Imagine that you were a 14-year old girl, and instead of chatting with friends or monitoring Instagram, you’d be married off to an elderly man and expected to run a household. Imagine that you gave birth to your first child, a cute baby girl, and instead of receiving cheerful reactions, people would start crying and feeling sorry for you.  Imagine that throughout your lifetime you would have to give birth to 9 children, undergo several miscarriages and see a few of your children die.  THIS is not just a bad dream. It’s a daily reality for many girls and women in the northwestern region of Pakistan where men rule with an iron fist and where women aren’t even aware of their rights. In this revealing interview, two human rights activists from The Awakening, Erfaan Hussein Babak and Neelum Rahim, share their experiences of breaking taboos and empowering women in a strictly patriarchal society.