Kanza Ahmed

Activist, Artist, Brainstormer, Concerned citizen, Lawyer, Muslim, Student

At TEDxBIC Karachi, I serve as a Core Team Member in Speaker Management, a role that combines organisation, communication, and the responsibility of helping shape conversations that matter. As a first time member of the TEDx organising team, this experience represents more than just an extracurricular milestone for me; it is an opportunity to contribute to a platform built around ideas, impact, and meaningful dialogue. Currently pursuing my academic journey in law studying LLB from University of Essex in Beaconhouse international collegee, I have always been deeply passionate about communication, public speaking, and social awareness. From a young age, I found myself drawn toward discussions surrounding society, culture, justice, and human behavior. Whether through debates, speeches, writing, or everyday conversations, I have consistently believed in the power of words to educate, inspire, and create change. My interest in public speaking stems not only from the confidence it builds, but from the responsibility it carries, the responsibility to speak thoughtfully, truthfully, and fearlessly about issues that deserve attention. As an introvert, I have always valued depth over noise. While I may not be the loudest person in the room, I believe strongly in intentional communication, active listening, and meaningful contributions. This perspective has helped me grow into someone who is dependable, observant, and capable of working calmly under pressure, qualities that are especially important in collaborative environments such as TEDx. Hence Beyond academics and advocacy, writing has always been one of the most important parts of my identity. I enjoy expressing myself through poetry, reflective writing, opinion pieces, storytelling, and social commentary. Writing, for me, is not simply a hobby but a way of understanding both people and the world around me. It has taught me observation, emotional intelligence, and the importance of nuance, qualities that also shape the way I communicate and collaborate with others. My interests extend into literature, history, politics, sociology, media, and psychology. I enjoy exploring how societies evolve, how narratives shape public opinion, and how communication influences culture across generations. And enjoying creative hobbies such as cooking, sports, photography, painting, calligraphy, reading, content creation, have made me conclude that modern tools and interests aren't just for entertainment but also for education and knowledge, character building, and awareness. As these interests have naturally strengthened my ability to engage in thoughtful discussions and contribute meaningfully within team environments. In the future, I hope to further explore media and communication as tools for social impact. Joining TEDxBIC Karachi is an important part of that journey. TEDx represents curiosity, innovation, dialogue, and the courage to share ideas that can inspire change. Being able to contribute to such a platform, especially within Speaker Management, is both exciting and meaningful to me. It allows me to work alongside passionate individuals while helping create an environment where voices, experiences, and ideas can come together to leave a lasting impact, to ultimately get closer to my main goal, that is, to use my voice responsibly, contribute meaningfully, and continue learning from every experience along the way.

All that I've written above so far would've surely established my passions. Saying that I am an all rounder and Jack of all traits wouldn't be wrong. From Law to sociology, from business to psychology, creative ventures from cricket to food, from reading to writing, art and design, skincare and fashion, all brought together by love and passion and passion for public speaking. But, that being said, my core, main driving passions are self improvement and women empowerment. I'm someone who centre's her world around self development and looks out for any book, speech, movie or a person who can teach me something I don't know and help me in bettering myself. So within it, some ideas worth spreading included themes of self love like how to build a relationship with yourself, how to grow more confident by studying yourself, how to handle jealousy, how to romanticise life. One such theme was also productivity so how to remain disciplined, how to embrace deep isolated work thats key for mastery, skills you need to have and learn now, plus human behaviour so how to deal with toxic people and handle drama, how to become more observant, communication etiquette, etc. And apart from this, an reality worth spreading in every corner of the world, every boy, girl, parent, grandparent, every household, is women empowerment. Its not just an idea, trending concept in my opinion, its a necessity, its a responsibility and its fundamental to a healthy society, which has been shed light on in detail in the previous answer. So yes jack of all traits master of none, (but since life is all about learning and trying everything that you can while you can) sometimes better than master of one.

The notes app on my iPhone is proof enough of how many ideas I have in my mind that I've written my own imaginary Tedx speeches on and that I believe are worth spreading. One such idea I wrote about was: Feminism. What it truely means, and the myths that surround it. I believe in a very simple definition of it and that is Feminism and equality is about equality of celebral opportunities. It has nothing to with hating on men or about a woman becoming a like man thinking equal means being same as him. Feminism talks about equality of education, career opportunities, respect and safety for women in the society that men have been given from the get go and women have been deprived off for centuries. I'll begin it by using an example for daily life and explaining how social institutions give birth to and shape inequality in our minds. Firstly family, which through unequal gender roles and triple shift, keeps enforcing compromise and ensures chores like cooking and sacrifices in career for family remains unappreciated. As for education and workplace, glass ceiling and double standards remain. Religion where man made culture disguised as religion is used to force women to conform to opressive practices and borderline absurd beleifs. And lastly but most importantly in terms of how its current relevance, the social institution of media has now become a tool for objectification, male gaze and enforcing outdated gender stereotypes. Once explained that these agencies of socialisation are engineered in ways that aid inequality and patriarchy. I'll get to discussing how law and order protects this system, how misogyny is reflected through seemingly harmless jokes, deep rooted practices and how women themselves are manipulated into believing that they're the secondary gender. How exhausting it is to constantly be alert and calculate danger when doing something as ordinary as booking a cab. Before going into the serious nitty gritties of it, Violence against women, rape, domestic abuse, acid attacks, cybercrime, honour killings and how hard it is grow from the victim blaming, guilt and trauma that one was subject to solely because of something as basic as their gender. Lastly how ways one can fight it, even if gradual or small. Mainly by making men realise how patriarchy is dehumanising them as well. By only teaching them the importance of making money and being a stoic macho, this system is slowly eating away their creativity and taking away their freedom to be and express who they are as well. Lastly through some lighter but underrated topics like embodying feminine energy and dissociating from set standards and stereotypes, I'll conclude my speech and this idea, that in my opinion is worth spreading and the world needs, perhaps more than anything else even in this age and era.

