It was Friday night in 2018 when I scribbled a note to myself “what am I doing? Is this making a difference?” while grading GlobalWE essays. Little did I know that four years later, the essay contest would help a bright and remarkable student from Afghanistan find opportunities and scholarships in other countries.

While the essays contained moving and exceptional content from brilliant young minds, it was extremely difficult for me to grade them because I was “Them” – I was once an essay participant in various essay contests. Most of my essay entry submissions were written in my teen years while locked up in a room in Islamabad, Pakistan. I felt that I had no access to the internet, phone, or freedom of movement and expression. Outside the room, one could hear discussions about my potential arranged marriage – and inside the room, one could find me making escape plans to be someplace where I could be myself.

If I was being held back from contributing to the progress of my society, what hope was there for the millions of less privileged girls who did not have the same opportunities in life as I have? This is a question I have asked myself at various points in my life and was the driving force behind my decisions to start women’s rights initiatives, get involved in Harvard GlobalWE, and attempt to make an impact on my surroundings.

Growing up in a politically active family, I had always been aware of the social realities within my country. My father was once the Secretary-General for Pakistan’s only female prime minister. Inspired by my father, I aimed from an early age to contribute to the progress of my society. Although relatively progressive, my father discouraged my professional ambitions because when it came to his daughters, he at the time believed that women should pursue a more traditional and domesticated life.

When I experienced social injustices and witnessed women around me endure the same, I was tempted to speak up about it on various platforms. I would get accepted to the most prominent public speaking competitions but was not allowed to participate in them because in my community women were meant to stay at home. Outspoken women were considered “bad women” - I thought this phenomenon was unique to my community until I traveled the world and found a similar stigma facing women in the USA and UK. Essay contests were the only extracurricular activity I was allowed to participate in because my participation did not require me to leave home or get permission from anyone. This is when my love for writing started. I remember feeling trapped at times, but my writings were my escape.

My participation in various writing contests helped me build an extra-curricular profile that, along with my academic profile, helped me get a scholarship to a college in the USA. Due to the scholarship, I was able to leave my hometown in my teen years and become financially independent amidst my community’s dissatisfaction with the decision. Although at the time my community did not understand my decision and distanced themselves from me, my success story helped change their minds and opened doors for other women (including my sisters) in my family to leave home for their higher education and not be pressured into an early marriage. My first-hand account of witnessing a positive change in my community/family has made me a firm believer that change is possible no matter how challenging the situation is.

Although it wasn’t always easy to be on my own in a new country, in America, it was the first time I experienced the feeling of someone believing in me and my abilities. I had always heard “you can not do it” and now I was surrounded by people who somehow believed in me and told me that I could do it every step of the way – one of those people is Julie Palmer.

Julie and I connected simply because I was deciding which law school to attend and Harvard was on the list. We instantly connected over a phone call and soon after I got involved in the Honor Diaries project and Harvard GlobalWE. Julie was kind enough to have coffee every time she was in the area and our coffee conversations were highlights of my month – we learned a lot from each other’s experiences and Julie gave me the confidence to keep going in times when the state of the world was terrifying.

My life experiences up to 18 taught me that gender inequalities were prevalent in my home country, but branching out to the USA and realizing that similar inequalities exist even in the most developed societies was shocking. Julie and I often brainstormed ways to tackle the social problems facing women in our coffee conversations.

In one of these coffee conversations, Julie asked me how GlobalWE could be involved in Pakistan and the idea of an essay contest took birth. I imagined so many girls like the teen-me feeling trapped in their rooms and/or feeling frustrated with the state of women in their society.[1] If we could help provide them with the same outlet of expression as I had when I was younger and that too with the Harvard GlobalWE name, it could be life-changing for them.

Since then, the essay contest has expanded to 21 different countries and asks a simple, yet powerful question “What is the biggest challenge facing women and girls in your country today?” and encourages writers (from any gender) to identify and brainstorm potential solutions to those problems.

I am now involved in various women’s rights, human rights, and refugee rights initiatives, and here is the thing – I seldom see the impact right away, and the work is not as hands-on as I had imagined it to be. After spending countless hours on admin, marketing, and grading, you begin to wonder – is what I am doing actually having an impact? I think this thought process and probably my imposter syndrome led me to scribble the note back in 2018. Since around that time, I have been involved in various initiatives where it has taken years to see the impact. Sometimes, I begin to feel impatient and ask for a sign to keep going.

In 2022, I finally got a sign to keep going. During my work with Afghan evacuation efforts, a bright and remarkable woman from Afghanistan connected with me via social media. She was a college student in an unnamed country on a scholarship like myself, desperately trying to help her family evacuate Afghanistan. I saw a part of me in her, so we instantly connected. She told me on the call that the essay contest helped change her life because the Harvard GlobalWE Essay Contest provided her with an outlet to express herself. She said that her participation in the Essay Contest looked so good on her college application that it helped her get a scholarship that enabled her to leave Afghanistan. I can not describe the feeling I felt after hearing her words and it's something I am still processing, but while I process it, I want you to know that an idea born in a coffee shop in Chicago and raised by an army of hardworking and dedicated volunteers like YOU across the globe helped change at least one life (and countless others) in a remarkable way.

Thank you for all your hard work with the essay contest and any other initiatives you are involved in that aim to positively contribute to the world. Your volunteer hours managing social media pages, designing certificates, or organizing monthly calls matter more than you realize on a day-to-day basis – my story and the story of my Afghan friend are a testament to that.

Thank you for all that you do.

I'd love to hear from you, please feel free to write to me at everystepcounts30@gmail.com

[1] I know women who had a lot more freedom than I did while we were growing up in the same city. The traditions facing women can often depend on the community, family, and sub-region. I hope my narrative will serve as an account of my personal life experiences/worldview and not lead to generalizations about the status of women in Pakistan and various other countries.