Remembering Sabeen Mehmud on her second death anniversary
She was the name behind Pakistan's first hackathon and her cafe used to be a favorite place for many
WEB DESK – "Fear is just a line in your head. You can choose what side of that line you want to be on … you can t let fear control you."
It was on April 24th 2015, when the city of Karachi lost one of its bravest daughters, Sabeen Mahmud – the rights activist and owner of The Second Floor (T2F) cafe, was gunned down by terrorists when she was on her way home.
She was the name behind Pakistan s first hackathon and her café used to be a favorite place for many when it comes to organized talks, discussions, exhibitions and other such pioneering events.
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Sabeen was a larger than life character and her dream was to change the world for the better through the internet and communication technologies and T2F was part of that dream.
Born in Karachi, Sabeen Mahmud was the only child of an educationist mother and advertising professional father. She received her early education from Karachi Grammar School and pursued her Bachelor’s degree from Kinnaird College after completing O levels.
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She started her professional career while joining a technology company Solutions Unlimited, headed by Zaheer Kidvai, whom she considered her life-long mentor and a close friend.
However, her passion and drive led her to start her own company Beyond Information Technology Solutions, an interactive media and technology consulting firm and also helped to establish The Citizens Archive of Pakistan along with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
"I m running on adrenaline," Sabeen Mahmud often used to say. "There’s a lot of horrible stuff going on in this world. You can’t rest until you know you’ve done all you could to try and make things better."
The Second Floor (T2F) which Sabeen founded in 2007 as part of her non-profit umbrella called PeaceNiche, was a rare place in Karachi as it used to be forum for social music concerts and poetry talks while at the same time inviting folks to converse about topics that could not be discussed openly. The café turned out to be a staging ground for her activism.
Her café used to be a space for the free exchange of ideas and a place free of any censorship. Sabeen won accolades for providing space to anybody who wanted to bring up any issue – howsoever controversial it may be.
"Being political is really about being involved in public life, in developing political will," Mahmud once said. "And activism has to be about action."
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Sabeen s describes herself on her Instagram bio in the following words,
"Post Modern Flower Child, Unabashed Mac Snob, Pink Floyd Devotee, Tetris Addict, West Wing Fanatic, [who] Will Die for Hugh Laurie."
