Mahira Miyanji

Mahira Miyanji is a social advocate who promotes women’s empowerment and girl’s education. In 2013, she established the girls at a time Woman is Nation Welfare Organisation – a platform that provides free education for 125 through a system of 12 volunteers. So far, 2500 girls in Lyari, Karachi have benefited from the programme.

Families with the option to educate their children often choose boys to go to school rather than girls.  Mahira’s organisation created a school for girls and women to attend free of charge and has been working with local and national politicians to standardise free education for girls. Mahira has gained regional and global gravitas; she participated in the Emerging Young Women Congress Fellowship programme with the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies in 2015, and in 2017, she represented Pakistan at the ‘Beyond Girls Education Global Summit’.  In 2015 and in 2016, Mahira received the Lyari Youth Icon Award from the Karachi Youth Initiative. In 2016, Mahira also received the I Am Karachi Award for her work in education for girls and women.