Medicine Popular Career

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 2

Medicine Popular Career

Medicine is a popular career among Pakistani girls and as most of their countrywomen still prefer to be attended by a woman doctor there is a demand for their services, said Dr Majida Mehtab, vice-principal of the Lahore College for Women in Pakistan.

The greatest nutnber of the college’s 3000 students were in the arts faculty, and the next greatest in pre-medical courses. Those who did not attain selection for medical schools carried on with science courses or became teachers, she said.

Although Dr Mehtab regrets that a number of educated women give up their careers when they marry she considers an educated mother “a good investment.” Pakistani women were represented in all the professions, exercised their right to vote, held seats in Parliament, and became Cabinet Ministers. Their menfolk were becoming accustomed to women working outside the home, but most mothers were reluctant to allow a career to divide the household. Difficulties arose when husbands and wives were appointed to jobs in different areas of the country. Girl’s College Lahore College for Women was a degree college which took girls aged 15 or 16 for four years, after which they graduated with a bachelors degree. There were facilities for 300 to 400 boarders, who were housed in three hostels, but most were day students, she said. “Education in Pakistan is not compulsory, because then it would have to be free, and we cannot afford that yet. But schooling is spread equally between the boys and girls in a family," she said. Dr Mehtab is the youngest of seven children. One of her sisters is a doctor, another is qualified in geography and is vice-president of a Pakistani college. Her two brothers are engineers. Study has taken Dr Mehtab to many parts of the world and this provides her with “knowledge that may be applied to our own system.”

She was educated in Rangoon, then took her master's degree at the Punjab University in Lahore, her home

town. A scholarship took her to Edinburgh University, where she completed her studies for a Ph.D. in cytogenetics. After five years teaching zoology at Lahore College she was awarded a specialist’s grant to study in the United States for four months. Colombo Plan Grant Dr Mehtab is visiting New Zealand universities on a year’s grant from the Colombo Plan, to observe work in marine biology, teaching methods in universities and secondary schools, and educational facilities. She is also interested in the country’s social and welfare

services and has seen hospitals in Wellington and Auckland, visited two homes for the elderly in Dunedin, observed the activities at a school for mentally retarded children, and talked with Plunket Society officials. When she leaves New Zealand towards the end of the year, Dr Mehtab hopes to visit Australia and other countries on her way home. Languages do not trouble her because she is fluent in English, has a reading knowledge of French and German, and speaks Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, and Burmese. Her future plans Include a visit to Russia and the Scandinavian countries.