0:00:00.973,0:00:03.209
While preparing for my talk

0:00:03.209,0:00:07.263
I was reflecting on my life[br]and trying to figure out

0:00:07.263,0:00:12.187
where exactly was that moment[br]when my journey began.

0:00:12.187,0:00:14.834
A long time passed by,[br]and I simply couldn't figure out

0:00:14.834,0:00:17.806
the beginning or the middle[br]or the end of my story.

0:00:17.806,0:00:19.757
I always used to think that my beginning

0:00:19.757,0:00:23.867
was one afternoon in my community[br]when my mother had told me

0:00:23.867,0:00:27.308
that I had escaped three[br]arranged marriages by the time I was two.

0:00:28.278,0:00:32.713
Or one evening when electricity had failed[br]for eight hours in our community,

0:00:32.713,0:00:34.965
and my dad sat, surrounded by all of us,

0:00:34.965,0:00:38.866
telling us stories of when he was[br]a little kid struggling to go to school

0:00:38.866,0:00:42.974
while his father, who was a farmer,[br]wanted him to work in the fields with him.

0:00:42.974,0:00:45.722
Or that dark night when I was 16

0:00:45.722,0:00:50.139
when three little kids had come to me[br]and they whispered in my ear

0:00:50.139,0:00:54.416
that my friend was murdered[br]in something called the honor killings.

0:00:56.106,0:00:58.231
But then I realized that,

0:00:58.231,0:01:01.948
as much as I know that these moments[br]have contributed on my journey,

0:01:01.948,0:01:03.548
they have influenced my journey

0:01:03.548,0:01:05.707
but they have not been[br]the beginning of it,

0:01:05.707,0:01:10.003
but the true beginning of my journey[br]was in front of a mud house

0:01:10.003,0:01:12.626
in upper Sindh of Pakistan,

0:01:12.626,0:01:15.482
where my father held the hand[br]of my 14-year-old mother

0:01:15.482,0:01:17.502
and they decided[br]to walk out of the village

0:01:17.502,0:01:20.962
to go to a town where they could[br]send their kids to school.

0:01:20.962,0:01:23.168
In a way, I feel like my life

0:01:23.168,0:01:28.903
is kind of a result of some wise choices[br]and decisions they've made.

0:01:28.903,0:01:31.759
And just like that,[br]another of their decisions

0:01:31.759,0:01:34.986
was to keep me and my siblings[br]connected to our roots.

0:01:34.986,0:01:39.235
While we were living in a community[br]I fondly remember as called Ribabad,

0:01:39.235,0:01:41.464
which means community of the poor,

0:01:41.464,0:01:45.156
my dad made sure that we also[br]had a house in our rural homeland.

0:01:45.156,0:01:48.780
I come from an indigenous tribe[br]in the mountains of Balochistan

0:01:48.780,0:01:50.520
called Brahui.

0:01:50.520,0:01:55.688
Brahui, or Brohi, means mountain dweller,[br]and it is also my language.

0:01:55.688,0:01:59.924
Thanks to my father's very strict rules[br]about connecting to our customs,

0:01:59.924,0:02:05.655
I had to live a beautiful life of songs, [br]cultures, traditions, stories, mountains,

0:02:05.655,0:02:07.046
and a lot of sheep.

0:02:07.696,0:02:10.365
But then, living in two extremes

0:02:10.365,0:02:14.394
between the traditions [br]of my culture, of my village,

0:02:14.394,0:02:17.745
and then modern education[br]in my school wasn't easy.

0:02:17.745,0:02:22.249
I was aware that I was the only girl[br]who got to have such freedom,

0:02:22.249,0:02:24.293
and I was guilty of it.

0:02:24.293,0:02:28.255
While going to school[br]in Karachi and Hyderabad,

0:02:28.255,0:02:32.196
a lot of my cousins and childhood friends[br]were getting married off,

0:02:32.196,0:02:34.950
some to older men, some in exchange,

0:02:34.950,0:02:37.249
some even as second wives.

