In a university, PhD students provide the necessary research adrenaline to the scientific environment. However, as “Het Proefschrift Journal for PhD candidates” at TU Delft states:
‘Doing a PhD can be a very lonely, uphill journey. We at TU Delft have to address this issue. PhD students are a special group within the TU Delft community. Their needs differ from those of other students and employees, and because they are spread out across the university, they are hard to target as a group. No wonder they sometimes feel left out.’
Therefore, the human library concept has recently been introduced in TU Delft to bring the PhD students closer to each other and also to provide them with an opportunity to interact with the Rector in an informal setting. In a regular library we have books that we can borrow at any time and read, similarly, a “Human Library” has people as “Living Books” that we can borrow and listen to. The living books have their own story to tell, sometimes sharing their life changing experiences or telling motivational and inspiring stories.
Keeping this objective in mind, several nominations were given by the organizing committee and I was nominated by my friend and colleague, Eva Lantsoght. Luckily, out of all the PhD candidates, I was selected by the Rector of TU Delft to present at the first Human Library event held at our campus library, thus becoming the first TU Delft Living Book.
The Rector also nominated some employees of the university as Living Books and the PhD students selected Anja Stokkers as their choice of book. I loved listening to her story about her wonderful professional career. The event itself was very nicely organized, informal and gave all of us a chance to get to know each other better. Most importantly, I got the opportunity to talk about my favourite topics: Pakistan, Women, Culture, Religion. It was like speaking my heart out and I did it with great pleasure.
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In 2009, Sana Amir was granted a full PhD scholarship by her university in Pakistan where she worked as a lecturer. Excited about this opportunity, she thought life could not get any better. Little did she know what was in store for her.
From Pakistan to the Netherlands, this is the journey of a woman :
From a male dominating, conservative country where religion is twisted to support the wrong cultural traditions and yet, it’s the same country that elected a female prime minister twice in its history,
To a liberal European one that believes in equal rights for everyone . A country that offers women greater control over their lives than that of France or Japan.
This is the story of how she finds herself lost in the beginning but gradually comes to love her freedom and independence while maintaining her identity as a muslim, Pakistani woman.
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Here, I would like to share my Living Book Prologue and a few pictures.
If I were there, I wouldn't have let anybody else speak :P
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