science and International
Relations, UMT, who graduated with a Patron’s Gold Medal and Special Medal
Award in 2016. During her time at UMT, Maira founded the MeFirst society for
advocating mental well-being on-campus as well as organized and participated in
numerous DPSIR activities and conferences as student representative. Maira’s
passion for human rights, specifically women’s rights and gender justice, was
emboldened by her personal experiences of tackling misogyny and her social justice
work with numerous youth groups in Pakistan. She organized activities and
participated in peacebuilding, human rights, and development work through
partnership with and training from numerous organizations including the Center for
Sustainability Research and Practice, Pakistan US Alumni Network, Commonwealth
Youth Dialogues, Shirkat Gah and Punjab Commission Against Violence on Women
and Human Rights Crisis Center for Women, Lahore. In 2020, she attended George
Mason University as a Global UGRAD semester exchange fellow from Pakistan. Her
training in Human Rights, Gender and Racial justice at GMU solidified her passion
for working in social justice. Building on her experiences, currently she is pursuing
her MA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Rutgers University as a
Fulbright grantee. Her research focuses on international human rights bodies,
colonial North-South interactions, gender persecution and feminist movement
building. During her MA, she has been interning at Rutgers 16 of Activism against
GBV campaign, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), and Madre, all of
whom have contributed to her practising her decolonial, feminist learnings from her
education, both institutional and from social interactions. Maira remains hopeful of
finding spaces to grow, unlearn and contribute herself to as she nears the end of her
masters by 2024. She plans to work as a human rights and peacebuilding
practitioner in women’s rights and gender justice through international networks of
social change and human development.