KARACHI: Google Doodle on Saturday honoured slain social activist, architect, and urban planner Perween Rahman on her 65th birth anniversary.
Rahman, according to a statement by Google, devoted her life to uplifting marginalised communities.
Rahman was born on January 22, 1957, in Dhaka and relocated with her family to Karachi in 1971. She studied architecture and went on to earn her master’s in housing, building, and urban planning from the Institute of Housing Studies in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Her personal experiences of displacement inspired her to pursue a career advocating for housing security, and in 1982, she began working as an unpaid intern for the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP).
This organisation focused on sanitation, housing, and healthcare in the Orangi Town neighbourhood on the outskirts of Karachi, one of the world’s largest informal settlements. There, many residents could not rely on legal protection to maintain rights to their homes and were frequently evicted for construction projects.
From meticulously documenting property boundaries and ownership information to spearheading education and community engagement initiatives, Rahman’s work soon became integral in protecting the region’s precarious community.
Her dedication to helping the town’s 1.5 million residents protect their land rights led to her appointment as head of the OPP’s housing and sanitation programs. With Rahman at the helm, the OPP partnered with the government to set up 650 private schools, 700 medical clinics, and 40,000 small businesses.
She was given numerous accolades for her achievements, notably the Sitara-i-Shujaat, the second-highest civil award for bravery, and her efforts have played an instrumental role in defining how settlements are developed today.
Rahman was gunned down near her office in Orangi Town on March 13, 2013, and joint interrogation teams (JITs) that probed the killing found evidence of militant and political groups’ involvement, exposing the dark underbelly of real estate development in one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities.