0:02:37.249,0:02:42.558
I got to see the beautiful tradition[br]and its magic fade in front of me

0:02:42.558,0:02:47.892
when I saw that the birth of a girl child[br]was celebrated with sadness,

0:02:47.892,0:02:52.659
when women were told[br]to have patience as their main virtue.

0:02:52.659,0:02:54.640
Up until I was 16,

0:02:54.640,0:02:57.448
I healed my sadness by crying,

0:02:57.448,0:02:59.634
mostly at nights [br]when everyone would sleep

0:02:59.634,0:03:01.950
and I would sob in my pillow,

0:03:01.950,0:03:05.297
until that one night [br]when I found out my friend was killed

0:03:05.297,0:03:07.471
in the name of honor.

0:03:08.381,0:03:11.218
Honor killings is a custom

0:03:11.218,0:03:14.116
where men and women[br]are suspected of having relationships

0:03:14.116,0:03:15.811
before or outside of the marriage,

0:03:15.811,0:03:17.990
and they're killed by their family for it.

0:03:17.990,0:03:22.375
Usually the killer is the brother[br]or father or the uncle in the family.

0:03:22.375,0:03:27.007
The U.N. reports there are about 1,000[br]honor murders every year in Pakistan,

0:03:27.007,0:03:29.445
and these are only the reported cases.

0:03:29.445,0:03:33.183
A custom that kills[br]did not make any sense to me,

0:03:33.183,0:03:35.761
and I knew I had to do[br]something about it this time.

0:03:35.761,0:03:38.152
I was not going to cry myself to sleep.

0:03:38.152,0:03:40.660
I was going to do something,[br]anything, to stop it.

0:03:40.660,0:03:42.726
I was 16 -- I started writing poetry

0:03:42.726,0:03:45.954
and going door to door[br]telling everybody about honor killings

0:03:45.954,0:03:48.149
and why it happens,[br]why it should be stopped,

0:03:48.149,0:03:49.585
and raising awareness about it

0:03:49.585,0:03:54.162
until I actually found a much, much [br]better way to handle this issue.

0:03:54.841,0:04:01.002
In those days, we were living in[br]a very small, one-roomed house in Karachi.

0:04:01.002,0:04:05.529
Every year, during the monsoon seasons,[br]our house would flood up with water --

0:04:05.529,0:04:07.236
rainwater and sewage --

0:04:07.241,0:04:10.368
and my mom and dad[br]would be taking the water out.

0:04:10.368,0:04:15.467
In those days, my dad brought home[br]a huge machine, a computer.

0:04:15.467,0:04:20.364
It was so big it looked as if it was going[br]to take up half of the only room we had,

0:04:20.364,0:04:23.864
and had so many pieces and wires[br]that needed to be connected.

0:04:23.864,0:04:25.954
But it was still the most exciting thing

0:04:25.954,0:04:28.740
that has ever happened[br]to me and my sisters.

0:04:28.740,0:04:32.850
My oldest brother Ali got to be in charge[br]of taking care of the computer,

0:04:32.850,0:04:36.785
and all of us were given[br]10 to 15 minutes every day to use it.

0:04:36.785,0:04:39.850
Being the oldest of eight kids,

0:04:39.850,0:04:42.335
I got to use it the last,

0:04:42.335,0:04:45.074
and that was after[br]I had washed the dishes,

0:04:45.074,0:04:47.837
cleaned the house,[br]made dinner with my mom,

0:04:47.837,0:04:50.529
and put blankets on the floor[br]for everyone to sleep,

0:04:50.529,0:04:52.712
and after that, [br]I would run to the computer,

0:04:52.712,0:04:54.269
connect it to the Internet,

0:04:54.269,0:05:00.288
and have pure joy and wonder[br]for 10 to 15 minutes.

0:05:00.288,0:05:04.694
In those days, I had discovered[br]a website called Joogle.

