Spinning in the Sun

Nasreen, I affectionately call Nasreen the new Mother Teresa because she shines so brightly when you meet her in person. It's quite phenomenal. And she has a story which is beyond our imagination. And so Nasreen is somebody who Honestly, she is at the grassroots ground level of changing women's lives in Nepal and having an effect on her community and on Kathmandu, where she is, and even on the world. And her voice is so important.
It is needed. Hello, beautiful. How's things? I'm so happy that you invited me and you know Aspire has been like you know all the time people ask like how did you come into like speaking I was like Aspire was my first event and I spoke there and then Sam was just inviting me and I came from one conference to another conference and they were like how did you find an empowerment collective non-profit in US I was like this is all because of this conference happened and they invited me for the first time in my entire life I saw 200 women coming together And me speaking, I have no idea what conference means.
And just sharing your message and how you are bringing a ruler and very people like us who are working tirelessly in the background and having a platform to share these stories to the amazing women leader out there. It's just such a… such a huge platform that we need and we desperately need it so thank you so much. Oh it's my it's my pleasure and I'm excited to interview you for the conference coming up I think that's going to be really cool because I know in the past when you told your story you can sort of skip over some of the really critical parts.
And do you remember before everyone was like, stop there for a second. Like, what did you just say? And you'd be like, oh yeah, you know, I just traveled from India to Nepal by myself. You know, I didn't know how old I was, all this kind of thing. And people in the audience were just like, you know, their mouths are wide open and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always have to say, okay, stop.
Do you remember that? Like stop.

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Yeah, because it was, that is how we did it. And you know, like when you are in the survival mode, you just have to do things like there is nothing that like in order to survive, you have to just do it. And what happens when you have a lot of choices, then you think or you analyze what is better for me, what is not better for me. But when we are in survival mode, you just have to go because you know that if you stay, you will be killed or you will be in trouble.
So, but yeah, I would definitely listen to you and try to explain as much detail I can. I think it's almost, I think that's a really good point because when we do have lots of choices about things, it can be paralyzing. I mean, we think it's great to have choices, but when you have no choice, when you're in survival and you have to do it and there's no other option, I think it's actually a great incentive.
It's a great motivation because you're like, okay. I have to do this. I have to get to this place. I have to make this money. I have to eat. I have to help people, whatever it is that you decided. But one thing I think that always really strikes me about you, and when I talk to people about you, I always say the same thing. I say, she's just luminescent. She shines so brightly.
I say that she's the new Mother Teresa, you know, that you have this quality, but it's a very, very, very humble quality. And I think it's an amazing story that you did what you did and you, you know, as a young girl left the village you were in under very difficult circumstances and took yourself to Kathmandu and ended up starting the shop. And I mean, there's a whole massive story that we know. and you're gonna share more about it.
But I think what people are really, what women particularly are very interested in right now is now, not then or back then, but now and the future. And what strikes me so strongly about you is there are so many, many, many, many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, if not even more girls and women who didn't do what you did, didn't leave, are still in the same circumstances that you were in.
Not only did you escape all that, but you wanted to help other women. And this is what drives you. This is your North Star. You didn't go to a developed country and go to university and start working in a bank or something. You're in Nepal. This is your heartland. And you, every day, help other people. And I just think that's phenomenal and needs to be celebrated and not enough people know about you and the work that you do.
And I know that there are many, many other heroes like you, but you really are somebody who, you know, whilst we're all complaining in America or the UK or wherever, you're in the midst of it in Nepal doing what you're doing. How do you keep going?

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I feel like this whole process is just healing when I help. the marginalized and disadvantaged people, it is always like going back home, you know? It's like that was my home that I started, which was so chaos, and it was so much injustices. And I went through that process. Process means like I went through that living experience that still, like, it's very, like a fire has the blood in me that I… can never forget and I feel the people very very much because I was like them and the whole curiosity and having an understanding that this is possible to change and it's like once you raise that awareness, once you step out of that fear zone and you go to that action mode, everything just collapse and that is what I want to keep reminding to these women that you do have that power and once you step into that everything just dissolves.
And then that person becomes one of the most resilient women or people ever they can imagine. And they become a really radiant person. her communities and that I have experience with hundreds of women that I have worked with. And this whole experience is nothing like, it's like a magic and it's a very pure essence energy that's get feeded in me. And I'm sure that many people, many leaders who are working on the ground or working on many different level, they feel and understand that energy of like being served through service to others is a really good vibration.
So. This whole process is a healing for me. And you're right, like, you know, my voice has not been up there. And because there is a lot of, like, when you're working on the ground, it's like…

