Women of Today Climbing Rocks Scaling Mountains 

By Iqra Maqsood

T

his is the story of Nazia Parveen; a Girl from Bajaur Agency, breaking stereotypes of Society with an aim to tell the world that, we the people of Pakistan and FATA are second to none. She completed her Masters in Defense and Diplomatic Studies from Fatima Jinnah Women University and completed her M.phill in International Relations (IR) with 3.94 CGPA from National Defence University, Islamabad.

By profession she is a rock climber paragliding Pilot and media analyst. Nazia Parveen started rock climbing in 2010. She got first position in all the competitions and remained the unbeatable climber of Pakistan by winning 32 consecutive competitions till date. She even defeated men four times and became the first Pakistani woman to represent Pakistan at international level in rock climbing in Singapore. Her first entry in paragliding was marvelous she did 11 flights in a day as a beginner, and got license of elementary pilot from PAFF. Now she is doing high flights with PAFF; along with that she visits different universities to encourage youth and specially females. She believes being Pakistani it’s our responsibility to show the world the real face of Pakistan “The Positive Pakistan” She is determined to change the stereotypical image of Pakistani women and especially of FATA, who are considered to be the deprived ones. The list of her awards is quit long but to sum up: • Nazia was one of those 18 Pakistanis who were awarded High Achievers Award Gold Medal by Nazariya Pakistan Council in 2014 for doing something different for Pakistan • Nazia got award of "Officially Amazing Pakistani" from Pakistan Book of Records in Peshawar Press Club • Nazia’s name is included in the documentary “Main Houn Pakistan” produced by Black Box Sound.

To promote sports as an individual Nazia is Vice President of two clubs, Pakistan Alpine Institute and Adventure Club Pakistan. As a trainer Nazia sees a lot of potential in young females.  Her focus is to give free training to those having financial issues. As females already have a lot of hurdles, so she doesn’t want them to have any kind of economic issue.

She faced and is still facing a lot of hurdles as in our male dominant society, it is considered very odd if a woman breaks the stereotypical stigmas associated with her.  So when she went for the sport for the first time there was a lot of resistance, even from her family. But her passion diminishes the resistance. Also in Pakistan we do not take sports as an industry because there is no investment as such; neither international nor national. There are always negative things in the industry but Nazia never lose hope as she believes that looking at positive side of things gives you courage.

Nazia hopes that a day will come when females will play internationally without any fear of stereotypical stigmas.  She also wishes to participate in the rock climbing world cup.

We wish Nazia all the best for her future life and look forward to see her participating at her best in many great climbing competitions around the world to make us proud.