Dr Nafis Sadik

Dr Nafis Sadik heads the United Nations Population Fund, and has also attained the rank of Under-Secretary General in the UN's hierarchy. A Pakistani national, Dr Sadiq began her professional life as a physician, specialising in gynaecology and obstetrics. Becoming increasingly involved in family planning and public health, she was seconded by the United Nations in 1971 and was the first woman to hold the top position in the UN agency.

"Whenever I have time, I go on the Internet. . It gives me lots of information about subjects that I'm interested in, and it's also a place for recreation."

United Nations Population Fund - "A subject area which needs a lot of information and understanding and awareness creation. We deal with issues that have not been dealt with so openly and publicly: reproductive health and violence. Violence within marriage and violence within homes are not issues that are discussed publicly, but they have a very profound effect on the health of women. We put out information on activities that have been successful, for example in dealing with female genital mutilation.. We put out information on legislative changes that have taken place in some countries. People around the world should look at this and then start to think 'What is the situation in my country? Can I do something about it?' I think the Internet is a wonderful way of disseminating this knowledge worldwide."

The Day of Six Billion - "[A population of] 7bn will be reached in about 14 years from now. All of these recent disasters which we say are natural disasters, in Mozambique, Venezuela, Bangladesh and others, in fact are also man-made disasters because of the population density of the land, the cutting down of the trees. Therefore, there is no barrier to the floods. When the floods come, there is nowhere to go. The population, its relationship, the numbers, its environment, its resources: All of these are so interlinked with so many other environmental consequences - food, disasters, conflict. We haven't even begun to understand the extent of all the relationships."

The Bridge World - "I like to look at some of the puzzles and quizzes. I love the challenge intellectually: I play bridge off and on. It's just great fun playing bridge. They post a puzzle, then you plan the play and see how you're going to play, then they give you the solution."

Dawn - The Internet Edition - "It's a newspaper in Pakistan. I'm very interested in what's happening in Pakistan, especially with the new Government... We have a big program in Pakistan, and we've been giving some advice to the Government on how to improve that program, especially in making some big policy changes to integrate the Ministry of Population with the Ministry of Health. I want to see how they are progressing also in other areas, like the economic area."

A Joke A Day - "I'm linked into a Joke Files chart which is quite funny, and some of the jokes are quite interesting."