Rawalpindi, 23 March 2024 (TDI): The Embassy of Switzerland in Pakistan and Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) invited a dynamic audience for the screening of an award-winning interfaith documentary, Barefoot with Godfather of Soccer, by the filmmaker, Khalid Hasan Khan.
In a welcome speech, the Dean FASS-FJWU, Dr Sarwet Rasul, appreciated the Swiss embassy’s initiative, for hosting the event at FJWU Auditorium, Rawalpindi.
After the screening, the ambassador of Switzerland in Pakistan, Georg Steiner, in his keynote address, expressed his views, “We had the privilege to watch a wonderful, very inspiring film this morning, about inclusion.
We believe that inclusion of women in our society is of utmost importance and course, for the great significance of our society.” He emphasized the need to engage women, especially university students, to capitalize on their talent through such interactive dialogues.
Khalid Hasan Khan, the filmmaker of Barefoot, explained the premise of the interfaith soccer film, by mentioning, Carl Gustav Jung, ‘No tree can grow to Heaven unless its roots reach down to Hell’, Barefoot is a string of stories of such discouraged youth, from Khyber to Karachi, belonging to footballers of Christian, Hindu and Zoroastrian communities along with soccer players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who play against the intolerable odds, in a discriminatory ordeal, he added.
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‘You have to be in the development hell, to get glory in life’. He elaborated that “when sports organizations fail to nurture the talent, godfathers step in, to the rescue of dreams of young sportspersons. Khan cited the famous line, ‘Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.’
This ‘kindness of strangers’ is ‘humanity’ that helps young men and women to survive and thrive in the arena of their dreams.”
In the end, Dr Abida Sharif, Head of the Sociology Department of FJWU, thanked the guests and the audience for the “highly engaged session.”
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