Fariha Abdullah is an academic and advocate of Elderly Rights in Pakistan. She has been a member of the British Society of Gerontology, and alumni of Keele University’s School of Social Relations. In 2003-2004 she visited Keele University as a Professional Development Fellow, jointly funded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London, and a Charles Wallace Fellowship, London. During her fellowship period she frequently visited the nursing homes and elderly care institutions in the UK, especially in the areas of Staffordshire and Lancashire. She also interacted with key institutions like the Beth Johnson Foundation (BJF) and the Center for Policy on Aging (CPA) to understand the dynamics of planning and policy making in comparative social gerontology.

She has been working on elderly-related issues mostly as a volunteer, and currently holds a visiting faculty position at the College of Home Economics, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. As a component of the MSc Programme in Human Development she teaches a pre-requisite full-time course in gerontology. This must be a rare if not the only postgraduate coursework in Pakistan in the field of gerontology. It may be considered an achievement in the field of gerontology in Pakistan. This subject has been previously taught be the renowned Professor Sarah Safdar. The College of Home Economics was established in 1954 and its first principal was a British educationist.

Prior to a career in social gerontology, Fariha had completed a Masters degree in Journalism and a postgraduate diploma in International Law of Human Rights, both at the University of Peshawar. Her research dissertation focused on ‘elderly health as a human rights issue in Pakistan. In 2003, she also co-founded a community based organization called the Sustainable Systems Initiatives (SSI), which is still being developed into a formal structure.

She intends to carry out further academic work including plans for a PhD in UK and a text-book on the subject of Social Gerontology in Pakistan, however, her priorities are her community-level commitments and looking after her ‘elderly’ mother. She intends to complete her text-book by the end of 2008.