Kwantlen hosted a three-day event, focusing on the empowerment of women within the South Asian Canadian community. The purpose of this event was to challenge the stereotype that ‘all’ South Asian women are subjugated and oppressed, as well as to acknowledge that many South Asian women still face great inequity and need to overcome a greater number of obstacles in their lives than women from other ethnic communities.
All events, except for the academic seminar, were bilingual (English and Punjabi). The events included an Academic seminar, a women’s panel of testimonies of successful South Asian women and their personal struggles, with poet Sukhwinder Amrit and actresses Sunita Dhir and Rama Vij, a Punjabi student skit competition on issues dealing with women, and a play dealing with the link between honour and daughters.