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It's like I'm focused there, my focus is there, and I haven't built a network to go out and interview and do all those things because it takes a whole other level that our team hopefully will develop, but I'm not there yet slowly. I'm working on my book and hopefully in the documentaries that will come further. But right now it's more about like… How can we help the forgotten communities because there's thousands and millions and millions of girls that is their faces are not seen and you know people don't want to talk about it because it's painful and their story is very striking and very hard and It takes a lot people energy and responsibilities comes there and not many people are ready to to be responsible and to serve that.
So our stories are not heard very much time. Whenever I'm talking about my problems, people are like, oh, it's another problem. I can't deal with them. So I just want people to open up and give us a platform to speak about our stories that we are experiencing every single day. And when I'm in the village, I'm having like a panic attack and I'm having a stomach pain I'm literally like throwing up just like just all this trauma and I need that space and support from the world to help maximize this information to end poverty to end inequality you know from the ground level so I love that I'm remembering a story that you told me where as a young girl when you didn't know your age

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and you had suffered many abuses in your upbringing. I remember one story you were telling me Nasreen where you were standing in a field and you were looking up at the sky and you were spinning. Do you remember telling me that story? And it was such a beautiful image of you as this young girl in India spinning, spinning, spinning and looking up at the sky and looking up at the sun and feeling so free. yet you were not so free.
And I imagine, well, I know that there are many, many, many girls and women who feel the same, who are in that situation right now and who would never maybe even think about doing what you did and escaping as you did. What would be your advice for young girls and women? spinning in the sun and thinking about their lives. Yeah, my advice would be like, whenever there is a pressure, like we should always, never ever we should forget that we are the universe and the light exists in us, you know?
And when I witnessed that my aunt being murdered and my own older sister at the age of 12, being forced into marriage and seeing my mom being abused and, like, just dark, dark stuff. The only thing that comforted me is out of everything outside what I was saying, and I went internally with nature, because nature was there to just hug me, you know, and just, like, just feel them, because they didn't have voice, you know?
They didn't… Only they had this feeling. and very internal communication. So that is what I started to do. I started to go to the forest or to the field. Thank God that in our village we had the field. Nowadays, the population is increasing so bad, so we don't have enough space. In the villages, a lot of men have taken over the forest, and now the girls are even scared to go to the forest or to the field.
So they have a really limited, very, very limited resources to seek help. And I request that find out your secret space that you feel fully you. and communicate to yourself in that space, because that is what I did in a very, very early age. And, you know, there is always light in every darkness, and I want these young girls to find that light that they have inside. And, like, just, you know, I was so scared when I was coming out from that village to Kathmandu.
Like, nothing like that. It just happened.

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to be in that moment of positive and just hold that energy until you don't have your step established. It's hard. It's very, very hard and very challenging. We go through so much, but you can do it if you go step by step. I want to talk about leaping, making leaps. Because I think many of us have to have a plan. We have to have a plan. We have to say, okay, I know that if I take this leap, this will happen.
And then we assess the risks, don't we? We do the pros and cons. We say, okay, it's worth it, I'll take the leap. Now you took the leap and I think many of us right now need to take this leap when it's completely unknown. You didn't know that it was gonna work out in Kathmandu. In fact, it didn't for a long time. You didn't know what you were going to do there.
You didn't know you were going to be safe, but you still took the leap. I want to talk about leaping into the unknown when you don't know it's safe. How do you talk us through how you do that? Because I think that has a huge relevance for here and now. I feel like leap is It's like it makes you forced or literally forced you to be in that moment. And the moment is a very, it's like a focused energy.
So when you're focused on something, you can see the result. Like it's a good, it's bad. There's some chances, not some chance. Like you literally, when you bring the whole energy of your focus and that moment of whatever the circumstances you are in and after that you are like okay maybe this is just part that I just need to not do anything like for me you know just right now I feel like my most important is to be serving this village, the most vulnerable people than anything else.
So, you will know if it's time for you to stop, and it's not, because that's the gift that humanity has and have, which nobody can ever take from anyone, you know, is that power of this moment that only belongs to you. And you have a choice to either move forward or just be in that moment or go backward. Like, all the choices…

