9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
While preparing for my talk

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was reflecting on my life

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and trying to figure out

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where exactly was that moment[br]when my journey began.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A long time passed by,[br]and I simple couldn't figure out

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the beginning or the middle[br]or the end of my story.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I always used to think that my beginning

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was one afternoon in my community[br]when my mother had told me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that I had escaped three[br]arranged marriages by the time I was two.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Or one evening when electricity had failed[br]for eight hours in our community,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and my dad sat, surrounded by all of us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
telling us stories of when he was[br]a little kid struggling to go to school

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
while his father, who was a farmer,[br]wanted him to work in the fields with him.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Or the dark night when I was 16[br]when three little kids have come to me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they whispered in my ear[br]that my friend was murdered

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in something called "the honor killings."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But then I realized that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as much as I know that these moments[br]have contributed on my journey,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they have influenced my journey

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but they have not been[br]the beginning of it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but the true beginning of my journey[br]was in front of a mud house

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in Upper Sindh of Pakistan,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where my father held the hand[br]of my 14-year old mother

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they decided[br]to walk out of the village

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to go to a town where they could[br]send their kids to school.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In a way, I feel like my life

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is kind of a result of some wise choices[br]and decisions they've made.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And just like that,[br]another of their decisions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was to keep me and my siblings[br]connected to our roots.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
While we were living in a community[br]I fondly remember called [?????],

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which means community of the poor,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
my dad made sure that we also[br]had a house in our rural homeland.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I come from an indigenous tribe[br]in the mountains of Baluchistan

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
called Bravi.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Bravi, or Brohi,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
means mountain dweller,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it is also my language.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thanks to my father's very strict rules[br]about connecting to our customs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I had to live a beautiful life[br]of songs, cultures, traditions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
stories, mountains,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and a lot of sheep.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But then, living in two extremes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
between the traditions of my culture,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of my village, and then education,[br]modern education in my school wasn't easy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was aware that I was the only girl[br]who got to have such freedom,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I was guilty of it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
While going to school in Karachi

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and Hyderabad,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a lot of my cousins and childhood friends[br]were getting married off,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
some to older men, some in exchange,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
some even as second wives.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I got to see the beautiful tradition

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and its magic fade in front of me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when I saw that the birth of a girl child

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was celebrated with sadness,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when women were told[br]to have patience as their main virtue.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Up until I was 16,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I healed my sadness by crying,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mostly at nights[br]when everyone would sleep,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I would sob in my pillow,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but until that one night[br]when I found out my friend was killed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the name of honor.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Honor killings is a custom

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where men and women[br]are suspected of having relationships

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
before or outside of the marriage,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they're killed by their family for it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Usually the killer is the brother[br]or father or the uncle in the family.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The U.N. reports there are about 1,000[br]honor murders every year in Pakistan,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and these are only the reported cases.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A custom that kills[br]did not make any sense to me,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I knew I had to do[br]something about it this time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was not going to cry myself to sleep.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was going to do something,[br]anything, to stop it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was 16. I started writing poetry

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and going door to door[br]telling everybody about honor killings

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and why it happens,[br]why it should be stopped,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and raising awareness about it until[br]I actually found a much, much better way

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to handle this issue.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In those days, we were[br]living in a very small,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
one roomed house in Karachi.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Every year, during the monsoon seasons,[br]our house would flood out with water,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
rainwater, and sewage,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and my mom and dad[br]would be taking the water out.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In those days, my dad brought home[br]a huge machine, a computer.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was so big it looked as if[br]it was going to take the half

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the only room we had,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and had so many pieces and wires[br]that needed to be connected.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But it was still the most exciting thing

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that has ever happened[br]to me and my sisters.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My older brother Ali got to be in charge[br]of taking care of the computer,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and all of us were given, like,[br]10 to 15 minutes every day to use it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Being the older of eight kids,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I got to use it the last,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that was after[br]I had washed the dishes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cleaned the house,[br]made dinner with my mom,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and put blankets on the floor[br]for everyone to sleep,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and after that,[br]I would run to the computer,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
connect it to the Internet,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and have pure joy and wonder[br]for 15 to 10 minutes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In those days, I had discovered[br]a website called Joogle.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Google] (Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In my frantic wish[br]to do something about this custom,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I made use of Google[br]and discovered Facebook,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a website where people can connect[br]to anyone around the world,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and so, from my very tiny,[br]cement-roofed room in Karachi,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I connected with people in U.K.,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
U.S., Australia, and Canada,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and created a campaign

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
called "WAKE UP Campaign[br]against Honor Killings."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It became enormous in just a few months.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I got a lot of support[br]from all around the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Media was connecting to us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A lot of people were reaching out[br]trying to raise awareness with us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It became so big that it went from online[br]to the streets of my hometown,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where we would do rallies and strikes[br]trying to change the policies in Pakistan

