By Alveena Abid
Pakistani women continue to sacrifice their
lives in the name of honour and the past year hasn’t been any different.
Despite all the glass ceilings, our women
have proved the world wrong with their groundbreaking achievements time
and again.
Going down the memory lane, we bring you ten
Pakistani women who struck our patriotic chords with their numerous accolades.
1. Syeda Ghulam Fatima
In September 2015, labour rights activist
Syeda Ghulam Fatima, general secretary of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front
Pakistan (BLLF), was presented with the Clinton Global Citizen Award 2015 for
leadership in civil society.
She works for the betterment of bonded
labour in Pakistan and is known for advocating compliance of International
Labour Organisation’s key labour standards in Pakistan.
2. Marium Mukhtar
Although the 24-year-old Flying Officer was
martyred when her training aircraft crashed near Mianwali in November, Marium
will always be remembered as the first lady pilot of the Pakistan Air Force
(PAF) to attain the great honour.
3. Muniba Mazari
In December,
the artist-activist-writer, was named Pakistan’s first female
Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women.
In a tweet, Mazari said, “We need to educate
both men and women that if we empower one woman, we empower whole generation!”
Sharmeen Obaid’s
documentary on this Pakistani Olympian is awe-inspiring
4. Samya Arif
The taxi that the
Pakistani artist had designed last Independence Day for the Taxi Fabric initiative by Sanket Alvani was featured in
Coldplay’s video Hymn For The Weekend in
January.
Not only that, the Indus Valley School
graduate designed a vinyl sleeve for Australian band Tame Impala which was
showcased at Sono Studio in London.
5. Dr Nergis Mavalvala
In February, Pakistan-born astrophysicist
played a part in discovery of gravitational waves.
Professor Mavalvala worked with researchers
at the US-based underground detectors Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave
Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory to build sophisticated sensors to detect
gravitational ripples created from the collision of two black holes some 1.3
billion years ago and had been hurtling through space to reach Earth on
September 14, 2015.
The detection confirmed a major prediction
of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an
unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.
6. Fiza Farhan
The CEO of Buksh Foundation and
director of Buksh Energy was elected as a member of the first-ever
High-Level Panel of the UN Secretary-General on Women’s Economic Empowerment in
February.
She was also part of the ’30 under 30’ list
by Forbes magazine for Social Entrepreneurs in 2015.
UN seeks progress report
on measures against honour killing
7. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
On February 28, 2016, Sharmeen
Obaid-Chinoy became the first Pakistani to win two Oscar awards.
Sharmeen won in the Best
Documentary Short Subject for A Girl In The River: The Price of
Forgiveness in the 88th Academy awards. The documentary
which sheds light on honour killings in Pakistan follows the story of a
teenage girl shot in the face by her own family.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to
end honour killings following her win.
8. Rukhsana Parveen and Sofia Javed
Rukhsana and Sofia became the first
Pakistani women to bag international medals in boxing at the 2016 South Asian
Games in Shillong in February.
9. Minhal Sohail
The 21-year-old became Pakistan’s first
female shooter to compete at Olympics 2016. Although, she couldn’t win gold and
secured 28th position in the 10m air rifle event, Minhal has made us proud by
qualifying for the Rio Games.
10. Ikra Saleem Khan
Ikra Saleem Khan, a student of University
College Lahore, came out on top at the University of London LLB
examinations, scoring the highest aggregate marks this year.
More power to them!
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