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So, just make that aware choices. And the more you play with it, the better you get with that whole awareness that comes with it. And many, many times, I had to just sit back and step back. And my community, like, literally, like, in the village, everything is run by others. And I had to step back. and have to literally hide in the room because I couldn't talk to all these men because they don't want to see the girl as a leader.
And one or two time I tried to speak and these people were like, we're not going to listen to you. Who is this girl? If she brings these ideas, we are not going to support any of the project here because girl's leader is like shame on men. All this whole controversial thing that happened in that time. you know that this is maybe not a right moment for you to step up and so you have to just sit back and keep channeling that energy of like where you want to be and where are you at so that that is how i do things you know and i feel like And that leads you to one leap to another.
Like, when I look back from my life, like, my older sister, I have not been in touch for, like, the last almost 13 years. And I always wanted to go and see her, but I don't find that space yet, you know? And I'm sure every single day, and… And I know that one day I will be strong enough and I will have people enough that will support me to reach that goal that I will be able to help her and support her.
So it's literally like… building that, you know, one set of stairs after another. And it might take forever. It might seem very small, but you know that you are doing and you're doing your part and that's most important to acknowledge the work.

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And there are people, you know, like look, Sam, like, you know, like I met you through online, like hearing about Aspires and, you know, fill in that application and you selected me and brought me to Chicago, brought me to London. And, you know, now we are having this conference. So like people are there who cares for you and cares for what the project we are doing. So just never give up on the leap because that's very important to me. always have that purpose of like growth.
Well I'm sure glad that you did apply to speak at our conference and you know we've known each other so we've known each other a number of years now and it's you know it's wonderful to to know you it really is it's very grounding for me so it's it's a series of small leaps or small I don't know it's a judgment it's a series of leaps that have taken you to where you're going and there's still more for you to do this, more places to go.
But I do love that you're focusing on where you want to be. And even in those moments, as you were explaining, where you weren't allowed to speak up or your voice wasn't heard or wasn't respected, rather than shrinking from that, you were actually quite strategic about your timing and saying to yourself, okay, this isn't the right time, but there will be a right time. So rather than sinking into feeling badly about it or feeling like you're a victim about it, even though you were a victim in that circumstance, you have been able to keep going and you have this ability to see where you want to be and you have this ability to think really big.
I think that's something else I'd like to

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to talk to you about right now. When I speak to you, there is something new that you're doing. You're always pioneering something new. You started our call today with telling us about the 1 million mask initiatives. There's nothing small for you, Nasreen. I mean, you're working in these very difficult circumstances. You don't say, okay, I'm gonna make a hundred masks. You say, I'm gonna make a million masks. And so impact and big thinking And the more the years go by with you, the thinking is getting bigger and bigger.
So talk to me about that. Talk to me, how do you, there's nothing realistic about you when maybe should be. You think about, you know, it was at the start of my book, there's a line that says, you know, every morning I wake up and I wonder why I'm not a complete fuck up. And I say that because from my circumstances of my childhood, perhaps I technically shouldn't be doing some of the things I'm doing.
And I would say the same about you, that the trajectory, if you looked at the trajectory of where you should go or what you should be doing based on your history, it shouldn't maybe be about making one million masks right now, yet you are, this is who you are, this is what you do. Talk to us about that side of you. Yeah, so, you know, this whole process, I feel like it's a very deep process of, like, you go to a certain stage and you're like, let's just… let's just do it like you know let's just like cross that boundaries and you know and let's have something big you know and like um like when one million mask initiative came and when when i saw that whole supply chain system that how it's going to help the people overseas how it's going to help the village how it's going to help the environment i was like actually like let's call it one million a mask you know let's have that people because there's a lot of corpora and, you know, that just push us like, oh, a small organization, let's leave them behind, you know?
So I want to like get their attention and I want them like, look, we are in a power to do something big. Don't think as a small, you know, we're starting from a small, but we're already like set up that system, like we have. I already like work for three or four months tirelessly on the ground to set up facilities that we can produce one million masks. And we brought all those people and there is a potential and have that dream and vision.
It does take courage and bravery, you know? So, and bravery and courage, where it comes from, it comes from like an inspirational woman who have done before me, or, you know, when I… read the news about a woman leading the world. I'm more courageous on that, and that gives me more power. It's like, okay, maybe because I'm not alone, and that whole thing just gives me a bigger vision to bring these ideas and help.

