Samar Minallah Khan

With an MPhil in Social Anthropology and Development.from University of Cambridge, Samar has over 20 years of progressive experience in advocacy, women’s causes, social change, and working in and with different media. She has designed and developed communications strategies, media interventions and a number of media campaigns focusing on issues of gender, legal awareness and rights, particularly for women for a number of international and national organisations, including the World Bank, UNDP, UNESCO, DfID, and the EU. In Pakistan, for the UN she developed a media kit on laws related to violence against women, which has been widely distributed to civil society organisations and government departments in Punjab, KP, Baluchistan and Sindh. She also worked as media expert on the DFID-funded mission for Governance and Rule of Law in the border areas. In print media, she has been a regular contributor to Newsline, The News daily, writing articles and pieces about social issues in general, and women’s issues in particular. In electronic media, she had produced and directed numerous documentaries, hosted weekly shows, directed and produced talk shows on both TV and radio. In film, she has conceptualized, produced and directed various documentaries on social change and women issues. Samar has worked with a number of international donors. She is on various advisory boards, recipient of various prestigious awards, and her media work has been recognized not just in Pakistan, but also internationally, with some of her film work held in permanent archives. In addition, she has also conducted various field researches on civil society issues and published her reports and findings. Her research on the custom of ‘swara’ in districts of KP was to be followed by an extensive advocacy and awareness raising campaign.