Aug 30, 2026 · 31 min · 11 segments
Because behind every firewall, every breach, and every "you've been hacked" moment... there's a human story. Dr Zareefa goes beyond the code to talk about the people protecting our digital world.Trust…
Zarifa MustafaGuestAminaHostUm, actually, [chuckles] Dr. Sazarifa, you started your response by saying, "I will be disappointed." I, I mean, I'm actually, I am not disappointed.
I'm actually happy that is your response.
I mean, like you also then mentioned later on, some women have gone through a lot of barriers, whether at work, whether personal, but then there are also, on the other hand, women, they've been surrounded by family, they've been surrounded by colleagues that are supportive, that are encouraging them.
So it goes to show that you can also be in that, um, environment.
All it takes is just for you to find yourself, break those barriers, challenge those norms.
So I will, [chuckles] um, thank you for that.
Joining onto your last, um, sentence where you said a lot of women have had to navigate through certain barriers that they had to break.
So I don't know if you have maybe one system or norm or bias that you think needs to be challenged when it comes to women breaking into ICT.
Like even from school, you hear when they see girls in engineering, uh, even some lecturers discourage them.
Some family, some friends, "Why do you want to go into engineering? It's a male-dominated field.
You will not have, um, a fair, uh, assessment," and, and so on and so forth.
Like, they just see you, the way you're dressed, they just instantly, they have finished, um, profiling you.
"This person doesn't know anything," you know? I've seen it happen, and I've heard that it happens, you know.
There are a lot of women in tech who are girls' girl, like very girly, you know, every, the whole nine yards.
But you, you can't just pick a type and say, "This type should be in tech, and this type should be in social sciences," or something like that.
They just see you, you know, uh, maybe because I'm from the north, you know, dressed with your big veil and everything, and they expect you maybe to be in admin.
And you start talking about tech, and from their expressions, yeah, they weren't expecting that.
Um, actually, [chuckles] Dr. Sazarifa, you started your response by saying, "I will be disappointed." I, I mean, I'm actually, I am not disappointed.
I'm actually happy that is your response.
I mean, like you also then mentioned later on, some women have gone through a lot of barriers, whether at work, whether personal, but then there are also, on the other hand, women, they've been surrounded by family, they've been surrounded by colleagues that are supportive, that are encouraging them.
So it goes to show that you can also be in that, um, environment.
All it takes is just for you to find yourself, break those barriers, challenge those norms.
So I will, [chuckles] um, thank you for that.
Joining onto your last, um, sentence where you said a lot of women have had to navigate through certain barriers that they had to break.
So I don't know if you have maybe one system or norm or bias that you think needs to be challenged when it comes to women breaking into ICT.
Like even from school, you hear when they see girls in engineering, uh, even some lecturers discourage them.
Some family, some friends, "Why do you want to go into engineering? It's a male-dominated field.
You will not have, um, a fair, uh, assessment," and, and so on and so forth.
Like, they just see you, the way you're dressed, they just instantly, they have finished, um, profiling you.
"This person doesn't know anything," you know? I've seen it happen, and I've heard that it happens, you know.
There are a lot of women in tech who are girls' girl, like very girly, you know, every, the whole nine yards.
But you, you can't just pick a type and say, "This type should be in tech, and this type should be in social sciences," or something like that.
They just see you, you know, uh, maybe because I'm from the north, you know, dressed with your big veil and everything, and they expect you maybe to be in admin.
And you start talking about tech, and from their expressions, yeah, they weren't expecting that.
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