“Libraries shouldn’t shush, they should roar”
Maarya Rehman. Pic by Priyanka Samaraweera
The transformative power of a library is never to be underestimated. Libraries often play multiple roles in society beyond just a reading space, from being repositories of information and safe spaces, to social mobility enhancers and accelerators that are cornerstones of flourishing civil societies and active democracies.
For Maarya Rehman, the library was a lifeline. Growing up in a working class household in East London, the local library opened her mind, enhanced her ability to express herself, and helped her to think about the world beyond her doorstep.
It also inspired her to strive for excellence in everything she did, from doing well in school, getting into Cambridge University to study Social and Political Sciences, to pursuing the jobs she wanted. Now, as the newly-appointed Country Director for the British Council Sri Lanka, Maarya continues to champion libraries and their inherent power to change lives.
Before starting her journey with the British Council, she worked as public library specialist in London and the UK, focusing on modernising library services and responding to the changing needs of the 21st century library and its audiences.
“Libraries shouldn’t shush, they should roar,” she quips, referencing an informal caption for one of their many library projects. A passionate advocate for promoting libraries, she has done a TEDTalk about the power of libraries, and their importance as spaces for people from diverse walks of life to come together.
She also believes that answering the call to go digital is of utmost importance, and was involved in the global launch of the Digital Wall project inaugurated in Pakistan. Currently, Sri Lanka has launched Digital Walls in three local universities, and Maarya hopes there will be many more so that people can access millions of valuable resources directly on their phones.
Taking up her first international posting in her mid-thirties, one she recalls being very excited and passionate about, she joined British Council in 2015 as Director Libraries and Outreach for the British Council Pakistan when they re-opened libraries in Karachi and Lahore after a 15 year closure post 9/11. Following which, she took up the post of Area Director in Punjab, India.
“From there, I was very pleased and very privileged to get the role of Country Director in Sri Lanka,” Maarya tells us. Despite having been working since October last year, she has only been in the country for two months due to the pandemic.
As her work encompasses many different areas, Maarya feels she has gained much more understanding of what it means to work for a cultural relations organisation, in creating trust, friendship and mutual understanding between the UK and countries around the world, especially in a country with the history and breadth of Sri Lanka with its huge portfolio of community-based projects and programmes in education, English, arts and culture.
“With young people and communities through our Active Citizens programme, we do a lot of work around civic participation, community engagement in addressing global challenges through social action projects,” Maarya says, adding that a lot of their work focuses on removing barriers to access at a community level for a variety of global challenges. Their approach is through multiple lenses, including focusing on developing English language skills, education, arts and culture.
“In lots of different ways, what we’re trying to do is contribute towards building a fit for purpose, young workforce entering the labour market with lots of challenges and competition. In our own way, we’re contributing to Sri Lanka’s future resilience.”
In terms of enabling positive societal change, Maarya is excited about carrying out their upcoming Youth Perception Survey in Sri Lanka, which is a research project that focuses on young people’s thoughts on climate change and how they feel they can contribute to addressing it. “Something that I think underpins all our work in facilitating systemic, generational change is research… and this piece of research will inform the work that we do going forward.”
She is also particularly passionate about British Council’s work in gender equality, with programmes like the Women of the World Festivals, Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls project and the ongoing Women In Leadership project working towards removing barriers, addressing urgent issues that women face in society, while also providing opportunities.
“I take the fact that I am a woman leader very seriously,” Maarya tells us. Having been the first female Area Director of Asian heritage for the British Council in Punjab, she considers it a responsibility to lead meaningfully and with intention to ensure that the values she holds close, like inclusiveness and diversity and respect for difference, is reflected in the workforce.
“As an organisation, we’re mirroring what we want to see in the world. It’s important to see women leaders, and it helps people to visualise themselves in that role.”