Dilafroze Qazi – A woman of courage and conviction
“My greatest achievement has been getting people to embrace, as well as seeking education. I don’t believe in giving alms. Giving education is the best weapon to combat any evil.”
Dilafroze Qazi (born 1962) is the founder and Vice President of the Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Management at the Srinagar School of Management (SSM) in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Despite coming from a poorly literate family, Dilafroze studied at a free public school and has a double master’s degree in education and economics. He completed his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) program from the University of Kashmir. To help the girls and housewives of the society, he started the small business in rented premises in 1988 called ‘Srinagar School of Management’, where he taught them vocational courses such as cutting, cooking, sewing and shorthand.
Nationalist violence, threats to life could not shake his determination to serve society. He fought against lack of security, harsh weather conditions, aggression, state insecurity, armed separatists, the death of community members, and the kidnapping of all members of his family, including his father, brothers, and husband. He was even warned that if he did not give up his cause, anyone who dared to open the gates of the university would be killed. However, she stayed true to herself and never gave up. She moved the university to a safe place in Srinagar, but she again received threatening calls from locals, on behalf of religious leaders who claimed to protest her work in women’s education. But she knew that every problem is an opportunity in disguise that brings you closer to your goals and she never looked back. Gradually, she added a 3-year Diploma course in civil engineering to the university. Currently, she is vice president of SSM’s College of Engineering and Technology, which has 4,000 engineering and management students on its roster. The university also offers degrees in civil, mechanical, electronic, and communication engineering. The university also has a branch at Gudhrana in the Palwal district of Haryana. She also opened a free primary school in 1996 in the Divar Parihaspora village in the Baramulla district. In 1998, he opened another school in Sumbal village in Dangarpora and opened a free primary school in Kunan Poshpora in Kupwara district in 2001. In addition to contributing to education, he also runs handicraft centers and has helped establish a community self help group for the underprivileged, especially widows and poor women, and she has been involved in organizing medical camps and rehabilitation programs for women. Even after three decades, she receives threatening calls, but her approach is the same: she believes that all basic human rights should be systematically granted to women.
In 2005, along with 90 other women from India, she was nominated among the 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize, with the support of the Swiss government, UNIFEM and UNDP. In 2011, she was awarded the ‘Peace Star’ by the Association for Community Harmony in Asia for her efforts in building community harmony at a function held in New Delhi.