BRIGHT MINDS
Three UAE residents create the Pink Bra - a self-exam bra that helps Pakistan’s underprivileged women detect breast cancer. By Shreeja Ravindranathan
How do you speak to women in a conservative society about breast cancer? The answer’s in the pocket of a bra.
When Tiya Fazelbhoy, Usman Saleemi and Jaison Ben – three Dubai-based advertising professionals – were offered an opportunity by their firm in 2015 to dedicate their creative smarts to the social good, the trio decided to create a uniquely multifunctional bra.
A bra that would save lives by educating underprivileged women in Pakistan about how to self-examine their breasts and detect lumps and symptoms of breast cancer early on, all while concealed pockets inside the bra could be used to store money. That is the simplistic version of the genesis of the Pink Bra Initiative, a non-profit product and campaign that has been helping raise awareness about breast cancer in Pakistan since its launch last year.
A campaign that started off as ‘a playful insight,’ Usman, a Pakistani expat, and his two colleagues began brainstorming ideas to raise awareness about a disease that had ravaged their families: Usman lost his mother to breast cancer in 2014, Tiya, also from Pakistan, lost her paternal grandmother to breast cancer while Indian national Jaison had relatives who had succumbed to the disease.
There was a reason they zeroed in on Pakistan; it has the highest incidence rate for breast cancer in Asia – 40,000 lives are lost to the disease annually. Around 65 per cent of cases are detected at stage III or IV. Taboos and embarrassment surrounding breast examination and treatment of breast cancer hinder early detection, a lesson Tiya and Usman learnt first-hand when they lost loved ones.
‘My grandmother, Zareena Fazelbhoy, was a celebrated dermatologist who did pro-bono work with leprosy patients and Mother Teresa in her heyday. But because breast cancer was a sensitive topic, by the time she realised she had the illness, it was too late,’ says Tiya.
The trio were spurred to action when Usman’s aunt was diagnosed with the illness. ‘That was in August 2015,’ says Usman. ‘That’s when we decided something had to be done.’
Speaking to family and friends was an eye-opener of sorts. ‘When I started talking to family and female cousins who were at high genetic risk, I was shocked to know they were clueless about self-exams,’ he says. ‘It got me thinking that if these well-educated women didn’t know, then how bad would it be amongst rural communities – around 60 per cent of our country’s population – who don’t have access to information or screening services? We kept discussing in what situation in a conservative community like Pakistan do women ever interact with their breasts in a semi-public situation?’
The answer they arrived at was the widespread practice of working-class women in the subcontinent putting their money inside their bras due to the lack of pockets in the typical shalwar kameez (loose tunic and pants) they wear. The trio then considered how they could use that practice to drive home the importance of regular breast self-examination.
They were also aware that a culture in which any conversation or allusion to a woman’s breast is deemed inappropriate and sexual in nature is tough terrain to navigate when you’re trying to spread awareness about early detection.
As an example, Usman mentions the case of Dr Rufina Soomro, a respected general surgeon who has been at the forefront of breast cancer awareness in Pakistan for the last three decades but has never been able to speak on TV to