Women all around the world are playing their part not only in the nurturing of nations but also as the work force needed to uplift the economic position of a country. In our society after the 16 years of education and without further plans for education or careers, it is a must for girls to get married. It is indeed a very sacred bond, a bond which provides security, strength and completion to not only the individuals getting married but to the society as a whole. But seeing it as a full stop to both the prospects of further studies and careers is not justified in any way. Pakistani women have certainly walked out of this framework of life and excelled in many fields like journalism, philanthropy, IT, engineering and politics etc.
One such person is Naveen Naqvi, who is a broadcaster and print journalist. Naveen started her career in 2002 with NBC News in Pakistan as a fixer and worked her way up to bureau chief. She worked on news stories for Nightly News and Today show. Apart from managing the Islamabad bureau Naveen, conducted on-camera interviews, reported breaking news for MSNBC and wrote stories for MSNBC.com.
Later on Naveen worked for Pakistan’s first English Language channel, Dawn News until January 29, 2010, as a Senior Anchor. During her time with Dawn News, she presented the morning news programme and Breakfast at Dawn. Naveen devised the format of Breakfast at Dawn to include social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, making her an innovative journalist, the first to tweet live on air in Pakistan. She may have left the programme and channel, but the format continues to be used by them for that and other shows. She quips that even as others follow her lead, she’ll still be the first!
As a journalist, Naveen was invited to the Eurasian Media Forum in April 2009 and April 2010. At the former event she interviewed former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and chaired a panel discussion with leading analysts and journalists on media management of Gaza conflict. Some of the better known names were George Galloway and Gideon Levy. She was a panelist on the World Economic Forum’s session for Networked Journalism.
Also in 2010, Naveen was invited to the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum Climate Change conference where she was a panelist discussing how the social media can benefit journalists reporting stories of our ever-transforming world. She was also invited on a panel of Pakistan’s top seven journalists to interview the visiting US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Previously, Naveen was also a print and television commercial model. She was a known television actor with serials such as Nangay Paon and Angar Wadi to her credit. She first appeared on television as a music show host, Music Channel Charts. This was the first music chart show on Pakistani television, making her the first video jockey (VJ) of the country.