Art, communication, Creative storytelling, drafting/writing, law, Public Speaking, Research, social commentary, Social media and marketing

My TEDx story began long before I ever imagined becoming part of an organizing team. I was in 6th grade when I first came across Shah Rukh Khan’s TED Talk, Thoughts on Humanity, Fame and Love. At that age, I did not fully understand the depth of everything he was saying, but I vividly remember being fascinated by the atmosphere, the storytelling, and the idea that a single person on a stage could move millions of people through words alone. Right after watching it, I subscribed to the TEDx YouTube channel, unaware that years later, TEDx would become something personally meaningful to me. As I grew older, TED Talks became more than just videos I watched occasionally. They became a space where I discovered perspectives, stories, and conversations that challenged the way I thought. Some talks stayed with me long after they ended, especially The Muslim on the Airplane by Amal Kassir and What Islam Really Says About Hijab by Samina Ali. As someone deeply interested in communication, identity, women’s issues, and storytelling, I admired the courage these speakers had in turning personal experiences into impactful conversations that resonated globally. Over time, TEDx slowly became associated with one of my biggest aspirations: the ability to speak authentically and meaningfully enough for people to truly listen. I even own TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson, a book I bought because I was fascinated by the art of impactful communication and storytelling. Though I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I found out the full form of TED surprisingly late, that somehow makes the journey feel even more genuine. My connection to TED was never about prestige or trendiness; it was always about the ideas, emotions, and conversations behind it. As someone who loves public speaking, writing, and social commentary, TED Talks became deeply inspiring to me because they showed me that intelligence and emotion do not have to exist separately. A person could stand on stage and speak about humanity, grief, identity, injustice, culture, love, fear, or hope, and in doing so, create impact. That idea stayed with me for years. Today, being part of TEDxBIC Karachi as a Core Team Member in Speaker Management feels surreal in the best possible way. It feels like a full-circle moment from the girl who used to watch TED Talks on YouTube after school, fascinated by the red circle on stage and the power of ideas worth spreading. One thing very few people know is that delivering a TED Talk myself is actually on my vision board. It is one of those dreams I carry quietly but deeply. I genuinely hope that before I die, I get to stand on a TEDx stage not just as an organizer, but as a speaker, sharing a story, an idea, or a perspective powerful enough to make even one person feel understood, inspired, or changed.

While being a law student, it is not surprising that I am skilled in communication, negotiation, mediation, and understanding situations from multiple perspectives. My friends and family also know me as someone who enjoys art and cooking, both of which reflect my creative and detail-oriented side. What many people are less familiar with, however, is the writer and poet in me. Writing has always been a deeply personal and therapeutic outlet — a space where I can express thoughts and emotions that are often difficult to articulate aloud. It began with writing in those flashy little lock diaries about my day at school when I was in 4th grade. But it was during the daunting period of the COVID lockdown in 2020 that writing truly became something far more meaningful to me. At the time, I wrote about a recently ended toxic friendship in a seven-page diary entry. And the moment I wrote the very last word, I realized the pain suddenly did not weigh on me as heavily anymore. From there, what had once been a hobby I was naturally drawn to evolved into a life changing part of my identity. It turned me into a writer, a poet, and a storyteller. I met myself, the world inside me, all the colours as well as the shadows, the beauty each shade held and the darkness. Not just my vocabulary, self love and awareness grew, but my emotional intelligence sky rocketed. And the biggest gain out of all, was how I was able to befriend myself through writing and completely eradicate loneliness out of my system. My view on myself changed hence my view on the world changed. And hence a lot of the times when I recommend journaling and rave about how I've lost count of number of journals I have and how I attribute many of my characteristics to my hobby of writing, it'll comes across as exaggeration. But, I know and firmly believe a pen a notebook and penning down thoughts and ideas with honesty, can change your life. Since then, writing has become one of the purest forms of self-expression for me. Whether through poetry, reflective pieces, speeches, or storytelling, I have always had a natural passion for words and the ability to transform emotions, observations, and experiences into meaningful narratives. It is a side of me I nurture quietly, but one that has profoundly shaped the way I think, communicate, and connect with the world around me.