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as much and as fast we can because literally honestly oh my god sam i don't know how to describe you the suffering that i see like literally the children's are like dying and their whole physical body is dissolving because they can't even have a nutrition food. This is 2020 and people are talking about Mars and moon and this. I'm like, right, in my village people are dying because they can't even have rice and vegetables.
They can't even afford that. So this feels such an urgency and I hope that this bigger vision of like One Million Masks can actually help the entire village surrounded by that area. So I just put out into the universe and let's see what happens. When we opened our first store, it was like very, very tiny store and now we have two women's empowerment center. So this is all came because I was able to think bigger.
And if you don't think big, then how the big things is going to come, you know? So you have to envision, have that power as a leader to be that visionary. And it's one of the quality, I guess, or inspiration that I have learned through the inspirational women like yourself and so many others. to know that there is a potential and people are there to support. And this is, I mean, this has always been something that's acute where you are, but it's exacerbated now by COVID, is that right?
So according to the research that I was reading that almost 30% of what we are getting back, like the poverty level is getting back.

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on 30 years like we maybe 53 percent of girls will be not even allowed to go to the school because the parents are pulling out the girls from the school they can't afford and if you see like almost 85 percent of women we don't even have data and statistics but just the estimation that other organizations do and according to that almost 85 percent women who used to work as a daily wagers they will not have any more work.
So they are being forced to stay at home. And when they stay at home and they don't have any money to take care of themselves, they become the victim of domestic violence. And lots and lots of domestic violence happened nearby my eyes. And I have seen the women are like, they don't have any platform, any hope. to continue the life so a lot of them are very suicidal and I have witnessed some of the very very intense experience while I'm in the village and heard so many news about suicidal especially with the women and the poverty level is just so like down, like, even the city Kathmandu, our shop, has been shut down for the last five months.
And so having everything being shut down is making people more poor and more… And also, when they become poor, they can't feed themselves. And when they don't feed themselves, they become angry and very low vibrations, and they abuse the people who are around them, and they don't even know that they're… using because all of the anger like imagine like you're not eating for like a month without any food and like you like the whole body very unfunctional so uh and people don't have voice um our society is like okay the government is just setting us down and we are not allowed to work and we're literally forced to stay inside the room it doesn't matter if you're hungry or you're dying like Nobody's there to shed light on it.
Like, nobody's talking about it. So the COVID pandemic had hit our country more than ever. Any disaster happened in my lifetime, I could say. Like, we had 7.8 magnitude earthquake, but we were able to survive in that time because the world supported us back. But this time, the whole world is in that pandemic, and we can't work. That's, like, the most, you know, like… Now we are in a position that we can't even work to feed ourselves.
So this is the darkest experience have been for our society that is taken from us that we can't even work and we can't even feed our families and people are starving and they're dying. I am so sorry to hear this from you, Nasreen. I mean, the world over is suffering. And we don't hear enough about places like Nepal. We don't hear what's going on. And it's not that we don't care. It's that we don't hear about it.
And also, the very good point that you made. When you did have the earthquake in Nepal, as with many natural disasters, the aid will pour in, the people will pour in. But right now, those resources are spread out across the entire globe because everybody in different degrees is in the same situation. But what we're hearing here is extremely acute, extremely acute. I mean, we're hearing about mental health issues and domestic violence, suicide rates going up the world over.
And it doesn't really help when you are, you know, you are where you are, but what we're hearing, what I'm hearing strongly from you, in addition to that, and that's, oh, I don't hear this so much, that definitely is not happening as much, I don't think, in some developed world countries, although it is happening in some places, is the shortage of food and the shortage of nutrition. Because when you have that, as you said, it does, it really affects everything.
It affects your physical health, it affects your mental health, and you see an endless cycle that, that you're in right now. And it's just terrible stuff. I mean, thank God that you are doing the work that you're doing and that you are coming up with these initiatives to make a difference. And you already were running programs which employed women and making things, making handicrafts that you were distributing around the world, which is phenomenal in its own right.