0:05:04.694,0:05:07.760
[Google] (Laughter)

0:05:07.760,0:05:11.474
In my frantic wish[br]to do something about this custom,

0:05:11.474,0:05:14.982
I made use of Google[br]and discovered Facebook,

0:05:14.982,0:05:19.137
a website where people can connect[br]to anyone around the world,

0:05:19.137,0:05:23.618
and so, from my very tiny,[br]cement-roofed room in Karachi,

0:05:23.618,0:05:26.828
I connected with people in the U.K.,[br]the U.S., Australia and Canada,

0:05:26.828,0:05:29.335
and created a campaign called

0:05:29.335,0:05:32.228
WAKE UP Campaign[br]against Honor Killings.

0:05:32.228,0:05:35.299
It became enormous[br]in just a few months.

0:05:35.299,0:05:37.851
I got a lot of support[br]from all around the world.

0:05:37.851,0:05:39.312
Media was connecting to us.

0:05:39.312,0:05:42.611
A lot of people were reaching out[br]trying to raise awareness with us.

0:05:42.611,0:05:47.353
It became so big that it went from online[br]to the streets of my hometown,

0:05:47.353,0:05:49.697
where we would do rallies and strikes

0:05:49.697,0:05:53.169
trying to change the policies [br]in Pakistan for women's support.

0:05:53.169,0:05:56.891
And while I thought[br]everything was perfect,

0:05:56.891,0:06:00.768
my team -- which was basically[br]my friends and neighbors at that time --

0:06:00.768,0:06:02.858
thought everything was going so well,

0:06:02.858,0:06:07.259
we had no idea a big opposition[br]was coming to us.

0:06:08.039,0:06:10.174
My community stood up against us,

0:06:10.174,0:06:13.891
saying we were spreading[br]un-Islamic behavior.

0:06:13.891,0:06:18.601
We were challenging centuries-old[br]customs in those communities.

0:06:18.601,0:06:21.679
I remember my father receiving[br]anonymous letters

0:06:21.679,0:06:24.615
saying, "Your daughter [br]is spreading Western culture

0:06:24.615,0:06:26.341
in the honorable societies."

0:06:26.341,0:06:28.887
Our car was stoned at one point.

0:06:28.887,0:06:32.787
One day I went to the office[br]and found our metal signboard

0:06:32.787,0:06:37.589
wrinkled and broken as if a lot of people[br]had been hitting it with something heavy.

0:06:37.589,0:06:41.216
Things got so bad that I had[br]to hide myself in many ways.

0:06:41.216,0:06:44.293
I would put up the windows of the car,

0:06:44.293,0:06:48.225
veil my face, not speak[br]while I was in public,

0:06:48.225,0:06:52.202
but eventually situations got worse[br]when my life was threatened,

0:06:52.202,0:06:56.768
and I had to leave, back to Karachi,[br]and our actions stopped.

0:06:57.962,0:07:01.335
Back in Karachi, as an 18-year-old,

0:07:01.335,0:07:06.101
I thought this was the biggest[br]failure of my entire life.

0:07:06.101,0:07:08.011
I was devastated.

0:07:08.011,0:07:11.656
As a teenager, I was blaming[br]myself for everything that happened.

0:07:11.656,0:07:13.792
And it turns out,[br]when we started reflecting,

0:07:13.792,0:07:19.666
we did realize that it was actually[br]me and my team's fault.

0:07:19.666,0:07:24.821
There were two big reasons[br]why our campaign had failed big time.

0:07:24.821,0:07:27.071
One of those, the first reason,

0:07:27.071,0:07:29.700
is we were standing[br]against core values of people.

0:07:30.900,0:07:34.412
We were saying no to something[br]that was very important to them,

0:07:34.412,0:07:36.759
challenging their code of honor,

0:07:36.759,0:07:39.026
and hurting them deeply in the process.

