Samina is a vocal community activist who is always a staunch supporter of women’s rights, girls’ education and peacebuilding. She belongs to a very less developed district, Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), where women are always in a disadvantaged and vulnerable position with no access to education, justice, basic health care facilities, and livelihood opportunities. To work for women empowerment and peace building in her community, Samina has initiated various activities for women mainly home-based small businesses through agricultural activities and skills development through vocational education. In collaboration with local stakeholders, she led a series of training programs in which more than 200 women from 04 villages were trained on livelihood enhancement and skill-building. This intervention helped the women in improving their livelihood and raising their standard of living.

During her Master’s degree, Samina was actively involved with the Women Research and Resource Centre (WRRC) of the Gender Studies department at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) Rawalpindi and contributed to some research work. Given her excellent academic performance and interest in exploring new learnings, she was selected to attend a one-semester online course titled “Gender and Global Understanding” under a Global Academic Initiatives, arranged by FJWU in collaboration with the University of Mexico, University of East Carolina, and the University of Henan Polytechnic, China.
Following graduation, Samina joined the development sector and worked with various national and international organizations. In a Research Firm, while contributing to the data analysis of some projects she learnt to analyze the data and acquired an understanding of the basic policy design and gender-related issues in Pakistan. In addition, Samina has also excellent networking skills and with the help of her networks in September 2019, she was selected for the role “Volunteering for Development Specialist – Networking and Coordination Officer in an international organization, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Under this role, she worked for VSO’s partner organization – Parliamentary SDGs Secretariat, National Assembly. While working at the SDGs Secretariat, she worked with the Policy Experts, MNAs, and Parliamentarians who are contributing to the implementation of the Human Rights Laws by working directly with the government. This really helped her further identify her niche and motivated her to pursue her career in the development sector with a concentration on women’s economic empowerment through peace, and girls’ education. Currently, Samina is working with an international organization, where she works on projects related to girls’ education, skills development, livelihood, and food security.