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but you turned that around so the skills that were, you were making jewellery, making some beautiful things before and bought some. Now you're making masks, you've got, you've switched that skill set and you're not just making masks for your village or your local area, you're actually distributing those masks internationally, is that right? Is that your aspiration or is that what you're doing? People can buy this mask for the NGOs, their workplace, their friends and families all over the world.
We can ship, you know, so we have built this whole system to support this project and people from all around the world can, you know, buy this and… and help us with this really like one million masks community. I feel like just having support from this will help feed millions of people and it's a very sustainable way because it's not like people are just donating and giving us money it's like they're receiving something from these special women and then at the same time the women are not feeling like I'm just getting this like free food because you know something is something with the charity like we do need help and urgent urgent time but also when something becomes like you know it's like transactional on an energy level like i give you something you give me something it's more creative and it's more like energy and connection so that is why we were like okay let's use these women’s skills let's use these people and let's give something back to the to the to the world and they can give

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us back. So we have created this really sustainable one million mask initiative and people are like, you know, buying all that synthetic mask. I just please, like, please, please don't buy that mask because I want you to research. I want you to read about that and see how it's like environmental disasters about this mask that we are wearing like within 24 hours and we trash them and it's ending up like our rivers in the in the villages and you know as I said before many times like our rivers are dying and they're almost dead it's like it's like when you walk through that river that we have in in in Kathmandu it's like one of the beautiful way that this river runs through the whole city but we're worried once you walk into that That road, it's like you have to cover your mouth and you have to cover the whole face because it's so bad.
So I just want people to be a little bit more responsible and help us support this One Million Mask project because we have worked like four or five months and I just hope that it goes and for us. I'm ashamed to say it, but I had not put those things together. I had not thought about the environmental impact of masks. And I'm so glad that you bring that to me because I hadn't thought about it.
We've been buying our masks and I've been very, you know, to say to the kids and my husband, okay, do you know, once you've used it, you throw it away, don't be reusing it.

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And I've been thinking that that's a good thing because we don't want to be spreading virus around. And of course, these things are all going into the trash or into the recycling. But, you know, it's the same having that that is an impact on the climate that I had not thought about. And I'm so glad that you bring that. And you are talking about something that is one of my favorite topics, as you know, which is social business, social entrepreneurship, social enterprise.
And you are such a great example of this because what you're doing is you're encouraging, empowering, inspiring women to be social entrepreneurs, to make money and to make a difference at the same time. And they can't, in my opinion, there can't be anything better in life. You know, this isn't purely about grants and funding and donations. This isn't purely about making a buck, making money. You bring the best elements of charity and the best elements of for-profit together into social enterprise and I really do believe this is one of your gifts to the world and that you're empowering women to be able to have control of their destinies. to bring themselves some money.
We know that when women have access to this sense of this is my money and I can do something with this. And we know that when women have this money, they always do good with it. It pays debts, it buys food, it supports other women. it does good things and this is what you have always done since I've known you, many years I've known you. But now it's even more critical and it's so critical and I think Women the World Over can really be inspired by you to say it is, you can switch, you switched on a dime, you went from jewellery to masks.
And you didn't just say five masks, 10 masks, 20 masks, you said a million masks. And I mean, it's so impressive. But I also want to come back to your earlier point, which I think is critical. Did you really have any choice? There's no choice. You couldn't have carried on with jewellery.

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Of course, no one wants jewelry right now. Yeah. It's like, you know, this is what is so interesting about social enterprise and you know, the core values about our, my message is really like everybody have the power. power to create and to give back to the society and take care of themselves. Because I always go back to my story, like if I was a street kid and if I can find a strange person who can teach me and become like my father figure and help me through all this.
And then I was able to build a Local Women’s Handicrafts and all that. Like being a street kid, like feeling very scared, like not having any support about forget about parents, being totally alone, and if I can do it… imagine all of those girls, you know, who have the support from their mother and from their father, from the families, from the communities, how much they can do it now. So I always tell these stories to our women that they do have that potential inside and they just need to use it in order to help.
And because of these trainings that we do in our center, like this training is not for like a month or even for a week or two days, like these trainings goes for almost six months to four years. And in that whole process, the woman is literally focused in her skills. And her skills is education, it's knowledge, it's one of the tools that nobody will ever take from them. And once they have that, they can turn around and they can make skirts because these persons is no more a victim more.
They are more in creative person and more in creative voice. So that not only helped the organization to become more sustainable and more like follow all this like right now we follow all those SDG goals in our center and it's like the women is taking over like I can travel around the world and then women is taking over that place and those or the women are not like had been to the universities or college, these women came from that society and now they're mentoring other women.
So the whole cycle of sustainability, once we bring that in our project from very early stage, it's very magnificent and very magical to see how you can, you know, like adopt any of the circumstances that happens in that moment.

