Where women dare...

It is a man's world. Not true. It is a woman's world. A world where women dare where men dare not; where women speak while men stutter; where women stand out while men stumble and fall. These may seem very biased and discriminatory statements but on the International Women's Day it is time to celebrate the women of substance who have broken stereotypes, who have exceeded the glass ceiling and who have shattered the norms and myths of being the "weaker" sex. While the west is struggling to fight for women rights, Islam was, and is, all about women rights. While the west is now trying to establish the status of women, Islam clearly defines the higher status of women in every role a women plays, be it a professional, a wife, a mother, a daughter or a sister. Let us pay a tribute to women who have led and inspired not just women but men too.
The fact that Islam fought against the tradition of burying females at birth and then demonstrated the respect and status of women in every walk of life is itself a testimony of how progressive the real spirit of Islam is. The first lady, Hazrat Khadijah al-Kubra, is a living example of how empowered women were. She was the top professional of her time. She was a successful businesswoman.
From more current times, where Pakistani women are being misrepresented in the international media, it is time to put the record straight. We need to pay a tribute to the sung and unsung heroes who have blazed new paths in their own field and accomplished feats that most men find daunting. One such unsung hero is Shazia Parveen. She is Pakistan's first firefighter, who joined Rescue 1122 in 2010 at the age of 25. She belongs to Vehari District in Punjab. She is a fighter in the true sense and is somebody who fights with the most dangerous thing- blazing fires. "At the outset, people would laugh at me when they saw me working with male workers. But afterwards, when I saved their precious properties during fires, they started admiring me," Parveen said in an interview.
Samina Baig who has become such an inspiration had a very tough climb to this role model status. She literally had to climb the Mount Everest to prove that a small, slight, young, village girl could do what most muscled, trained, experienced, richer, more endowed men could not do. Samina Baig is now Pakistan's globally known mountaineer who hoisted Pakistani flag at Mount Everest at the young age of 21. She is also the first ever Pakistani woman and the first Muslim to climb the world's highest seven summits. She belongs to Hunza valley of Gilgit Baltistan and started mountaineering along with her brother when she was only 15. She has lately been nominated as UN Ambassador for environment and climate change.
Where eagles and men don't dare Pakistani women do. Namira Saleem became the first Pakistani, man or woman, to reach North and South Poles when she achieved this distinction in 2008. She also holds the title of being the first Asian and first Pakistani to skydive over Mount Everest during the historic First Everest Skydives project in 2008. She is also going to be the first Pakistani to travel into Space when the first commercial space flight by Virgin Galactic takes off.
The word shaheen brings into mind a male pilot doing acrobatics with his plane in the air. However we have a female shaheen whose heroic jumps are just not stuntmen fiction. Fighting real battles in physical battlegrounds is something our women do with ease and passion. A female officer of the armed forces, Squadron-Leader Bisma Nasim of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), is the wonder woman of Pakistan. She created history by being the first woman paratrooper not just in Pakistan but in Asia. She has filmed really thrilling videos of her base jumping from a low flying C-130 aircraft of the PAF, making a soft landing. She experienced tough opposition and competition but despite heavy odds, she persevered and with iron determination and finally made it to the parachuting stage after having been inducted into the PAF Engineering Branch.
In typical male sports where brawn and muscles are the edge Twinkle Sohail broke all ceilings. Twinkle Sohail has made her country proud. She is a professional powerlifter who won the gold medal in the 2015 Asian Bench-Press Powerlifting Championship held in Muscat, Oman.
This girl in her early 20s did it while other Pakistani men participants at the event in Muscat failed to do so. She won the gold medal in 57kg powerlifting category.
In a male dominated sports world Zainab Abbas has hit the mocking male sexist remarks that " Girls can't play a straight drive" for a sixer. In a couple of years, she has become not just a national star but Pakistan's first international cricket analyst, presenter and journalist who has been praised for her in-depth knowledge on cricket technicalities and her acute game awareness. She is the first female Pakistani analyst to be invited to the prestigious BBC Test Match Special to comment on the Pakistan England games, a feat most male colleagues can just dream of.
These superheroes are inspiring many young budding stars. Selena Khawaja is just 9 years old and is already known as the Mountain Princess. She is the youngest ever to scale Mount High QuzSar Peak that is 5765 meters high and guess what is her next target? Yes of course, Mount Everest next year. This is a whole generation of girls with substance who are presenting and representing the real face of Pakistan-bold, confident, daring, challenging the norms, ready to speak the unspeakable, raring to do the undoable. (The writer can be reached at [email protected])