0:07:39.026,0:07:41.725
And number two, which was very[br]important for me to learn,

0:07:41.725,0:07:43.930
and amazing, and surprising[br]for me to learn,

0:07:43.930,0:07:47.111
was that we were not including[br]the true heroes

0:07:47.111,0:07:49.317
who should be fighting for themselves.

0:07:49.317,0:07:53.274
The women in the villages had no idea[br]we were fighting for them in the streets.

0:07:53.274,0:07:54.711
Every time I would go back,

0:07:54.711,0:07:57.718
I would find my cousins and friends[br]with scarves on their faces,

0:07:57.718,0:07:59.512
and I would ask, "What happened?"

0:07:59.512,0:08:01.902
And they'd be like, [br]"Our husbands beat us."

0:08:01.902,0:08:04.781
But we are working in the streets for you!

0:08:04.781,0:08:06.383
We are changing the policies.

0:08:06.383,0:08:09.355
How is that not impacting their life?

0:08:09.355,0:08:14.206
So then we found out something[br]which was very amazing for us.

0:08:14.206,0:08:16.856
The policies of a country

0:08:16.856,0:08:21.467
do not necessarily always affect[br]the tribal and rural communities.

0:08:21.467,0:08:25.771
It was devastating -- like, oh,[br]we can't actually do something about this?

0:08:25.771,0:08:28.813
And we found out there's a huge gap

0:08:28.813,0:08:32.649
when it comes to official policies[br]and the real truth on the ground.

0:08:32.649,0:08:35.961
So this time, we were like,[br]we are going to do something different.

0:08:35.961,0:08:37.710
We are going to use strategy,

0:08:37.710,0:08:40.699
and we are going to go back and apologize.

0:08:40.699,0:08:42.350
Yes, apologize.

0:08:42.350,0:08:43.863
We went back to the communities

0:08:43.863,0:08:47.111
and we said we are [br]very ashamed of what we did.

0:08:47.111,0:08:51.681
We are here to apologize, and in fact,[br]we are here to make it up to you.

0:08:51.681,0:08:53.251
How do we do that?

0:08:53.251,0:08:56.217
We are going to promote[br]three of your main cultures.

0:08:56.217,0:08:59.799
We know that it's music,[br]language, and embroidery.

0:08:59.799,0:09:01.325
Nobody believed us.

0:09:01.325,0:09:04.063
Nobody wanted to work with us.

0:09:04.063,0:09:07.618
It took a lot of convincing[br]and discussions with these communities

0:09:07.618,0:09:11.310
until they agreed that we are going[br]to promote their language

0:09:11.310,0:09:15.972
by making a booklet of their stories,[br]fables and old tales in the tribe,

0:09:15.972,0:09:18.544
and we would promote their music

0:09:18.544,0:09:24.055
by making a CD of the songs[br]from the tribe, and some drumbeating.

0:09:24.055,0:09:26.216
And the third, which was my favorite,

0:09:26.216,0:09:30.227
was we would promote their embroidery[br]by making a center in the village

0:09:30.227,0:09:33.362
where women would come every day[br]to make embroidery.

0:09:34.064,0:09:36.038
And so it began.

0:09:36.038,0:09:40.040
We worked with one village,[br]and we started our first center.

0:09:40.770,0:09:42.268
It was a beautiful day.

0:09:42.268,0:09:43.372
We started the center.

0:09:43.372,0:09:45.441
Women were coming to make embroidery,

0:09:45.441,0:09:49.185
and going through a life-changing[br]process of education,

0:09:49.185,0:09:52.235
learning about their rights,[br]what Islam says about their rights,

0:09:52.235,0:09:55.054
and enterprise development,[br]how they can create money,

0:09:55.054,0:09:57.306
and then how they can create[br]money from money,

0:09:57.306,0:10:01.184
how they can fight the customs[br]that have been destroying their lives

0:10:01.184,0:10:02.902
from so many centuries,

0:10:02.902,0:10:04.758
because in Islam, in reality,

0:10:04.758,0:10:08.373
women are supposed to be[br]shoulder to shoulder with men.

