PESHAWAR – The provincial government has approved Rs400 million to establish a ‘female youth club’ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital city to promote healthy activities among women.
KP Senior Minister for Tourism, Sports, Youth, Culture and Archeology Atif Khan presided a meeting where he approved the youth club project. Additional Secretary Babar Khan and Director Youth Affairs Asfandyar Khattak and commission members were also present on the occasion.
The minister also tweeted the development by the KP Tourism Corporation.
Female youth club approved for pesh,Rs 4 crore approved. It will include gym, cafe and other facilities only for females pic.twitter.com/4GvyTtkr9V
— Atif Khan (@AtifKhanpti) January 15, 2019
Women of the northern Pakistani province will enjoy an exclusive space with basic facilities such as gym, yoga, theatre, rooftop café, table and board games and virtual e-games facilities in addition to a children play area at the club.
Tuesday’s meeting also decided to introduce “Books on Vehicles” to promote the book reading habit among the youth. In a scheme, members of the meeting proposed that the Youth Affairs Department would acquire books from National Book Foundation to provide the students of schools and colleges with the literature.
However, the meeting to approve the club facility was criticized by many social media users as the pictures tweeted revealed lack of female representation in the meeting.
Digital rights activist Nighat Dad tweeted that “[a] room full of men approved a female youth club in Peshawar”.
Room full of men approved female youth club in Peshawar ?????? #WhereAreTheWomen #Manel https://t.co/o58vzyYqPU
— Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) January 15, 2019
Another social media activist added: “And no woman [can be] seen in this picture [of those that] approved this decision”.
On the other hand, one user defended the ‘absent female representation’ by responding that “they were visiting the site when the photo was taken after their approval”.
The females were on a visit to the building of this Youth Club when this photo was taken
— Najiullah Khattak (@khattaks) January 15, 2019
At this, another twitterati, Nariman Bisma said that “suggestions were taken from all female members prior to approving the Female Youth club. [It is a] one of its kind initiative in Peshawar which should be appreciated”.
Youth clubs are usually run by local authorities and serve as a place where people utilise their leisure time and resources to develop their social and physical skills.
