PWiC: #BalanceForBetter

Where are the Pakistani women building technology and leading the local and global digital space? Who are they and why don’t we see them as frequently as we would like to?

Well, on this IWD’19, Pakistani Women in Computing is kicking off a list of Pakistani women who are an inspiration to the next generation of women building technology and making this world a #Balanced and #Better place to live!

NOTE: This list is not a hall of fame and is a continual WORK IN PROGRESS. PWiC welcomes any contributions from its community for more nominations!

Also, the women featured in this article may fall into more than one category, so no hard feelings!

The Unforgettables

Arfa Karim (World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional) — Sabeen Mahmud (Founder of T2F)

The Digital Leaders

Jehan Ara (President of Pasha & The Nest i/o) — Maria Umar (Founder/CEO of Women’s Digital League) — Kalsoom Lakhani (Founder/CEO of i2i)

The Change Makers

Sadaffe Abid (Founder/CEO of CIRCLE) — Iffat Rose Gill (Founder/CEO of Code to Change)

Nighat Daad (Founder of Digital Rights Foundation) — Sheba Najmi (Founder of Code for Pakistan)

The Executives

Farah Ali (VP Engineering PDE at Electronic Arts) — Shahla Aly (Managing Director, Tools Development, & Automation, gTech at Google)

Shamim Rajani (COO at Genentech Solutions) — Fatima Kardar (Chief Technical Advisor at Microsoft)

Poonam Haq (VP Program Apps — Manager at Bank of America) — Durdana Achakzai (Ex-Chief Digital Officer at Telenor PK) — Sidra Jalil (Director Code for Pakistan)

The Community Leaders

Huma Hamid (President and Co-Founder of Pakistani Women in Computing) — Ramla Qureshi (Founder and CEO of Women Engineers Pakistan) — Faiza Yousaf (Founder of WomenInTechPK)

The Entrepreneurs

Saba Khalid (Founder at Aurat Raaj) — Samar Hasan (Co-Founder/Chairperson at Epiphany)— Quratul-Ann Malik (Co-Founder/CEO at herDomain)

Afshan Abbas (Co-Founder/CEO at Fuchsia) — Saba Gul (Founder/CEO at Popinjay) — Sadia Bashir (Founder PixelArt Games Academy)

Maheen Noor Soomro (CEO at Mushawar UK) — Amna Masood (Founder/CEO at Maven Logix) — Anum Kamran (Founder/CEO at Buyon.pk)

Shabana Khan (Co-founder of LMKR & LMKT) - Sophia Saleen (Co-Founder at Ropazi & Stanford StartX Summer ’15) — Umaimah Mendhro (Founder/CEO at VIDA)

The Fierce Faculty

Fareena Saqib (Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte) — Saba Rasheed Malik (Assitant Professor — NUCES-FAST) — Tahmeena Javaid Adeel (Assistant Professor Dept of Computer Arts Fatima Jinnah Women University)

Yousra Javed (Assistant Professor at Illinois State University) — Syeda Uzma Gardazi (Coordinator CS&IT at Women University AJK) — Mobin Javed (Assistant Professor at LUMS)

Amna Basharat (Assistant Professor at NUCES FAST Islamabad) — Muneera Bano (Lecturer Software Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) — Maryam Kausar (Assistant Professor at Foundation University)

The Artists

Laraib Atta (VFX Artist) — Novaira Masood (Animation Artist and Engineering Manager at Apple)

The Designers

Sobia Tariq (Staff UX Lead at Google) — Maheen Sohail (Product Designer VR/AR and Immersive Media at Facebook)

The Researchers

Dr. Farheen Omar Ph.D. from UW & Machine Learning Researcher at Microsoft — Saleha Raza (AI Researcher and Assistant Professor Habib University)

Batool Abbas (Ph.D. Candidate and Research Assistant in Medical Image Processing at NYU) — Aisha Arooj Khan (Image Processing Researcher & Ph.D. Scholar at University of Florida)

The Girls Who Code

Bushra Anjum (Senior Software Engineer at Amazon) — Maria Riaz (Senior Software Engineer at Google) — Sana Jawad (Lead Software Engineer — Distributed Systems) Salesforce

Fatima Aamir (Principle Group Engineering Manager at Microsoft) — Mehreen Javaid (Principal Software Development Engineer at Bentley Systems) — Ayisha Bashir (Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft)

Faria Khalid (Senior Software Developer at eBay) — Sarah Puri (Software Engineer at Microsoft) — Namra Tayyab (Senior Engineering Manager at Electronic Arts)