0:10:08.373,0:10:12.125
Women have so much status[br]that we have not been hearing,

0:10:12.125,0:10:13.938
that they have not been hearing,

0:10:13.938,0:10:16.956
and we needed to tell them[br]that they need to know

0:10:16.956,0:10:19.696
where their rights are[br]and how to take them by themselves,

0:10:19.696,0:10:22.021
because they can do it and we can't.

0:10:22.021,0:10:24.993
So this was the model which actually[br]came out -- very amazing.

0:10:24.993,0:10:27.526
Through embroidery[br]we were promoting their traditions.

0:10:27.526,0:10:30.237
We went into the village.[br]We would mobilize the community.

0:10:30.237,0:10:33.257
We would make a center inside[br]where 30 women will come

0:10:33.257,0:10:37.365
for six months to learn about[br]value addition of traditional embroidery,

0:10:37.365,0:10:41.104
enterprise development,[br]life skills and basic education,

0:10:41.104,0:10:44.215
and about their rights[br]and how to say no to those customs

0:10:44.215,0:10:47.886
and how to stand as leaders[br]for themselves and the society.

0:10:47.886,0:10:52.698
After six months, we would connect[br]these women to loans and to markets

0:10:52.698,0:10:56.608
where they can become[br]local entrepreneurs in their communities.

0:10:56.608,0:10:59.865
We soon called this project Sughar.

0:10:59.865,0:11:03.905
Sughar is a local word used[br]in many, many languages in Pakistan.

0:11:03.905,0:11:07.341
It means skilled and confident women.

0:11:07.341,0:11:12.449
I truly believe, to create women leaders,[br]there's only one thing you have to do:

0:11:12.449,0:11:16.631
Just let them know that they have[br]what it takes to be a leader.

0:11:16.631,0:11:18.130
These women you see here,

0:11:18.130,0:11:22.573
they have strong skills[br]and potential to be leaders.

0:11:22.573,0:11:25.615
All we had to do was remove[br]the barriers that surrounded them,

0:11:25.615,0:11:28.154
and that's what we decided to do.

0:11:28.154,0:11:31.443
But then while we were thinking[br]everything was going well,

0:11:31.443,0:11:34.043
once again everything was fantastic,

0:11:34.043,0:11:36.110
we found our next setback:

0:11:36.110,0:11:39.279
A lot of men started seeing[br]the visible changes in their wife.

0:11:39.279,0:11:41.420
She's speaking more,[br]she's making decisions --

0:11:41.420,0:11:44.109
oh my gosh, she's handling [br]everything in the house.

0:11:44.109,0:11:48.578
They stopped them[br]from coming to the centers,

0:11:48.578,0:11:52.622
and this time, we were like,[br]okay, time for strategy two.

0:11:52.622,0:11:54.710
We went to the fashion [br]industry in Pakistan

0:11:54.710,0:11:58.493
and decided to do research[br]about what happens there.

0:11:58.493,0:12:03.480
Turns out the fashion industry in Pakistan[br]is very strong and growing day by day,

0:12:03.480,0:12:07.046
but there is less contribution[br]from the tribal areas

0:12:07.046,0:12:10.121
and to the tribal areas, especially women.

0:12:10.121,0:12:14.555
So we decided to launch our first ever[br]tribal women's very own fashion brand,

0:12:14.555,0:12:17.185
which is now called Nomads.

0:12:18.085,0:12:20.267
And so women started earning more,

0:12:20.267,0:12:23.073
they started contributing more[br]financially to the house,

0:12:23.073,0:12:26.304
and men had to think again[br]before saying no to them

0:12:26.304,0:12:28.363
when they were coming to the centers.

0:12:31.343,0:12:34.106
(Applause)

0:12:34.106,0:12:36.265
Thank you, thank you.

0:12:36.265,0:12:41.442
In 2013, we launched our first[br]Sughar Hub instead of a center.

