Challenging the world’s perspective

It was more than 10 years ago when UN communications coordinator Şafak Pavey lost her left leg and arm, the result of a train accident in Zurich.

Pavey sees herself as fortunate. "Not everyone is as lucky as I am because I had the chance of having my first prosthetic leg fitted in Germany, and I had all my legs done abroad because in Turkey, they do not have a basic prosthetic sector, except in the military hospitals," said the coordinator of public relations and strategic communications in United Nations High Commission for Refugees, or UNHCR.

The first few years after the incident she spent undergoing operations due to one complication after another. “I had all my operations abroad because in Turkey they do not have a basic prosthetic sector, except in the military hospitals,” she said. Since then she has used a prosthetic leg and arm.

She attended the London School of Economics in a wheelchair. She said she learned to live independently in London. “The system works perfectly for disabled people in England,” she said. “In Turkey we are treated like sacks of potatoes. We need help of course, but disabled people also should also stop feeling like victim, stand for their rights and be ready to live alone."

Working for UNHCR during the last six years, she started as the consultant for child rights and education from the Middle East to North Africa. Then she was appointed as external relations officer in Iran, which covers both the Afghan and Iraqi refugee situations and repatriation programs. Pavey has also lived in Algeria and worked with Sahrawi refugees for UNHCR while trying to change people’s point of view toward the disabled.

A model for change
It’s not easy to lose a leg and arm, Pavey said smiling. She admits to seeing herself both as more vulnerable and privileged than most disabled people. That’s why, she said, she had to do something significant. It took time for her to accept that problems can be brought forth in a more influential way by those who live with them. “This came to mind ten years after the incident,” she said with a laugh.

One of very few people with disabilities hired by UNHCR, Pavey said after some lobbying, she and her team have developed employment policies for UNHCR to recruit & retain disabled staff; that was encouraged by the spirit of the new human rights convention that supports the rights of people with disabilities. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and Pavey is a lead in the UN-wide support group to monitor its implementation worldwide as well as UN Agencies.

“We aim to better the world and make it suitable for disabled people to live. Each company should give job opportunities to disabled people and the cities should be designed accordingly considering there are many disabled people in the world,” she said. New opportunities will fall under important principles ranging from recruitment and anti-discrimination to accessibility in buildings, protection and assistance, Pavey added.

But it takes time for states to take action on the issue. After being harassed in many countries she has visited and facing difficulties both for being a disabled person and a woman, she was determined to change the landscape. “The legal system should work in favor of disabled people in the world.”

Turkey needs new mindset
Addressing the situation in Turkey, she said disabled people need a new face and the public needs a new understanding. “They should not lock themselves inside and non-disabled people should start integrating.” Turkey first needs to change its mindset toward disabled people, she asserted.

“Disability is like throwing a stone in a lake and the waves keep getting bigger. It affects the entire household of a disabled person. Family members face the same attitude from society. People look at you in another way,” she said. “Everything is segregated. And the sad thing is that there is no concrete action or initiative by the government. Whatever is done in Turkey is done by private individuals.”

She was invited to Turkey in 2003, the European Year for Disabled People, to receive the Presidential Award for outstanding persons with disabilities. But the route to the ceremony was troubled. When she got off the plane she asked for a wheelchair but Turkish Airlines agents informed her that she wasn’t disabled. When she explained that she was on her way to receive an award for being a successful disabled journalist, they explained that the government’s new definition of ‘disabled’ was limited to people who had lost two of the same appendages. Pavey sued the airline and sought a report from a Turkish doctor only to find that it too read that she, in fact, was not disabled. She is full of sad stories but she tells them with a chuckle rather than anger. Her motto is “whatever you experience is an example to others.’

“That’s what I faced in my own country,” Pavey said, adding that she was also harassed by security officers at Bushehr Airport in south western Iran. “One of my legs was taken. They took away my passport and said they wouldn't let me on the flight unless I took off my leg,” she recalled, adding that she understood security measures but it was nonetheless very difficult for her.

Her fight for people and their rights started when she was only eight-years-old. She received awards for the stories she wrote on world peace. As a teenager, she wrote for Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos newspaper. The editor-in-chief Hrant Dink who was assassinated outside his office two years ago was a mentor to her. The only Muslim Turk in the newspaper, Pavey wrote a column about minority rights and social rights. Now she is working with UN goodwill ambassadors and supporters like Mick Jagger, Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie.

Through her continued fight for the rights of people, it is clear that Pavey sees her disability as a source of strength, and an advantage rather than a disadvantage.