Sarah Ilyas (Software Engineer at Amazon)— Sarwat Ismail (Software Developer at Microsoft) — Noor Fatima (Game Developer at we.R.play)

Sundas Abrar (Machine Learning Engineer and iOS Tech Lead at UMCH Tech) — Shaheen Noor (Senior Unity Developer at Codistan — Anum Farhan (Software engineer at Habib Bank AG Zurich)

— Kanwal Sultana (System Account Developer at QBuild ) — Zobia Badr ul Huda (Software Developer at Careem) — Farah Khurrum (Software Development Engineer at Microsoft)

Muniba Talha (System Developer & Project Manager at Sweco) — Erum Saba (Software Developer at Amazon) — Savera Tanwir (Research Statistician Developer at SAS)

Saira Gul (Software Engineer at Microsoft) — Farazin Yousaf (Software Engineer at Telenor) — Sana Aslam (Principal Software Engineer at Techlogic)

The Girls Making Games

Maham Ismail (Designer and Creative Lead — WonderTree) — Amal Uppal (Digital Painter — Cloudcade)

Afsheen Iqbal (Surface Team Art Lead at Quixel) — Sabah Ejaz (Pakistan’s One of the First Female Game Developers)

The Tech Makers

Semra Shaikh (Service Delivery Manager and IT Specialist at Teradata) — Madeeha Khan (Senior Consultant at Sysco Middleware AS) — Momina Athar (Application Consultant at IBM)

The Women in Product

Muneeza Zaidi (Principal Product Manager at Amazon Web Services) — Misbah Uraizee (Product Manager at Facebook)

Sundas Zafar (Product Manger at Yara International) — Sana Khan (Product Manager at Facebook)

The Machine Learning Ladies

Anqa Akram (Machine Learning Engineer at MTBC) — Fakiha Baqai (Senior Software Engineer Machine Learning at Red Buffer)

The VR/AR Ladies

Falaz Shazib (GHC Scholar and VR Developer) — Asema Hassan (VR Developer at German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE))

The Women in Data

Muazma Zahid (Sr. Data Engineer at Microsoft ) — Sundas Khalid (Data Scientist at Amazon) — Mahum Tariq (GDC Consultant at Teradata)

The Program and Project Leads

Alishba Khawaja (Program Manager at Microsoft) — Fatima Khakwani (Sr. Program Manager at Amazon) — Rimsha Malik (Program Manager at herDomain)

Washma Abid Ali (Program Manager at University of South Florida) — Wajiha Masoud (Technical Program Manager AWS)

Fauzia Aslam (Engineering Program Manager at Electronic Arts) — Sara Hassan (Engineering Project Manager at Afiniti) — Beenish Ali (Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft)

The Analysts

Rabia Rizwan (Applications Consultant/ Business Analyst at Infoxchange Australia) — Sana Ahmad (Agile Business Analyst at South Australia Power)

The Girls Who Break Code

Farhana Adeel (Software Quality Analyst at Bentley Systems) — Wajiha Hameed (Senior WA Engineer at Techlogix) — Saima Karim (Senior QA Engineer at NAXXA Consulting)

Samreen Mukhtar (Software Quality Analyst Bentley Systems) — Abeer Ashraf (Testing Expert at Telenor) — Huma Imran (Software QA Engineer/Team Lead at Human Focus Technologies)

The Boss Ladies of The Digital Wolrd

Misbah Naqvi (Managing Partner at i2i Ventures) — Zainab Hameed (Co-Founder at TeeSquare) — Rabail Pervez (Digital Marketing Manager at Facebook)

Tahrim Abbasi (COO mParsec) — Zahra Ali (Founder at Crops in Pots) — Sadia Khuram (Chief Customer Experience Officer at Jazz)

The Geek Moms

Mariam Arqem (Concept Artist & Art Director) - Eman Ali (Co-Founder of Port.A.Lab) — Sadaf Gul (CG Artist & Creative Solutions Lead at Software Productivity Strategists)

The Upcoming Leaders

Muqu Javad (MBA Student at University of Washington) — Aamna Azam ( Software Developer at we.R.play)

Head of Entrepreneurship & Marketing at Codematics) — Saliha Bodla (Co-Founder and CTO at SmartMirror)

The Scholars

Ramsha Saad(GHC Scholar & CS Student Habib University) — Shafaq Arshad (GTM & CS Student at FAST) — Anam Sajid (Ambassador at PWiC — CS Student at FAST)

Feza Roheel (GTM Scholar & CS Student at FAST) — Aiza Hasib (GHC Scholar & CS Student at LUMS)

To Be Continued …