0:12:41.442,0:12:43.602
We partnered with TripAdvisor

0:12:43.602,0:12:47.514
and created a cement hall[br]in the middle of a village

0:12:47.514,0:12:51.752
and invited so many other organizations[br]to work over there.

0:12:51.752,0:12:53.847
We created this platform[br]for the nonprofits

0:12:53.847,0:12:56.170
so they can touch and work[br]on the other issues

0:12:56.170,0:12:58.395
that Sughar is not working on,

0:12:58.395,0:13:02.259
which would be an easy place [br]for them to give trainings,

0:13:02.259,0:13:04.874
use it as a farmer school,[br]even as a marketplace,

0:13:04.874,0:13:07.146
and anything they want to use it for,

0:13:07.146,0:13:09.259
and they have been doing really amazingly.

0:13:09.259,0:13:12.789
And so far, we have been able[br]to support 900 women

0:13:12.789,0:13:16.039
in 24 villages around Pakistan.

0:13:16.039,0:13:20.544
(Applause)

0:13:21.624,0:13:24.568
But that's actually not what I want.

0:13:26.758,0:13:31.410
My dream is to reach out[br]to one million women in the next 10 years,

0:13:31.410,0:13:33.059
and to make sure that happens,

0:13:33.059,0:13:36.047
this year we launched[br]Sughar Foundation in the U.S.

0:13:36.047,0:13:40.811
It is not just going to fund Sughar[br]but many other organizations in Pakistan

0:13:40.811,0:13:43.020
to replicate the idea

0:13:43.020,0:13:45.760
and to find even more innovative ways

0:13:45.760,0:13:49.591
to unleash the rural women's[br]potential in Pakistan.

0:13:49.591,0:13:51.564
Thank you so much.

0:13:51.564,0:13:54.606
(Applause)

0:13:54.606,0:13:57.336
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

0:13:59.056,0:14:02.359
Chris Anderson: Khalida, you are[br]quite the force of nature.

0:14:02.359,0:14:06.982
I mean, this story, in many ways,[br]just seems beyond belief.

0:14:06.982,0:14:11.042
It's incredible that someone[br]so young could do achieve this much

0:14:11.042,0:14:13.900
through so much force and ingenuity.

0:14:13.900,0:14:15.470
So I guess one question:

0:14:15.470,0:14:20.181
This is a spectacular dream to reach out[br]and empower a million women --

0:14:20.181,0:14:23.975
how much of the current [br]success depends on you,

0:14:23.975,0:14:28.208
the force of this magnetic personality?

0:14:28.218,0:14:30.848
How does it scale?

0:14:30.858,0:14:35.344
Khalida Brohi: I think my job[br]is to give the inspiration out,

0:14:35.344,0:14:37.065
give my dream out.

0:14:37.065,0:14:40.487
I can't teach how to do it, because[br]there are so many different ways.

0:14:40.487,0:14:42.792
We have been experimenting[br]with three ways only.

0:14:42.792,0:14:46.385
There are a hundred different ways[br]to unleash potential in women.

0:14:46.385,0:14:49.033
I would just give the inspiration[br]and that's my job.

0:14:49.033,0:14:51.507
I will keep doing it.[br]Sughar will still be growing.

0:14:51.507,0:14:54.595
We are planning to reach out[br]to two more villages,

0:14:54.595,0:14:57.575
and soon I believe [br]we will be scaling out of Pakistan

0:14:57.575,0:15:00.361
into South Asia and beyond.

0:15:00.361,0:15:03.914
CA: I love that when you talked[br]about your team in the talk,

0:15:03.914,0:15:06.096
I mean, you were all 18 at the time.

0:15:06.096,0:15:07.861
What did this team look like?

0:15:07.861,0:15:09.509
This was school friends, right?

0:15:09.509,0:15:14.478
KB: Do people here[br]believe that I'm at an age

0:15:14.478,0:15:17.522
where I'm supposed[br]to be a grandmother in my village?

