From Pakistan to Australia to inspire the new generation of women in STEM
I am fascinated by names, their meaning and origins, I am curious to see if they are really representative of a person character. Before my meeting with Muneera I went on Google and searched for her name. It’s arabic and it means “Luminous. Brilliant. Illuminating. Bright”, and she definitely embodies the profound sense of her name. It’s representative of her career choice, of her strenght, resilience and courage.
A passionate advocate for women in STEM, Muneera Bano was announced as the ‘Most Influential Asian-Australian Under 40’ in 2019. A ‘Superstar of STEM’ and member of ‘Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee‘ for Science and Technology Australia, Muneera has a strong commitment to fight and destroy society’s gender and cultural assumptions about scientists. She is the ‘Go Girl, Go For IT 2020‘ Ambassador with the aim to inspire the next generation of girls in STEM careers. She specialises in the field of socio-technical domains of software engineering, focusing on human-centered technologies, working at the intersection between computers and humans. Her research looks for ways for engineer technology to work better with the people that use it, including service orientation, sentiment analysis and evidence based software engineering.
Muneera was born in Islambad, the capital of Pakistan. Last of five siblings, only girl of a Pashtun family. Her mother grew up near the border with Afghanistan, in the north of the country in an area well known for having a very patriarchal society, where women and girls were excluded from education. “I grew up looking at all the women around me and how dependent they were on men, and all the men were given every sort of opportunities for everything they wanted. Being the last child, having four elder brothers and being born in the Capital, played out well in the contest of my upbringing, I was given full access to education, same as my brothers, and in Islamabad there were no restrictions for girls to education. My brothers were my role models, because I didn’t have any female ones. My father and my brothers they were all into science and that was the decision I made as well. I think if there were elder sisters, it would have been a completely different kind of decision”.
At that time many girls would chose a course of study that would lead them to a more feminine career, humanities, arts or home economics. “Girls in Pakistan they have to learn enough to then educate their children. This means that you only have to be a wife and a mother to look after the family. Being a scientist, or an engineer, or these kind of professions were looked from a male perspective. I went against the cultural perseption and I opted for science. After high school, when I had to choose my university specialization, there was a big push for me to be a doctor. Because being a nurse or a doctor is more feminine and nurturing in the nature. When I decided to study computers the reaction was ‘What are you going to do with this qualification?’”.
Little she knew that after years of studies and researches, she would have a career as Senior Lecturer in Software Engineer at Deakin University in Melbourne, and she would represent a role model for so many women.
After completing a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at the International Islamic University, Islamabad, in 2012 Muneera moved to Australia as a research trainee at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). “While I was doing my BA I got offered to become an associate lecturer at the International University in Islamabad . Teaching was, once again, an acceptable career. And that is were I developed a flavor for an academic career. I was teaching Computer Science at university, and within few years I became a permanent lecturer, and then assistant professor, and I decided that I wanted to continue with an academic career. To proceed further I needed a PhD. In 2012 I decided to move to Australia, an huge barrier to cross, as a single woman coming from my side of the world without a male chaperon. I have seen other women that accepted to get married to pursue their dreams in my same kind of situation, and I have also seen that those marriage were very difficult, not made of love, but as mean to achieve a goal. I didn’t want to get in that kind of scenario. My family would say “Ok, let her go, she will be back in one or two months, she won’t survive on her own!”. It was quite a challenging time of my life, I had self-doubts, but I couldn’t voice them because I took the decision against their opposition and if I would tell them that I had self-doubts than “that’s it!”, everything would fall apart. I had to be brave and never complaint about anything that would bother me, the home sickness, the culture shock, not having friends or family around me, everything was different, I was completely out of my comfort zone. I am a resilient person and I wasn’t ready to surrender without fighting for what I wanted. The first months were very difficult but I managed. I have learned things about Australia, get some new friends, from different cultures. Making those friends, building new comfort zones, gave me the strength. After 3 years I graduated with a PhD, in Software Engineering, and by then I made the decision that I would stay and have a career in Australia. If you ask me if I knew how my life would have turned to be when I was just a student I would tell you, no! You go, one step at the time, you make decisions based on what you want in that particular moment of your life and what and where you want to be”.
When I ask Muneera who was her role model growing up, she show me a book through a camera, it’s Benazir Bhutto biography. She smiles and says “When for the first time I understood the meaning or concept of a prime minister in a country, It was when she was ruling the country. First female leader of Pakistan, that was something! She was not involved in STEM, so obviously I couldn’t related to her in many ways, but looking at someone who is a woman in a patriarchal society, in a top position as head of the state, I think that also breaks any kind of stereotypes in your mind. I developed a perception that it was not impossible for me to reach that position if I wanted to. She was there and she was showing to all the women how to do it”.
In Pakistan, her mother’s generation was denied access to education. “I was given an opportunity, and I decided to go deliberately into a male-dominated field to prove a point. My passion for engineering comes from this sense of purpose”. Muneera has been involved in an outreach program at schools as a Superstar of STEM for Science and Technology Australia. The program, run by Science and Technology Australia (STA) with Federal Government support, selects inspiring women STEM professionals to act as role models for the next generation.
“The program presents women as role models to younger girls and boys, so they can see female leaders in STEM from a very young age. Through this program we are doing school outreach activities, to show and explain girls how a female scientist looks like and what kind of opportunity they can have in STEM. We are trying to break the stereotype of a nerdy boring kind of girl, showing them that they can achieve success in science, and it can be fun. It requires a lot of hard work but it’s not impossible”.
Muneera was announced the ‘Most Influential Asian-Australian Under 40’ in 2019. She moved to Australia as an immigrant, single, Muslim, Pashtun woman from Pakistan. Each of these aspect is a barrier that reinforces and enhances the others in a vicious cycle, but for Muneera they represented the opportunity to break stereotypes.“This award was the verification of my commitment. When I finished my PhD I remember that some people were trying to change their name, to a western one, to increase chance of employability. According to their theory Muneera, a middle-eastern arabic name, and Bano, a persian name, would not work. They were discussing in front of me,“If you change your name is easier to pronunce here in Australia, change your accent!”. I did not want to change who I was just for the sake of a job. If an employer could not see the actual value of a person, beyond a name or an accent, then I would rather earn maybe less but work for someone that would value me as an human being.
The Award, was a proof that with my name, being myself, I could make it, without surrender to the pressure of changing myself. As an Asian-Australian I bring a value to the Australian society, and that has been valued and appreciated. Receiving this award was an huge privilege for me.
For me it all comes down to how much conviction you have on what you want to achieve. I was convinced that I was ready to put out with anything that was coming my way, all the difficulties, all the challenges, because the decision was mine. To all the girls and women out there that want to pursue a career in STEM I want to say, that if it’s your decision and you are convinced, any hardship it’s just an obstacle and you will find your way around, but if you have doubts, and you are not strong in your conviction, the hurdles will held you back. Find your sense of purpose, why are you doing whatever you are doing. Within STEM fields, you need to bring that sense of motivation and pleasure, because if you are happy doing what you are doing, it will not even look like you are working”.
