With just a phone in her hand, Anita Jalil from Gwadar is breaking stereotypes and challenging the conservatism of Balochistan where women are limited to the confines of the house. She is the first female video blogger (also known as a vlogger) from the province of Balochistan as she treads upon the coastal areas of the province telling stories and doing what she loves with the spirit of a warrior.
What makes Anita’s blog unique is that she is fighting against odds to get the vlog started in the first place. She put up her first video only about two months back, however, in it she explains it took her three years to convince her father to agree to her becoming a YouTube Blogger.
Read: Pakistani Cinema Embraces Animation with The Donkey King
Anita started blogging when she moved back to Gwadar from Dubai after her mother’s demise and there being a lack of activities in the city.
Speaking to The News, she said
“Coming from a family that forbids women to foray beyond the confines of four walls, it took almost three long years to convince my father regarding what I aspired to pursue as a career option. In these years, there came many instances where I felt I could go on no longer.
My father would at times become highly upset with me and would stop talking. However, I would just not give up. I would not eat for two nights straight, however, every morning I would wake up with a renewed sense of vigor in my heart. I would show examples to my dad, of women who have done wonders in various fields despite odd circumstances, of empowered females who made a name for themselves irrespective of their backgrounds.”
With her blog, Anita hopes to show the world the real image of Gwadar i.e. the small shabby houses that exist in the city and that it is not what the mainstream media depicts it to be.
Her inspiration to blog came from bloggers such as DK Baluch and Chiragh Baloch hailing from Balochistan. According to Anita, she is a great fan of the blogger Chiragh Baloch and he gave her the basic guidelines for her blog and today she has more bloggers than him.
Read: Team Auj: All Girls Team from NUST to Represent Pakistan @ Formula Student ’18
Anita continues to make videos despite not having the proper resources such as a laptop or a proper video camera. According to her she borrows a laptop from people whenever she has to edit videos.
However, her challenges do not end there. She has received death threats from the patriarchal society she belongs from but continues her efforts to bring gender equality in to the community she resides in. She also organized Balochistan’s first ever all-female rally this past Independence Day in order to encourage more women.