0:15:17.522,0:15:23.412
My mom was married at nine,[br]and I am the oldest woman not married

0:15:23.412,0:15:26.988
and not doing anything[br]in my life in my village.

0:15:26.988,0:15:30.285
CA: Wait, wait, wait, not doing anything?

0:15:30.285,0:15:32.653
KB: No.[br]CA: You're right.

0:15:32.653,0:15:35.556
KB: People feel sorry for me,[br]a lot of times.

0:15:35.556,0:15:39.480
CA: But how much time are you spending[br]now actually back in Balochistan?

0:15:39.480,0:15:41.367
KB: I live over there.

0:15:41.367,0:15:44.199
We live between, still,[br]Karachi and Balochistan.

0:15:44.199,0:15:46.983
My siblings are all going to school.

0:15:46.983,0:15:49.424
I am still the oldest of eight siblings.

0:15:49.424,0:15:53.784
CA: But what you're doing is definitely[br]threatening to some people there.

0:15:53.784,0:15:58.140
How do you handle safety?[br]Do you feel safe?

0:15:58.140,0:16:00.265
Are there issues there?

0:16:00.265,0:16:04.075
KB: This question has come to me[br]a lot of times before,

0:16:04.075,0:16:10.390
and I feel like the word "fear"[br]just comes to me and then drops,

0:16:10.390,0:16:14.120
but there is one fear that I have[br]that is different from that.

0:16:14.120,0:16:17.623
The fear is that if I get killed,[br]what would happen to the people

0:16:17.623,0:16:19.608
who love me so much?

0:16:19.608,0:16:23.840
My mom waits for me till late at night[br]that I should come home.

0:16:23.840,0:16:26.585
My sisters want to learn so much from me,

0:16:26.585,0:16:29.846
and there are many, many girls[br]in my community who want to talk to me

0:16:29.846,0:16:32.119
and ask me different things,

0:16:32.119,0:16:34.910
and I recently got engaged. (Laughs)

0:16:34.910,0:16:37.324
(Applause)

0:16:37.324,0:16:40.552
CA: Is he here? You've got to stand up.

0:16:40.552,0:16:44.058
(Applause)

0:16:48.098,0:16:51.720
KB: Escaping arranged marriages,[br]I chose my own husband

0:16:51.720,0:16:56.178
across the world in L.A.,[br]a really different world.

0:16:56.178,0:16:59.444
I had to fight for a whole year.[br]That's totally a different story.

0:16:59.444,0:17:04.189
But I think that's[br]the only thing that I'm afraid of,

0:17:04.189,0:17:09.933
and I don't want my mom to not see anyone[br]when she waits in the night.

0:17:09.933,0:17:12.404
CA: So people who want[br]to help you on their way,

0:17:12.404,0:17:15.077
they can go on, they can maybe[br]buy some of these clothes

0:17:15.077,0:17:17.649
that you're bringing over

0:17:17.649,0:17:21.161
that are actually made, the embroidery[br]is done back in Balochistan?

0:17:21.161,0:17:22.369
KB: Yeah.

0:17:22.369,0:17:24.573
CA: Or they can get involved[br]in the foundation.

0:17:24.573,0:17:27.419
KB: Definitely. We are looking[br]for as many people as we can,

0:17:27.419,0:17:31.117
because now that the foundation's[br]in the beginning process,

0:17:31.117,0:17:33.708
I am trying to learn a lot[br]about how to operate,

0:17:33.708,0:17:38.087
how to get funding[br]or reach out to more organizations,

0:17:38.087,0:17:41.245
and especially in the e-commerce,[br]which is very new for me.

0:17:41.245,0:17:43.632
I mean, I am not[br]a fashion person, believe me.

0:17:43.632,0:17:46.929
CA: Well, it's been incredible[br]to have you here.

0:17:46.929,0:17:51.944
Please go on being courageous,[br]go on being smart, and please stay safe.

0:17:51.944,0:17:59.978
KB: Thank you so much.[br]CA: Thank you, Khalida. (Applause)