July 24, 2020
By Shere Azam
KARACHI
The cattle market this year has a most unexpected situation. In this male-dominated buyer-seller platform, one brave girl has challenged gender roles and has set a trend for women by selling sacrificial animals in the cattle market all on her own.
Twenty-three year old Ayesha Ghani stands alongside men not just selling the animals, but also taking care of them including seeing to their needs such as feeding, bathing and decorating them herself, and then also fixing the prices.
There are 20 animals in the camp including two and four toothed cows, oxen, and calves with prices ranging from Rs100,000 to Rs700,000.
Ayesha visits the cattle market on a daily basis and spends her time with the animals, also engaging with her customers.
In an interview with Voicepk.net Ayesha said “I faced a lot of challenges in the beginning; I had no idea how to trade and react with different people. Later the management of the cattle market helped me. Last year when I came to the cattle market with my family to buy animals, I saw men everywhere but I did not find a single woman. So I thought why not do the same as the men.”
Ayesha says she is an animal lover. “I have purchased smaller animals and hired people for care of the animals, Now I offer sacrificial animals in the market on the occasion of Eid-Ul-Adha.” Speaking on the market value she says, “I have sold 16 so far and 20 animals are still in camp for sale.”
“I do not have any problems in the cattle market anymore and it does not seem strange to work, just as women work in all walks of life, women should not feel embarrassed here either,” she says. “On the visit of a cattle market a resident of Karachi, Alina Fatima says that “Women like Ayesha Ghani were working with men in the society, which was something to be proud of. “Women can do the same things that men do in every sphere of society.”