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Like, you're literally to take action in a very positive way. So right now, when COVID happened, I was like, oh, my God, everybody is demanding mask. And, you know, OK, the mask, OK, what type of mask people are wearing? Oh, my God, the people are wearing synthetic masks. That is, you know, it says recycling, but it's not recycling. It ends up in the oceans. It ends up in the landfill. And then it comes back to us through in the form of food and in the form of water, you know?
So we need to educate. the world, like whatever they're doing, it's like they're not aware of that situation. So once we research that and we're like, okay, we have like a really good cotton that people can. wash this mask like every time like they can wear it today and then tomorrow they can wash it and they can dry in the sun and they can re-wear it and it's like it becomes more softer and it's like it's like it's not going to impact on the environment and it's also going to feed the family so let's bring this idea to the people and not many organizations can adapt that way and that is why the grassroots organizations is very important to make a development and to to to eradicate these problems because we have the values of sustainability and those principles, we can integrate in any problems into a solution.
You know what it makes me think of? You know they say when someone cooks you a meal, if they cook it with love, it tastes better. Yeah. And I believe that the products that you are making and how you make them are made with love. And they will, you know, there's a certain energy that comes to your products that wearing it will be so much better than wearing a factory made one or a synthetic one.
I just want to sort of add that piece in there about the sort of energetic element of the women that are making these. I think it's worth. perhaps the extra effort it might take to obtain them from you where we could just kind of click on Amazon or whatever and get them delivered then even the same day here in America. What's the website, Nasreen, for these?

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Yeah, so people can buy the artisanal like women's crafts like bags and jewelry's at localwomenshandicrafts.com and for the 1 million mask initiative it is on empowermentcollective.org. We made a very beautiful videos once people go there they will see like All the information is laid out. We made videos about how it's floating the rivers and the environmental factor and also how this mask is going to serve like one of the most rural area in Nepal.
None of the NGOs goes there because the situation over there is so dire and people, every single person needs help there. Like, their housing structure is so scary. Like, the houses are made out of clay. It's like when the winter comes and the flood comes and then it swipes out these villages. And mostly women and the children are left in that village. A lot of the men, overseas, like, they go to Gulf countries or they come to Kathmandu to do their work, but only the women and children are stuck to live with, like…
I don't know if people in America or in the world can really understand the circumstances that these people go through and live through. So I hope this initiative will bring light on them and just… make them a little comfortable so they can even think. When we are very traumatized, when we don't have food and we don't have a place to sleep and we don't have a shower, then we can't think. So I hope this project will bring a little bit of ease in this village so they can at least think, do, and take care of themselves.
And that's the only goal I have through this project. So thank you for helping me spread this word.

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It means a lot. I want you to complete this sentence for me. If the world is run by women… If the world is run by women, it will be very creative and it will be very unique and harmonious, I feel. Creative, unique and harmonious. I think we could do with a little bit of that right now. Or a big dose of that. I really feel like women are, you know, women think, and their action is such different.
Like, we're just so different, and we just want to, like, be, like, let us serve a little bit, you know? Let us just give us that platform that we can save the light. And, you know, when I went to that village, and all of those men, like, that whole village is run by the men. Like, there's not even one single woman in the leadership. so everything is run by man and they were literally like talking over, like, power all the time, you know?
And the whole power comes from ancestral power. Like, if one family were leader, then their son becomes leader, and then they forget the power of human beings. They more become traditional leaders, beliefs in, like, okay, I'm a man, and I can do anything. And that whole negative vibration is implemented in them. village and that is why the children are victim of child labor and the women are being victim of domestic violence.
So when a woman and girl like us who comes into that place, we are always thinking like, I just want to love people and just let me bring some beauty to this such a devastating place. And so I hope that