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for women's support.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And while I thought[br]everything was perfect,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
my team, who was basically[br]my friends and neighbors at that time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
thought everything was going so well,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that we had no idea[br]a big opposition was coming to us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My community stood up against us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
saying we were spreading[br]un-Islamic behavior.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We were challenging centuries-old[br]customs in those communities.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I remember my father receiving[br]anonymous letters

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
saying, "Your daughter is spreading

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Western culture[br]in the honorable societies."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our car was stoned at one point.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
One day I went to the office[br]and found our metal signboard

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wrinkled and broken as if a lot of people[br]had been hitting it with something heavy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Things got so bad that I had[br]to hide myself in many ways.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would put up the windows of the car,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
veil my face, not speak[br]while I was in public,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but eventually, situations got worse

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when my life was threatened

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I had to leave back to Karachi

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and our actions stopped.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Back in Karachi, as an 18-year old,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I thought this was the biggest[br]failure of my entire life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was devastated.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As a teenager, I was blaming[br]myself for everything that happened.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And it turns out,[br]when we started reflecting,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we did realize that it was actually[br]me and my team's fault.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There were two big reasons[br]why our campaign had failed big time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
One of those, the first reason,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is we were standing[br]against core values of people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We were saying no to something[br]that was very important to them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
challenging their code of honor,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and hurting them deeply in the process.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And number two, which was very[br]important for me to learn,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and amazing, and surprising[br]for me to learn,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was that we were not including[br]the true heroes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who should be fighting for themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The women in the villages had no idea[br]we were fighting for them in the streets.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Every time I would go back,[br]I would find my cousins and friends

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with scarves on their faces,[br]and I would ask, what happened?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And they'd be like, our husband beat us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But then we are working[br]in the streets for you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are changing the policies.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How is that not impacting their life?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So then we found out something[br]which was very amazing for us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The policies of a country

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
do not necessarily always affect[br]the tribal and rural communities.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was devastating, like, oh,[br]we can't actually do something about this?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we found out there's a huge gap

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when it comes to official policies[br]and the real truth on the ground.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So this time, we were like,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we are going to do something different.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are going to use strategy,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we are going to go back and apologize.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yes, apologize.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We went back to the communities[br]and we said we are very ashamed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of what we did.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are here to apologize,[br]and in fact, we are here

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to make it up to you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How did we do that?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are going to promote[br]three of your main cultures.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We know that it's music,[br]language, and embroidery.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nobody believed us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nobody wanted to work with us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It took a lot of convincing[br]and discussions with these communities

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
until they agreed that we are going[br]to promote their language

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by making a booklet of their stories,[br]fables, and old tales in the tribe,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we would promote their music[br]by making a CD of the songs

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from the tribe, and some drumbeating.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the third, which was my favorite,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was we would promote[br]their embroidery by making

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a center in the village[br]where women would come every day

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to make embroidery.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so it began.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We worked with one village,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we started our first center.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was a beautiful day.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We started the center.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Women were coming to make embroidery,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and going through a life-changing[br]process of education,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
learning about their rights,[br]what Islam says about their rights,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and enterprise development,[br]how they can create money,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and then how they can create[br]money from money,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how they can fight the customs[br]that have been destroying their lives

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from so many centuries,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because in Islam, in reality,[br]women are supposed to be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
shoulder to shoulder with men.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Women have so much status

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that we have not been hearing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that they have not been hearing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we needed to tell them[br]that they need to know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where their rights are[br]and how to take them by themselves,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because they can do it and we can't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So this was the model which actually[br]came out, very amazing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Through embroidery[br]we were promoting their traidtions.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We went into the village.[br]We would mobilize the community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We would make a center inside[br]where 30 women will come

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for six months to learn about[br]value addition of traditional embroidery,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
enterprise development,[br]life skills and basic education,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and about their rights[br]and how to say no to those customs

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and how to stand as leaders[br]for themselves and the society.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After six months, we would connect[br]these women to loans and to markets

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where they can become[br]local entrepreneurs in their communities.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We soon called this project Sughar.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sughar is a local word used[br]in many, many languages in Pakistan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It means skilled and confident women.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I truly believe, to create women leaders,[br]there's only one thing you have to do:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just let them know that they have[br]what it takes to be a leader.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These women you see here,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they have strong skills[br]and potential to be leaders.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All we had to do was remove[br]the barriers that surrounded them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that's what we decided to do.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But then while we were thinking[br]everything was going,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
once again everything was fantastic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we found our next setback:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a lot of men started seeing[br]the visible changes in their wife.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She's speaking more,[br]she's making decisions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
oh my gosh, she's, like,[br]handling everything in the house.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They stopped them[br]from coming to the centers,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and this time, we were like,[br]okay, time for strategy two.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We went to the fashion industry in Pakistan

