Qamar Ul-Zaman'sreception is enormous. Between 1,000 to 2,000 people in attendance and we are his special guests. I have never seen anything like it.
This is the transcript of myspeech.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Assalam aleckum. Iam Maxine Bowler, I am the treassuer of the Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund Iam proud to be back in Bagh. Last time I visited was as part of the original delegation that came in December 2005.
And yes I am proud to bbe wearing a shalwar kameez that was bought for me by ladies from the Heeley AsianWomen's Group but regrettably I am still unable to speak to you in Urdu or Pari. I am still awaiting lessons from the extremely busy Professor Abul Assim. We have received fantastic hospitality from the people of Kashmir and enthusiastic support, in particular fronm Sardar Qamar Ul-Zaman and I have to correct an earlier speaker for I understand that he is known as the lion of Bagh and not the tiger and for good reason as his opposition will know! He is one of the peole who convinced us of the impoprtance of an educational project and in particular to rebuild the Girls' College in Bagh.
Since then we have been working very hard since the day w returned we have spoken at hundreds of meetings, we have put the forgotten tragedy back on the agenda with Julia Armstrong and Phil Turner's press coverage. We have even appeared on the Islam Channel. We have organised a series of sponsored events including school students who formed a giant Kfor Kashmir in the Sheffield city centre. We have had donations to build rooms in their organisations' names from the fire service, from the police and trade unions.
Last summer 12 teachers came at their own expense and taught for the whole summer at thesite of the old school, keeping alive our dream.
And now we have come back and this time with the first lady of our city, the Lord Mayor Jackie Drayton and weare proud that she has agreed to support our project.
We know from the experience of visiting the five sewing schools set up in ther mountainous areas by Kubra Assim that the notion of girls' education was absolutely correct. Qamar Ul-Zaman was correct when he insisted there will be no rehabilitation without education and quoted to us the Prophet Mohammed, PBUH, give us a boy and i will educate a boy, give us a girl and I will educate a nation. Yesterday, when handing out certificates to the girls trained during the summer, I asked one of them what thecourse had meant to her. She said, it has helped her mentally and psychologically to get back on with her lifeand helped her to overcome the pain she was suffering from the tragic events.
We have helped so far approximately 700 women in the sewing and teaching projects but what we really want to do is to build a girls' college. We want to build this as a gift from the people of Sheffield as an act of solidarity, as a kickback against some of the demonising images of Muslims we are subjected to in our country to legitimise their war.
Our project is about humanity and I want to see the prospect of hundreds of women moving forward, building confidence, being educated and helping to rebuild their country.
transcript ends
I was really pleased that Qamar Ul-Zaman thanked me for my tremendous speech and when he spoke said that if I had spoken in a graveyard, even the skeletons could not fail to be moved by what I had said. He has agreed that he will support my election campaign and that this can be used as a quote on my literature.
Jackie Drayton the Lord Mayor describes the little acts that have taken place to raise money including her fasther, who had been scrubbing and washing all the coins that are thrown into the Sheffield fountains to go to the Lord Mayor's Appeal. She announces that we will be accepting one of the plots of land and asks Sardar Qamar Ul-Zaman and the District Commissioner to attend the stone-laying ceremony at 10am the following morning. This they agree. She talks about this being the first step towards building a continuing relationship between Sheffield and Bagh.
This takes place the following morning, a historic and exciting day for our project. I want to pay tribute to our delegation leader and the secretary of Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund, Professor Abdul Assim, who has worked like a slave, organising this trip and making sure that it happens. His health is not fantastic but he is a determined and passionate Kashmiri, like many of his people.
Iam now fretting about my eleection campaign, so if you are reading this, please please go out and help me! If you want to contribute to Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund, money to be sent c/o Kashmir Education Trust, Abbeyfield House, Abbeyfield Raod, Sheffield.Cheques payable to Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund.