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more and more men will support amazing women and it will support them back. Do you remember my daughter Grace, Nasreen? Yes, of course, how is she? She's nearly as tall as me now. Oh my God! Yeah, it just reminded me yesterday, we're lucky enough right now, we had a flood in our house, we had to move out and we're lucky enough to be in a house right now that that has a small swimming pool with a slide the privilege of us anyway the the slide is maybe a little dangerous and my boys are like up that slide straight away taking the risk coming down this slide and of course after you know a few minutes one of them comes off the slide and bangs his head screaming you know and then the other one still going up the slide even though the other one is come down from the slide.
And Grace and I, my daughter, we look at each other and I say, listen, Grace, this is the problem with the world right now. Because the world is run by boys like this. This is it. They're taking risks, just go and doing it. They see someone else. Don't worry about the circumstances. I said, we were just laughing. What is it that makes them want to do that? Because I said to her, do you want to go up this slide?
She said, no, I'm not going up that slide. She said, no way. She said, if it was plastic, it's kind of a concrete thing. She said, a plastic slide, I would be fine. Of course, I would go on other slides. But she goes, I'm not going near that slide. She says to me, are you going to go up that slide? I said, I have no intention of going up that slide. And we're just laughing because the boys, even though they're screaming, crying, they still go back up the slide.
And I just felt like this is… It's just a problem of the entire class.

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Yeah, it's like so senseless and like there's so much ego, you know, like I have I bring some time and collaborate with the local leaders and usually the men are the leaders so and they just think differently and they don't want to listen like they're like okay I don't care this is what I want and like it's not about what you want it's about what it's going to work you know and what's it's going to solve the problem like that is how and they're like I don't care, and this is what I want.
If you want to work with me, if not, then I don't care, you know, they go. So it's like they don't, you know, they just don't like to, like their ego just so gone naturally, you know, I don't know if that's in their DNA or whatever, but it's something that I'm having a really hard time to figure out, but I feel like if they will, become a little gentle and I don't know if women will maybe step up they will become gentle automatically because sometimes we also have to claim our power and say like this is not right and I'm not going to do this and that brings them like you know and brings them little ease in their body so maybe more women need to step up in order to bring the masculinity a little bit you know to heal them.
I basically feel like they need healing more than like women, I guess, because they're so far gone and their thinking and decision making is like literally devastating for the world and for our planet. Yeah, I mean, that's a whole other conversation we could have about men. And I know it's all about man hating, hating men and any of those things. I mean, we love the men, but men are running things and have been running things for a long time and it's tanking.
It's tanking big time. And as you say, men need healing too. What's your message? What do you want to say, Ms. Nasreen? What do you want to say to the world as we're finishing off here today? Oh, I feel that

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we all are interconnected and I basically feel like especially these medias that we're using has such a huge role to play and people have for the first time an opportunities to share messages like this if they… like want to see the change. Let's let's share and you can re-share and re-share and we can educate millions of people and if we want. So I just encourage every young girls and the women to not give up and please keep fighting for yourself and for your community and eventually for the world and Please help us share this message and bring us our attention to these big medias that is talking about all the time. politics and this you know like the real change comes from the ground you know and if we share the message from the ground what is happening it will help us develop a lot of things that we want to develop you know like if you don't eat healthy food how you are going to become healthy it's the same way i feel like if we are not bringing awareness from the from the ground level how this world is going to be influenced in that way.
So please bring our message forward through this internet that we have for the first time in our history that I feel so proud about. Like I'm like, yes, now we can make a video and we can share it and we can ask people for help. So please, please use this power and help us to spread our message. And people can go to our website, learn more about it, support girls and women.

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Please, because they are literally looking up to you. I love men and I love women and we all are one. Nasreen Sheikh, thank you so much. You are the true embodiment of inspiration and empowerment and just an all-round badass, cool woman. And I can't wait to see all of the amazing things that you will continue to do. This too shall pass. The world is… open for the first time and I hope that in some small way this broadcast will help more people around the world to understand what's going on in Nepal and understand what's going on with you and be inspired to partner with you, be inspired to find out what you're doing because the world needs to know who you are.
So thank you so much and I'll be speaking to you soon. So thank you so much for organizing this. I absolutely like, you know, your fan and… and you're inspiring me. But I remember this moment she told me about where she, in her village where it was so difficult for her, she used to find this place. She would go slightly outside of the village and there was a field. And she would stand in the field, look up at the sun and spin, spin around looking at the sun.
Take a moment to feel that feeling of this little Indian girl having suffered so much trauma spinning in the sun and having that moment of everything is okay, everything is okay. And having that drive and that purpose and that fearlessness to then follow her dreams and escape that life. I just think that the whole entire world needs to know about Nasreen. We should be voting for Nasreen.

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