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and decided to do a research[br]about what happens there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Turns out the fashion industry in Pakistan[br]is very strong and growing day by day,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but there is less contribution[br]from the tribal area

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to the tribal areas, especially women.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So we decided to launch our first ever[br]tribal women's very own fashion brand,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which is now called Nomads.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so women started earning more,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they started contributing more[br]financially to the house,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and men had to think again[br]before saying no to them

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when they were coming to the centers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you, thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In 2013, we launched our first[br]Sughar Hub instead of a center.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We partnered with TripAdvisor

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and created a cemented hall[br]in the middle of a village

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and invited so many other organizations[br]to work over there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We created this platform[br]for the non-profits

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so they can touch and work[br]on the other issues

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that Sughar is not working on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which would be an easy place for them[br]to give trainings,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
use it as a farmer school,[br]even as a marketplace,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and anything they want to use it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they have been doing really amazing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so far, we have been able[br]to support 900 women

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in 24 villages around Pakistan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But that's actually not what I want.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My dream is to reach out[br]to one million women in the next 10 years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to make sure that happens,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this year we launched[br]Sughar Foundation in the U.S.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is not just going to fund Sughar[br]but many other organizations in Pakistan

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to replicate the idea

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to find even more innovative ways

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to unleash the rural women's[br]potential in Pakistan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you so much.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Chris Anderson: Khalida, you are[br]quite the force of nature.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, this story, in many ways,[br]just seems beyond belief.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It seems incredible that someone[br]so young could do achieve this much

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
through so much force and ingenuity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So I guess one question:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this is a spectacular dream[br]to reach out and empower a million women:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how much of the current success[br]depends on you,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the force of this magnetic personality?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How does it scale?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Khalida Brohi: I think my job[br]is to give the inspiration out,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
give my dream out.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I can't teach how to do it, because[br]there are so many different ways.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have been experimenting[br]with three ways only.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There are, like, a hundred different ways[br]to unleash potential in women.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would just give the inspiration[br]and that's my job.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I will keep doing it.[br]Sughar will still be growing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are planning to reach out[br]to two more villages,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and soon I believe we will[br]be scaling out of Pakistan

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into South Asia and beyond.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: I love that when you talk[br]about your team in the talk,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, you were all 16,[br]18 at the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What did this team look like?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This was school friends, right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: I was, like, do people believe here[br]that I'm at an age

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where I'm supposed[br]to be a grandmother in my village?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My mom was married at a nine,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I am the oldest woman not married[br]and not doing anything in my village.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: Wait, wait, wait, not doing anything?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: No.[br]CA: You're right.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: People feel sorry for me,[br]a lot of times.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: But how much time are you spending[br]actually back in Baluchistan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: I live over there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We live between, still,[br]Karachi and Baluchistan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My siblings are going to school.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I am still the older of eight siblings.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: But what you're doing is definitely[br]threatening to some people there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How do you handle safety?[br]Do you feel safe?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Are there issues there?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: This question has come to me[br]a lot of times before,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I feel like the word fear[br]just comes to me and then drops,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but there is one fear that I have[br]that is different from that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The fear is that if I get killed,[br]what would happen to the people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who love me so much?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My mom waits for me til late at night[br]that I should come home.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My sisters want to learn so much from me,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and there are many, many girls[br]in my community who want to talk to me

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and ask me different things,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I recently got engaged.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: Is he here? You've got to stand up.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: Escaping arranged marriages,[br]I chose my own husband

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
across the world in L.A.,[br]a really different world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I had to fight for a whole year.[br]That's totally a different story.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But I think that's[br]the only thing that I'm afraid of,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I don't want my mom to not see anyone

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when she waits in the night.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: So people who want[br]to help you on their way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they can go on, they can maybe[br]buy some of these clothes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that you're bringing over

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that are actually made, the embroidery[br]is done back in Baluchistan?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: Yeah.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: Or they can get involved[br]in the foundation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: Definitely. We are looking[br]for as many people as we can,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because now that the foundation's[br]in the beginning process,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I am trying to learn a lot[br]about how to operate,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how to get funding[br]or reach out to more organizations,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and especially in the ecommerce,[br]which is very new.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, I am not[br]a fashion person, believe me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
CA: Well, it's been incredible[br]to have you here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Please go on being courageous,[br]go on being smart, and please stay safe.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
KB: Thank you so much.[br]CA: Thank you, Khalida. (Applause)