Who is the Iron lady of Pakistan?
Muniba Mazari is popularly known as the “Iron Lady” of Pakistan and the survival story of her life is the reason why she has been called so. Muniba was born on 3rd March in the year 1987 in a conservative family in a small village of Balochistan, Pakistan. She was a very talented girl who was passionate about being an artist right from her childhood but unfortunately her parents got her married to someone of their choice at the age of 18.
After two years of her marriage when she was 21years old one fine day in the year 2007, she was heading to her hometown (Rahim Yar Khan) with her husband Khurram Shahzad and all of a sudden they met with a dangerous accident as her husband fell asleep while driving the car. The car fell in a ditch and she was so badly injured that she couldn’t feel her legs, there was no availability of ambulance also in that particular city so they have to carry her in a jeep. At that point of time Muniba had lost all her hopes she was battling between life and death. The tragic accident left her paralysed from the hip down for the rest of her life as three vertebrae of her backbone got completely crushed. Her arms, shoulder, ribs and collarbone were fractured. She was bed ridden in the hospital for 2 long years and then managed to get on the wheelchair.
But sadly during this toughest phrase of her life looking at her disability her husband divorced her and even her father too left the family to suffer. Muniba was abandoned and left alone. It was the most painful and helpless period of Muniba’s life. She would feel depressed and frustrated at times she would even chop off hairs when they got stuck in the hair brush. She was devastated when doctors told that she would not be able to walk, paint or give birth to a child in her life. Her own self started questioning her purpose of existence, but that is when she decided to live for herself.
Despite all the hurdles in her life Muniba was brave enough to face all the challenges that came her way. All through this process there was one person who stood by her side as a constant support. Muniba’s mother supported her and motivated her to fight against all the challenges, and that is why Muniba says “Always love your mother because you will never get another”.
Fours passed away and in the year 2011 Muniba decided to adopted a son and he is called Nael. Inspite of being disabled she left no stones unturned in nourishing her son as a single mother. She even worked at Nael’s school for a startup project “ Dheeray Bolo” in which they teach Urdu in different schools.
Though the wheelchair became her companion for the rest of life it could not build boundaries that stopped Muniba from being successful in life. Just like a phoenix bird Muniba raised from the ashes of tragedy and started to write the golden lines of her life through her artistry. She took the struggle that precedes death as a challenge and was determined to express her emotions and thoughts through her art work. She believed that one should not die before their death which means one should never give up though everything goes out of control. She therefore started painting even when she was bedridden in the hospital. Acrylics on canvas is her medium and “Let Your Walls Wear Colours” is the slogan with which she created her art brand “ Muniba’s Canvas”.
When people saw her disabilities, Muniba found her different abilities and that is why she became Pakistan’s first wheelchair bound model and anchor.when Mr. Mohammad Malick who was the managing director of Pakistani Television during that time got to know about her through her TED talk offered her to work as an anchor for Pakistani Television. She was chosen by “Toni & Guy” an International hairdressing salon which got her fame as Asia’s first- ever wheelchair bound model. She had also been part of various campaigns. In the year 2015 BBC featured Muniba Mazari in 100 most inspirational women and in the year 2016 she was listed in Forbes 30 under 30 after which she became the head of CSR for Chughtai Labs.
Muniba Mazari is referred as Pakistan’s first female goodwill ambassador to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, which is known for gender equality and the empowerment of women. They believe that Muniba as a goodwill ambassador for UN Women Pakistan will serve and dedicate her efforts for empowering women girls.
Apart from being an activist, writer, artist, anchor, model and a singer Muniba is a motivational speaker. Her TED talk was the first one of the major motivational speeches. She had been part of various conferences and had delivered her speech in Army Public School, Peshwar & Combined Military Hospital, Peshwar. She also spoke at Bank Alfalah Training Centre, Lahore. Even National University of Science and Technology Business School invited her as a guest to Women Entrepreneurship Day.
Muniba Mazari has achieved a lot inspite of being a paraplegic. She always believed in turning adversity into opportunity. People always complain about life, they become selfish sometimes and believe they don’t need others to lead their lives but according to Muniba “We need others to survive” any relationship can turn out to be beautiful if one thinks of “WE” rather than “ME”.
Nobody is perfect in life. We all hold some sort of imperfections, so Muniba rightly quoted “We are all perfectly imperfect and that’s perfectly alright”. Her life story is a paradigm of what she quoted. She is a beautiful soul inspiring others to live their lives to the fullest with all that they have. Hence everything is possible if we are courageous enough to face the challenges that come in the due course of life.
